sul

Forms

sul n (plural suluri)^[1] Besides the usual plural suluri, MDA2 records the popular plurals sule and suli.^[2] The augmentative is suloi.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *sublum or *subulum, a form without the prefix of insūbulum (“weaver's beam”).^{[4][5][6][7][2][1]} Ciorănescu cites Candrea, Pușcariu, Philippide, the REW and Pascu for this view.^[4] Wiktionary explains the Latin word as insuō (“to sew in”) with the suffix -bulum, or as related to sūbula (“awl”).^[1] It survives as Aromanian sul and Megleno-Romanian sul.^{[4][8][9][10]} Other forms without the prefix are Italian subbio and Venetian subio, while French ensouple and Spanish enjullo keep it.^[4][5][6]

Cihac compared Czech sul (“fir”), a derivation Ciorănescu considers improbable.^[11][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1560, from the Slavonic-Romanian documents.^[3] In 1649 Mardarie's lexicon glosses the Slavonic word for the weaver's beam with sul.^[12] The Bible of 1688 compares the shaft of a spear with a weaver's sulul (1 Samuel 17:7).^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

The first sense is the beam of the loom on which the warp or the woven cloth is wound, the sulul de dinainte and sulul de dinapoi.^[7][3] From it the word came to mean any cylinder or roller in a machine, a long round cushion or bolster, a gymnastics bar, and anything rolled up, such as a roll of paper or of matting.^[13][3] The phrase cu un sul subțire “with a thin roller” means “by subtle calculation, cunningly”.^[13]

Timeline

• 1560 – the first record, in a Slavonic-Romanian document.^[3]
• 1649 – sul “weaver's beam” in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[12]
• 1688 – sulul in the Bucharest Bible.^[2][14]
• 1875 – wallpaper in suluri “rolls” in the Monitorul Oficial.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A cylinder or roller of wood, metal or another hard material that turns on its axis, used to guide, press or shape a material; especially the beam of a loom on which the warp or the cloth is wound.^[13][2][1]
2. A bar used in gymnastics.^[13]
3. A long round bolster or cushion at the end of a sofa or bed; a padded roll laid between window panes against draughts.^[13]
4. A roll of something flexible: un sul de hârtie “a roll of paper”;^[13][3] a face sul “to roll up”.^[13][3]

Word family

• sulete
• suloi

Related words

• sulă
• Aromanian sul
• Latin insūbulum

Usage notes

Cu (rar prin) un sul subțire “by fine calculation, shrewdly” is a fixed expression.^[13]

References

1. ^ a b c d e 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, 1052
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. sul
4. ^ a b c d e 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. sul
5. ^ a b Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 156
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 4474
7. ^ a b Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. sul
8. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 990
9. ^ 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. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 280
11. ^ Cihac, A. de (1879), Dictionnaire d'étymologie daco-romane II: Éléments slaves, magyars, turcs, grecs-moderne et albanais, Frankfurt am Main, p. 379
12. ^ 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. sul
13. ^ 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. 1071
14. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. 1 Sm 17:7