suci

Forms

a suci (third-person singular present sucește, past participle sucit) 4th conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old Church Slavonic соукати (sukati, “to twist, to spin”), a borrowing from the Slavonic of the church and chancery.^[2][3][1][4] MDA2 also names the form соучы (sučy).^[5] Ciorănescu gives the same Slavonic verb and compares related verbs in Bulgarian, Serbo-Croatian and Russian.^[2] The Slavonic verb goes back to Proto-Balto-Slavic *sewk- (“to turn, to spin”), which also gave Lithuanian sùkti (“to turn”).^[1]

The verb also exists south of the Danube: Aromanian șuțăscu and Megleno-Romanian suciǫs.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the participle sucit in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon of 1649, where it renders a Slavonic word for “twisted”.^[6] MDA2 cites the Latin–Romanian glossary of Caransebeș (c. 1650–1700) as its first record, and Tiktin dates the verb from Dosoftei in 1683.^[5][4]

Semantic evolution

The first sense is turning something between the fingers so that it winds on itself: twisting the thread in spinning, rolling a cigarette, twirling a moustache.^[4][3] From there the verb came to mean turning any object round, changing its direction or position, and twisting a joint out of place, a sprain.^[2][3] Figurative senses followed: turning a matter another way, pestering someone with questions, and, reflexive, fretting over a problem.^[4][3] Pontbriant in 1862 gives a suci pe cineva “to tease, to nag someone”.^[7]

The participle sucit is also an adjective, “twisted”, then “capricious, odd”, while suceală is a twist or turn, and sucitor has a variant ciucitor.^[2] The prefixed verb răsuci often competes with the simple verb in the sense of twisting thread.^[8]

Timeline

• 1649 – sucit “twisted” in Mardarie's lexicon, the first record.^[6]
• c. 1650–1700 – in the Latin–Romanian glossary of Caransebeș.^[5]
• 1683 – in Dosoftei.^[4]
• 1688 – sucit and suciți “twisted” in the Bucharest Bible.^[9]
• 1862 – Pontbriant records the senses “to twist, to sprain” and “to tease”.^[7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To twist a thread or fibre so that it is stronger, or to make something by twisting it; to wind or coil.^[3][1]
2. To turn an object round, to rotate it;^[3] (figurative) to pester someone with questions;^[3] (reflexive, figurative) to fret, to rack one's brains.^[3]
3. To turn the body or a part of it suddenly in another direction; to sprain a joint; to wring an animal's neck.^[3][1]
4. To put into an unnatural position, to bend out of shape;^[3] a suci vorba “to steer the talk elsewhere, to dodge the truth”.^[3]

Word family

• suceală
• sucit
• sucitor
• sucitură
• răsuci

Usage notes

A separate noun suci “furrier” is used regionally in Transylvania and Banat.^[5][2] It is borrowed from Hungarian szűcs (“furrier”), is recorded in the Caransebeș glossary of c. 1650–1700, and has the plural suci.^[5][10][11]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f 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. suci
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1068
4. ^ a b c d e Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. sucí
5. ^ 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, 1042
6. ^ a b Ungureanu, Mădălina; Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Moruz, Alexandru (eds.), eRomLex: The First Romanian Bilingual Dictionaries (17th century), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. s.v. sucit
7. ^ a b Pontbriant, Raoul de (1862), Dictiunaru romano-francesu, Bucuresci: A. Ulrich / Göttingen: Dieterich, p. 713
8. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 4, 291
9. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Ieșirea 37:2
10. ^ Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. suci
11. ^ Costinescu, Mariana; Georgescu, Magdalena; Zgraon, Florentina (1987), Dicționarul limbii române literare vechi (1640–1780): termeni regionali, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică, p. 1, 274