sta

Forms

sta (third-person singular present stă, past participle stat, third-person subjunctive stea or regional steie), 1st conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin stō (“to stand”).^{[2][3][4][5][6][1]} The present ⟨stau⟩ continues Vulgar Latin *staō.^[3][5] Tiktin derives the perfect ⟨stătui⟩ and the participle ⟨stătut⟩ perhaps from Latin statuō (“to set up”), and explains the older perfect ⟨stetei⟩ as remade after ⟨dedei⟩ “I gave”.^[3] The Latin verb goes back to Proto-Indo-European *steh₂- (“to stand”).^[1]

The verb survives in all four branches: Aromanian stau, Megleno-Romanian stau and Istro-Romanian stowu.^[2][7][5] Its Romance cognates include Dalmatian stur, Italian stare, Old French ester, Spanish estar and Portuguese estar.^[2][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

MDA2's first record is the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki, of about 1500, which has the infinitive sta and the forms stau, stea and stătu.^[4][8] Tiktin cites the Codicele Voronețean.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Beside “stand, stop” the verb came to mean “to stay, remain”, “to be, be located”, “to live” and “to consist of”, and with another verb it marks duration.^[2][9] In these senses it often alternates with ședea.^[3] The old language also used it as a transitive verb “to set, place” and in the sense “to become”: Dosoftei writes „stătu împărat Lichinie” “Licinius became emperor”.^[3] The derivatives include stare “state; wealth”, stat “standing; stature” and statornic “steadfast”, a learned formation of the 18th century.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1500 – first record, in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[4][8]
• c. 1563 – the Codicele Voronețean.^[3]
• 1648 – transitive “to set, place”, in the New Testament of 1648.^[3]
• 18th century – the learned derivative statornic.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To stop, halt;^[9][2] (of machines) to stop working; the imperative stai! “wait!, stop!”^[9][2]
2. To stay, remain in one place; to stay in a job; to spend time somewhere: Am stat o săptămână la mare. “We stayed a week at the seaside.”^[9][2]
3. To be, be located; to live, dwell: Unde stai? “Where do you live?”^[9][2]
4. To be in a certain position: a sta în picioare “to stand”.^[9][3]
5. To be busy with; to consist in, be limited to.^[9][2]
6. A-i sta bine: to suit someone;^[9][2] (of affairs) to be in a certain state: Cum stăm? “How do we stand?”^[9][2]
7. With another verb, marks a lasting action: stă și citește “he sits reading”.^[9][2]

Word family

• stare
• stat
• stătător
• nestătător
• statornic
• nestatornic
• statornici
• statornicie
• stătut
• înstări

Related words

• Latin stō
• stărui

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n 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. sta
3. ^ 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. sta
4. ^ a b c Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 967
5. ^ a b c Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 150
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 8231
7. ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 966
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 23:3
9. ^ 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. 1044