stupi

Forms

stupi (third-person singular present stupește, past participle stupit), 4th conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is probably inherited from Vulgar Latin *stupiō (“to spit”), a crossing of *scuppiō (the source of the common verb for spitting) with Latin spūtō (“to spit”).^{[2][3][4][5][1]} Densusianu had reconstructed the same form.^[6] Ciorănescu treats the verb as the Moldavian variant of scuipa and gives the competing reconstructions of that verb, from Latin conspuō (“to spit on”) by way of popular forms, to the imitative reconstruction of the REW.^[6] Șăineanu thought it probably onomatopoeic.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

MDA2's first record is Dimitrie Cantemir's Istoria ieroglifică (1705), where a character says he would spit at someone and cannot: „L-ași stupi și nu-l pociu”.^[2][4] Manuscripts of 1774–1775 have the variants stopi, știupi and ștopi.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The verb has kept the sense “to spit”, in Moldavian and popular speech.^[3][8] Spitting in one's bosom was a folk remedy against a fright or a misfortune, as Creangă and Alecsandri describe; healers spat after each charm.^[5] Creangă tells how as a boy he spat in his left palm and went the way the spittle jumped.^[5]

Transitive uses followed: to spit at someone, or pretend to, in contempt; to spit out something in the mouth; to cough up.^[3][2] The idiom a-și stupi sufletul “to spit out one's soul” means to have a very hard time, or to wear oneself out with a clumsy or stubborn person.^[3][5] Said of cats, it means to arch the body and hiss.^[3]

Timeline

• 1705 – Cantemir's Istoria ieroglifică, the first record.^[2][4]
• 1774–1775 – stopi, știupi and ștopi in Moldavian manuscripts.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive and transitive, popular) To spit; to scuipa.^[3][2][1]
2. (transitive) To spit at someone, or pretend to, as a sign of contempt.^[3][8]
3. (transitive) To spit out something held in the mouth; to expectorate.^[3][2]
4. (of cats) To arch the body to defend or attack, with a hiss.^[3]

Related words

• scuipa

Usage notes

A linge unde a stupit “to lick where one has spat” is the same idiom as with scuipa.^[2][5]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 1026
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1062
4. ^ a b c d e Costinescu, Mariana; Georgescu, Magdalena; Zgraon, Florentina (1987), Dicționarul limbii române literare vechi (1640–1780): termeni regionali, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică, p. 1, 274
5. ^ a b c d e Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. stupi
6. ^ a b 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. scuipa
7. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 623
8. ^ a b Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 4, 278