sufragerie

Forms

sufragerie f (plural sufragerii)^[1] The older form is sofragerie, still used by Alecsandri, Caragiale and Vlahuță: „De când am băut sus în sofragerie vin de cel cu spumă, parc-am întinerit de 20 de ani” “since I drank sparkling wine up in the dining room, I feel twenty years younger” (Alecsandri).^[2][3]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian sufragiu + -ărie, from the old word for a servant who waited at table.^[4][5][2] Wiktionary analyses the suffix as -erie.^[1] sufragiu in that sense is from Ottoman Turkish سفرهجی (sofracı, “servant who waits at table”).^[6][1] Tiktin compares Modern Greek σοφρατζαρία (sofratzaría).^[7]

It has nothing to do with the homograph meaning “suffrage, vote”, a borrowing from French and Latin.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1823.^[7] MDA2 and the DLR quote the Romanian version of Dimitrie Cantemir's Descrierea Moldovei, printed at Neamț monastery in 1825: when there is no feast, the prince's table is laid at noon „în sofrageria cea mică” “in the small dining room”.^[5][2]

Semantic evolution

In Cantemir the word names a room of the prince's court where meals were served; 19th-century writers use it of the dining room of a house.^[2][7] In time the form sufragerie replaced sofragerie, which the DLRLC still lists as a variant.^[2][3] It also names the set of furniture for such a room.^[7][4] Wiktionary also glosses the word “living room”.^[1]

Timeline

• 1823 – the first record that Tiktin gives.^[7]
• 1825 – sofrageria cea mică in the printed Romanian Descrierea Moldovei.^[5][2]
• 1886 – Barcianu's dictionary sends sufragerie to the main form sofragerie.^[8]
• 1893–1895 – Damé's dictionary has sufragerie “dining room”.^[9]
• 1955–1957 – the DLRLC has sufragerie as the main form and sofragerie as a variant.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. dining room: a room furnished for serving meals.^[4][5]
2. The furniture of such a room, as a set: și-au cumpărat o sufragerie nouă.^[4][10]
3. A living room.^[1]

Related words

• sufragiu
• Ottoman Turkish سفرهجی (sofracı)

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. sufragerie
3. ^ a b c Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 4, 298
4. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1070
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, 1048
6. ^ Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. sufragiu
7. ^ 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. sufragerie
8. ^ Barcianu, Sava Popovici (1886), Dicționar român-germân și germân-român, revised by D. P. Barcianu, part I: român-germân, Sibiu: Institut tipografic
9. ^ Damé, Frédéric (1893–1895), Nouveau dictionnaire roumain-français, 4 vols., Bucarest: Imprimerie de l'État
10. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional