subția

Forms

subția (first-person singular present subțiez, third-person singular present subțiază, past participle subțiat) 1st conjugation^[1] The older and popular form is supția, with a present supții or supțiu; regional speech also has subții.^[2][3] Tiktin records însubția in the Psaltirea Scheiană and Coresi's Psalter (Psalm 28:6), and subțira in Jipescu.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin subtīliō (“to make fine, make thin”), a verb formed on subtīlis (“fine, thin”).^{[1][3][4][2][5]} The Latin adjective is explained as sub + tēla (“web”), originally a weaving term for fine cloth.^[6] The same verb gave Italian sottigliare and Old French soutillier.^[3][5][7] Ungureanu points to ⟨subtiliare⟩ in the Compositiones lucenses of the 6th century and calls it a Romance verb missing in Classical Latin.^[8] Wiktionary compares Aromanian suptsãredz, which it takes from suptsãri (“thin”) or perhaps from the same Latin verb.^[1]

Romanian kept the adjective too, as subțire.^[3][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

MDA2's first record is Coresi's Evanghelie cu învățătură of 1581, in a figurative sense: „toată grăsimea trupului să lepădăm... și să ne supțiem” “let us cast off all the fat of the body … and make ourselves thin”, so as to pass through the narrow way into the kingdom of heaven.^[2][9] The prefixed însubția is older, in the 16th-century psalters.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The physical sense, to make or become thinner or narrower, is the core of the verb.^[4][10] From it came the dilution of a liquid or gas (a subția o mâncare “to thin a dish with water”), a higher, thinner voice, and clothes that make the wearer look slimmer.^[4][10] A quotation in Tiktin has it of pay cut back: the mayor kept reducing the swineherd's wages.^[4]

Used reflexively and figuratively, a se subția means to grow refined.^[4] Ghica wrote that the world s-a subțiat and everyone now knew the Romanians descended from Trajan.^[4] DEX notes that this sense is often ironic.^[10][11] A-și subția buzele is to purse one's lips, or to speak with affected reserve.^[10]

Timeline

• 1581 – să ne supțiem in Coresi's Evanghelie cu învățătură, MDA2's first record.^[2][9]
• 1929 – Șăineanu gives the figurative sense “to become refined” and derives the verb from Latin *subtiliare.^[12]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive and reflexive) To make or become thinner or narrower; of clothes, to make the wearer look slimmer: Rochia neagră o subția.^[10][2][1]
2. (transitive) To dilute a liquid or gas, to make it less concentrated.^[10][1]
3. (transitive) To make the voice higher and thinner.^[10]
4. (reflexive, figurative, often ironic) To become refined, more polished or civilised.^[10][1]

Word family

• subțiere

Related words

• subțire
• Latin subtīlis

Usage notes

A-și subția buzele (or gura): to tighten the lips so that they look thinner; to speak in a clipped, affected way.^[10]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 1039
3. ^ a b c d 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. subția
4. ^ 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. subția
5. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 8398
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
8. ^ Ungureanu, Dan (2024), Istoria limbii române, Chișinău: Cartier, p. 362
9. ^ a b Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. subția
10. ^ 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. 1067
11. ^ Volceanov, George (2007), Dicționar de argou al limbii române, București: Niculescu, p. s.v. subția
12. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 625