strâmt

Forms

strâmt m or n (feminine singular strâmtă, masculine plural strâmți, feminine/neuter plural strâmte)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *strinctus (“narrow, tight”), a form of Latin strictus with the ⟨n⟩ of the present stem stringō (“to tighten, bind”).^{[2][3][4][5][6][7][1]}

It survives in all four branches: Aromanian strimtu, Megleno-Romanian strimt and Istro-Romanian strimt.^[2][8][9] The same nasal form is found in Italian strinto (Old Italian), Venetian strento, Sardinian istrintu and French étreint, and Albanian has shtrenjtë.^[2][6][1] The usual Romance outcome of the Latin participle has no nasal: Italian stretto, Spanish estrecho, Portuguese estreito.^[6][10] As the participle of strânge, Romanian replaced it with strâns.^[5] strict is a later borrowing of the same Latin word.^[1][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1428, in a document.^[5] The first Romanian text is a letter of 1521 that speaks of ships passing a narrow place.^[3][12]

Semantic evolution

The word first meant “narrow” of a way, a passage or a stretch of water, then “tight” of clothes and shoes, and “cramped” of a room.^[3][4] The Gospel's strait gate, poarta cea strâmtă (Luke 13:24), made it a word of religious language.^[5] The figurative sense “narrow-minded, petty” is found in Eminescu's „cercul vostru strâmt” “your narrow circle”.^[5][4] The neuter noun lives on in a fi la largul tău și la strâmtul altuia “to be at ease at someone else's expense”.^[4][13]

Old and regional texts have the variants strimt, in Muntenia, and strâmpt, in Moldavia.^[5][2] Derivatives include strâmtoare “strait, defile; hardship” and strâmtora “to constrain, to leave short of money”.^[2]

Timeline

• 1428 – the first record, in a document cited by Tiktin.^[5]
• 1521 – a narrow place, in a letter.^[3][12]
• 1688 – poarta cea strâmtă “the strait gate” in the Bucharest Bible (Luke 13:24).^[5][14]
• 1825 – strâmt in the Lexicon de la Buda, with Latin adstrictus, arctus, angustus.^[15]

Meanings

Adjective

1. narrow, not wide enough.^[4][3][1]
2. tight, cramped: holding little, too small for its contents or wearer.^[4][3][1]
3. (figurative) narrow-minded, petty, without breadth or tolerance.^[4]

Noun

1. (popular) Only in the phrase a fi la largul tău și la strâmtul altuia, said of someone who takes liberties at another's expense.^[4]

Word family

• strâmta
• strâmtoare
• strâmtora
• strâmtoreală
• strâmtură

Related words

• strânge
• strâns
• strict
• Aromanian strimtu
• Latin strictus

Usage notes

The variant strimt is still recorded in DEX.^[4] The masculine plural is strâmți.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e 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. strâmt
3. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 1007
4. ^ 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. 1058
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. strâmt
6. ^ a b c Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 153
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 8305
8. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 982
9. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 278
10. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1253
11. ^ Gabinschi, Marcu (2001), Dicționar de dublete etimologice ale limbii române, 2nd ed., Chișinău: Litera, p. 165
12. ^ a b Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. strâmt
13. ^ Damé, Frédéric (1893–1895), Nouveau dictionnaire roumain-français, 4 vols., Bucarest: Imprimerie de l'État, p. s.v. strîmt
14. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Luke 13:23
15. ^ Lesicon românescu-latinescu-ungurescu-nemțescu quare de mai mulți autori, în cursul a trideci și mai multor ani s-au lucrat (1825), Buda: Typographia Universității (the Lexicon of Buda, ed. Petru Maior et al.), p. 679