subtil

Forms

subtil m or n (feminine singular subtilă, masculine plural subtili, feminine/neuter plural subtile)^[1] MDA2 records an old variant suptil.^[2] The first record has it in the plural: „Mafezisul, adecă învățătura carea cearcă suptile geometricești adevăruri” “mathematics, that is, the learning that seeks subtle geometrical truths”.^[3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French subtil, and it is also borrowed from Latin subtīlis (“fine, thin; subtle”), a learned loan of the 19th century.^{[2][4][3][5][1]} The “Dicționar de neologisme” gives French as the source and compares the Latin, while Scriban names only the Latin.^[6][7] Gabinschi counts it among the Europe-wide loans of Latin origin, beside German subtil and Russian субтильный (subtilʹnyj).^[8]

The Latin adjective first meant “finely woven”: it is formed from sub (“under”) and tēla (“web, warp”) and began as a weaver's term.^[9][10][1] The French word is a refashioning after Latin of the older forms Old French sutil, soutil and sotil, which continued the Latin word.^[11]

Romanian also inherited the Latin word, as subțire “thin”, its doublet.^[1][12][13] Scriban refers the reader from one to the other.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Dimitrie Țichindeal's 1813 report on the new schools for Romanians, Serbs and Greeks, printed at Buda, in the spelling suptile and the intellectual sense “subtle, requiring a sharp mind”: the truths of geometry that mathematics seeks.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

The intellectual senses came first and remain the main ones: of questions and reasoning, “abstract, difficult, needing a sharp and trained mind”, and of people and their minds, “able to grasp the finest distinctions, perceptive”.^[2][4] The DLR quotes Conta's philosophy and I. Negruzzi, who wrote that the people would draw deosebiri subtile și fine “subtle and fine distinctions” between nădejde and speranță, two words for “hope”.^[3]

A sense “hard to make out, discovered only by close study” grew from these.^[4][14] Physical senses, close to the Latin “fine, thin”, are rare: praf subtil “very fine dust”, otravă subtilă “a poison that works unnoticed”.^[15][7] Of substances and smells MDA2 records “penetrating easily, imperceptibly”, and DEX keeps “very thin, light, transparent” as a rare sense.^[2][4] Negulici's glossary of 1848 still explained the word through its native doublet, as subțire and, figuratively, “very penetrating, very skilful”.^[16]

Timeline

• 1813 – first record, suptile, in Țichindeal's report on the schools, printed at Buda.^[2][3]
• 1848 – listed among the neologisms in Negulici's vocabulary, with the Latin subtilis.^[16]
• 1886 – Barcianu glosses it in German as “fine, delicate”.^[17]
• 1929 – Șăineanu gives the senses “very fine”, “delicate”, “penetrating easily” and “very skilful”.^[15]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of people and their minds, often as an adverb: perceptive, subtle; able to catch the smallest details and make the finest distinctions.^[4][18]
2. Hard to make out or recognise; discovered only by careful, detailed study.^[4][5]
3. Of works and reasoning: treating difficult, abstract questions with finesse and analytical spirit; needing a sharp mind to be understood.^[4][2]
4. (rare) Very thin, light or transparent; of substances and smells, penetrating unnoticed.^[4][2]

Related words

• subțire
• Latin subtīlis
• French subtil

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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, 1038
3. ^ 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. subtil
4. ^ a b c d e f g h DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1067
5. ^ a b Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. subtil
6. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. subtil
7. ^ a b c Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1260
8. ^ Gabinschi, Marcu (2001), Dicționar de dublete etimologice ale limbii române, 2nd ed., Chișinău: Litera, p. 166
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
12. ^ 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. subțire
13. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 8399
14. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 4, 287
15. ^ a b Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 625
16. ^ 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. subtil
17. ^ Barcianu, Sava Popovici (1886), Dicționar român-germân și germân-român, revised by D. P. Barcianu, part I: român-germân, Sibiu: Institut tipografic, p. 618
18. ^ Costăchescu, Adriana; Dincă, Daniela; Dragoste, Ramona; Popescu, Mihaela; Scurtu, Gabriela (2009–2010), Dicționar de împrumuturi lexicale din limba franceză (DILF), 2 vols., Craiova: Universitaria, p. s.v. subtil