socoti

Forms

• socoti (third-person singular present socotește, past participle socotit), 4th conjugation^[1]

Besides socotesc, the first person singular present has the popular form socot.^[2][3] MDA2 records the old variants socuti, săcoti and sucuti.^[4]

Etymology

Its origin is uncertain.^[3] The Academy dictionaries and NODEX derive it inherited from Latin succutiō (“to shake up, toss up”).^[4][5][6] Tiktin reports this derivation from Coseriu.^[7]

An older view, held by Roesler, Cihac, Șăineanu, Tiktin and Candrea, connects it with Hungarian szokotál (“to count, reckon”), and through it with Old Church Slavonic скотъ (skotŭ, “cattle; money”).^[3][7] Ciorănescu objects that the history of the Hungarian verb is unclear.^[3] The Hungarian dictionaries record the Hungarian verb only from 1646, as a Transylvanian dialect word, and the ÚESz treats it as a loan from Romanian.^[8][9] The Slavonic noun meant “animal, cattle”.^[10] Tiktin also compares Ukrainian сокотити (sokotyty, “to guard”).^[7] DEX gives only this Ukrainian verb, but Ciorănescu takes it as a loan from Romanian, and he says the same of a Bulgarian verb of like meaning.^[2][3] Ciorănescu mentions Crețu's derivation from the pronoun se and căuta only as a curiosity.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to about 1481, in the Slavonic charters of the Romanian principalities.^[7] The Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century has the first Romanian text.^[4][11] The old texts use it for “to heed, regard”: the Psaltirea Scheiană has „Piatra ce nu o socotiră ziditorii, ea fu în capul unghiului” “the stone that the builders did not regard became the head of the corner” (Psalm 117:22).^[7]

Semantic evolution

In the old language the verb meant “to heed, value” and “to look after, take care of”: Varlaam's homilies have „bolnav și m-ați socotit” “I was sick and you looked after me”.^[7][5] The senses “to keep watch, guard” and, in the reflexive, “to be on one's guard” followed, and MDA2 still lists them as regional.^[4]

From “to consider, weigh up” the verb came to mean “to think, believe” and “to reckon, calculate”, which is its main sense today.^[7][2] In the reflexive it means “to settle accounts with someone”, and figuratively “to have it out with someone”.^[2] The derivatives socoteală “calculation, account” and nesocoti “to disregard” share its senses.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1481 – a record in the Slavonic charters, the first Tiktin gives.^[7]
• c. 1500–1520 – socoti and socotiși in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[4][12]
• c. 1573–1578 – socotiră “regarded” in the Psaltirea Scheiană (Psalm 117:22).^[7][13]
• 1646 – first record of Hungarian megszokotál “to reckon”.^[8]
• 1649 – socotesc in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[14]
• 1688 – over a hundred occurrences of socoti in the Bucharest Bible.^[15]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To calculate, make a reckoning; to count.^[2][4][1]
2. (reflexive, reciprocal) To settle accounts or a debt with someone;^[2][4] (figurative) to have it out with someone.^[2][4]
3. (transitive) To intend, plan.^[2]
4. (transitive and reflexive) To think something over, weighing every possibility; to ponder.^[2][1]
5. (transitive) To imagine; to be of the opinion, reckon: Socotesc că e prea târziu.^[2][4]
6. (transitive) To value, esteem; to consider someone or oneself as something.^[2][4]
7. (transitive, rare) To put something down to someone, impute.^[2][4]

Word family

• socoteală
• socotință
• socotit
• socotitor
• nesocoti
• nesocotință
• nesocotit

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1, 1030
3. ^ a b c d e f g 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. socoti
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 924
5. ^ a b Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. socoti
6. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. socoti
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. socoti
8. ^ a b Benkő, Loránd (ed.) (1967–1976), A magyar nyelv történeti-etimológiai szótára, 3 vols., Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, p. 3, 777
9. ^ Gerstner, Károly (ed.) (2006–), Új magyar etimológiai szótár, Budapest: Nyelvtudományi Kutatóközpont; online at uesz.nytud.hu
10. ^ Kurz, Josef; Hauptová, Zoe (eds.) (1958–1997), Slovník jazyka staroslověnského / Lexicon linguae palaeoslovenicae, 4 vols. + supplements, Praha: Academia; digital ed. gorazd.org
11. ^ 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 26:8
12. ^ 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 8:5
13. ^ 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 117:21
14. ^ Ungureanu, Mădălina; Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Moruz, Alexandru (eds.), eRomLex: The First Romanian Bilingual Dictionaries (17th century), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. s.v. socotesc
15. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Genesis 15:6