subsuoară

Forms

subsuoară f (plural subsuori)^[1] Coresi's Psalter has supsuara in Psalm 88:21: „Mâna mea ajută lui și supsuara mea învârtoașă el” “my hand shall help him, and my arm shall strengthen him”; there the word renders Slavonic myšĭca “arm”.^[2] Tiktin records subțioară in Muntenia, susuoară in Transylvania, supțioară in Muntenia, Dobruja and Moldavia, and sâpțioară in Oltenia; the old texts often have susioară (the Psaltirea Scheiană, Cantemir) and susâoară (Dosoftei).^[2] DEX lists the popular variants subsioară and subțioară.^[3]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian sub- + *suoară, a lost older word for the armpit.^[1][4][3] That word is from Late Latin subāla (“armpit”), from the phrase sub (“under”) āla (“wing; armpit”).^[1][5][6] Tiktin explains the steps: the Latin phrase “under the armpit” gave the lost word, which took on the sense “armpit” itself, so the preposition was set before it once more.^[2] Ciorănescu likewise has the Latin word joined to the preposition at a later date, and explains the many variants by the variants of the preposition (supt, sus).^[5]

The simple word survives south of the Danube: Aromanian soarã and Megleno-Romanian soară.^[5][7] Aromanian also formed sumsoarã with sum (“under”), a parallel to the Romanian compound.^[5][7][8][9] Tiktin traces the variant supțioară to the influence of subția.^[2] Pascu sees in the forms in ⟨-ioară⟩ the diminutive suffix -ior.^[2][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word first appears in the psalters of the 16th century: Coresi's Psalter of 1570 has supsioara in Psalm 43:5, and the Psaltirea Scheiană has susioară.^[10][11] Tiktin notes that these psalters use it often to translate the Slavonic word for the arm, so its first sense there is the arm or the armpit as the seat of strength: „Brațele lor nu spăsi ei, ce dereapta ta și supsioara ta” “it was not their arms that saved them, but your right hand and your arm” (Psalm 43).^[2] MDA2 gives a Paraclis of 1693 as its first record.^[4]

Semantic evolution

From the 17th century on the word means the hollow under the shoulder joint: Dosoftei tells of martyrs burned în susâori “in the armpits” with red-hot irons.^[2][12] Phrases with a preposition (la, sub, rarely pe subsuoară) came to mean “under the arm”, of something carried, and the bare noun is used in the same way as an adverb.^[2][3][4] A ține de subsuoară is to hold someone under the arms or by the arm, and a se plimba de subsuoară is to walk arm in arm.^[2][3]

A sta cu mâinile subsuoară “to sit with one's hands under the arms” means to sit idle, an expression Tiktin already records.^[2][3] Modern dictionaries add a botanical sense, the angle between a leaf or branch and the stem.^[3][13]

Timeline

• 1570 – supsioara in Coresi's Psalter (Psalm 43:5).^[10]
• c. 1573-1578 – susioară in the Psaltirea Scheiană (Psalm 88:13).^[11][2]
• 1682-1686 – susâori “armpits” in Dosoftei's lives of the saints.^[2][12]
• 1693 – a Paraclis, MDA2's first record.^[4]
• 1825 – the Lexicon de la Buda records the word.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. armpit, axilla: the hollow under the joint of the arm and the shoulder; a synonym of axilă and subraț.^[3][4][1]
2. la subsuoară, sub subsuoară: under the arm, of something carried: Ținea o mapă la subsuoară.^[3][4]
3. a ține (or a prinde) de subsuoară: to hold someone under the arms or by the arm; to embrace.^[3][4]
4. a sta cu mâinile subsuoară: to sit idle, to do nothing.^[3][13]
5. (botany) The axil: the angle between a leaf and its stem, or a branch and the axis that bears it.^[3][13]

Related words

• subraț
• sub
• Aromanian soarã
• Aromanian sumsoarã

Usage notes

The plural is subsuori.^[3] MDA2 also records an older popular plural subsuoare.^[3][4] Din tălpi până-n subsuori “from the soles to the armpits” means all over the body.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. subsuoară
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1067
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 1037
5. ^ 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. subțioară
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 8346
7. ^ a b Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 961
8. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 992
9. ^ a b Pascu, Giorge (1925), Dictionnaire étymologique macédoroumain, 2 vols. (I: Les éléments latins et romans; II: Les éléments grecs, turcs, slaves, albanais, germaniques, magyars, néologismes, créations immédiates, obscurs), Iași: Cultura Națională, p. 1, 163
10. ^ 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 43:5
11. ^ 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 88:13
12. ^ a b c Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. subsuoară
13. ^ a b c Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. subsuoară