stupid

Forms

stupid m or n (feminine singular stupidă, masculine plural stupizi, feminine/neuter plural stupide)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French stupide and directly borrowed from Latin stupidus (“dazed, stunned”), one of the words for which Romanian dictionaries name more than one source.^[2][3][4] MDA2 and DLR add Italian stupido.^[3][5] Wiktionary gives French as the source.^[1] Scriban took it from Latin only.^[6]

The Latin adjective is formed on stupeō (“to be stunned, benumbed”) with -idus, and first meant physically dazed or struck senseless by an emotion.^[7][8] French borrowed it from Latin.^[1] In Italian the word meant “astonished” in Dante and took the sense “of little intelligence” in the 17th century.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

MDA2's first record is Iordache Golescu's manuscript dictionary of about 1832.^[3] Negulici listed it in 1848 with the Romanian equivalents nerod and nătărău “fool”.^[10]

Semantic evolution

In Romanian the word has only the later sense, “dull-witted, foolish”, which Costinescu glossed in 1870 with prost and tâmpit.^[11][3] Applied to things it means senseless, absurd, and it is often used as an adverb: a murit stupid “he died senselessly”.^[2][12] MDA2 and DLR list dozens of synonyms, from prost, nerod and neghiob to regional ones.^[3][5]

Timeline

• c. 1832 – in Iordache Golescu's manuscript dictionary.^[3]
• 1848 – in Negulici's dictionary of neologisms.^[10]
• 1870 – stupidŭ in Costinescu's dictionary.^[11]
• 1939 – Scriban gives the stress stúpid and calls stupíd a false stress after French.^[6]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Without sense or reason; absurd; often used as an adverb, “senselessly”: o ceartă stupidă.^[2][4]
2. (of people) stupid, slow-witted, dull;^[2][3] (of words or acts) showing a lack of intelligence: un răspuns stupid.^[2][3]

Related words

• stupiditate
• Latin stupidus

Usage notes

Scriban held that the Latin stress stúpid was correct and that stupíd follows French.^[6] Wiktionary gives the stress on the last syllable.^[1] MDA2 records an obsolete variant stuped.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1063
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 1026
4. ^ a b Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. stupid
5. ^ a b Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. stupíd
6. ^ a b c Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1, 1256
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
10. ^ a b Negulici, I. D. (1848), Vocabular romînesc de toate vorbele streine întroduse pînă acum în limba romînească și de toate cuvintele ce s-ar mai putea introduce încă, București, p. s.v. stupid
11. ^ a b Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 568
12. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 4, 278