sluji

Forms

sluji (first-person singular present slujesc, third-person singular present slujește, past participle slujit) 4th conjugation^[1][2] MDA2 records a rare variant slugi and a regional scluji.^[3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old Church Slavonic слоужити (služiti, “to serve”), from Proto-Slavic *služiti.^{[4][3][5][6][1]} Ciorănescu cites Miklosich, Conev and Tiktin for this etymology and compares slugă, from the same Slavic family.^[4] The Proto-Slavic verb is formed on *sluga (“servant”) with the verbal suffix *-iti.^[1] Vasmer relates the family to Lithuanian slaugýti (“to support, help”).^[7] The verb has cognates across Slavic, such as Serbo-Croatian služiti and Czech sloužit.^[1][7]

The noun slujbă “service, office” was borrowed separately, from слоужьба (služĭba), and slujnic “servant” from слоужьникъ (služĭnikŭ).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

MDA2 takes the first record from the Codicele Voronețean (c. 1563–1583).^[3] Tiktin's first record is the Psaltirea Scheiană, a 16th-century psalter (Psalm 100:6).^[6] Coresi's psalter of 1577 has the imperative slujiți at Psalm 2:11.^[8]

Semantic evolution

The Old Church Slavonic verb already meant “to serve, wait on” and was used for priestly service.^[9][7] Romanian kept both lines: serving a master or a household, holding an office or serving in the army, and celebrating the liturgy.^[4][5] Tiktin quotes the Gospel saying „Nimeni nu poate sluji la doi domni” “no one can serve two masters” (Matthew 6:24, in the edition of 1894) and records the use for having the Mass or the prayers for the dead said for someone.^[6]

From “to serve someone” came “to be of use, serve a purpose”, said of things and abstractions, and an older phrase a-l sluji norocul “to have luck on one's side”.^[6][3] The reflexive a se sluji de “to make use of” is recorded in Cantemir.^[6] In the old language the verb also meant to hold a public office or to serve as a soldier; in popular speech today it still means to do one's military service.^[5][10] In most of these senses it now competes with the neologism servi.^[10]

Timeline

• c. 1563–1583 – first record, in the Codicele Voronețean.^[3]
• c. 1573–1578 – in the Psaltirea Scheiană.^[6]
• 1577 – slujiți in Coresi's psalter.^[8]
• 1688 – more than 200 forms of the verb in the Bucharest Bible.^[11]

Meanings

Verb

1. To work for someone as a servant in their household;^[5][12] (dated) to hold a public office.^[5][12]
2. (popular) To do one's military service.^[5][12]
3. (transitive) To work for another, to be at a master's disposal; to serve a cause or an ideal.^[5][12]
4. (reflexive, a se sluji de) To make use of someone or something.^[5]
5. Of things and abstractions: to be useful, to serve for something: Cutia asta îmi slujește la păstrarea nasturilor.^[5][12]
6. To officiate, to celebrate a religious service.^[5][12]

Word family

• slujitor
• slujitoresc
• slujitorime

Related words

• slujbă
• slugări
• slugă
• slujnic
• Old Church Slavonic слоужити (služiti)

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic
3. ^ a b c d e Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 913
4. ^ a b c d Ciorănescu, Alexandru (1958–1966), Diccionario etimológico rumano, La Laguna: Universidad de La Laguna (Romanian ed.: Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române, București: Saeculum, 2001), p. s.v. sluji
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1027
6. ^ a b c d e f Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. sluji
7. ^ a b c Vasmer, Max (1964–1973), Ètimologičeskij slovar' russkogo jazyka, transl. and suppl. by O. N. Trubačev, 4 vols., Moskva: Progress
8. ^ a b Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Ungureanu, Mădălina; Moruz, Alexandru et al., roPsalt: Re-evaluating the Sixteenth Century Romanian Psalters (aligned corpus), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. Ps 2:11
9. ^ Kurz, Josef; Hauptová, Zoe (eds.) (1958–1997), Slovník jazyka staroslověnského / Lexicon linguae palaeoslovenicae, 4 vols. + supplements, Praha: Academia; digital ed. gorazd.org
10. ^ a b Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne
11. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Genesis 15:14
12. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional