sunătoare

Forms

sunătoare f (plural sunători)^[1] Regional variants are sanitoare, sanitoarie, sănătoare and sănitoare.^[2][1] The Lexicon de la Buda of 1825 has sunătoare, “otherwise sănitoare”, for Hypericum perforatum.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *sanatōria (“healing (herb)”), short for a phrase with herba (“herb”), from sanatōrius (“healing”), from sānō (“to heal”).^[4][2][5][1] The name refers to the plant's healing virtues.^[6][4] Tiktin posits an intermediate ⟨*sânătoare⟩, which was then drawn towards the verb suna “to sound, ring”.^[4] DEX and the DLR also speak of the influence of sunător, a popular etymology.^[7][5][1] Șăineanu already called it a popular alteration of a Latin form.^[8]

The stem of the Latin verb also lives on in sănătate and sănătos, and in Istro-Romanian săr (“healthy”) from sānus.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is in Benkő (1783), for St John's wort.^[4] MDA2 dates it only from Coteanu's list of Romanian plant names of 1942.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The name belongs first to St John's wort (Hypericum perforatum), a yellow-flowered plant prized as a remedy: oil of St John's wort, unt de sunătoare, was used on wounds and cuts.^[4][8][2] Tiktin places this use in Muntenia, Oltenia, Dobrudja and Transylvania.^[4]

The name passed to other plants: the stinking hawksbeard (Crepis foetida), Dorycnium herbaceum, Gnaphalium dioicum, Helianthemum, Rhinanthus and henbane.^[4][7] Panțu records sunătoare for henbane (Hyoscyamus niger) in Transylvania and for St John's wort in Muntenia.^[9] MDA2 also gives it for a second plant of damp woods used in folk medicine against tuberculosis and sores.^[2]

Timeline

• 1783 – in Benkő, the first record.^[4]
• 1825 – in the Lexicon de la Buda, with the variant sănitoare.^[3]
• 1929 – Panțu's dictionary of plant names gives it for St John's wort in Muntenia and henbane in Transylvania.^[9]
• 1942 – in Coteanu's list of Romanian plant names.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (botany) The stinking hawksbeard (Crepis foetida), a plant of the daisy family with soft hairs and yellow flowers and an unpleasant smell.^[7][1]
2. (botany) St John's wort (Hypericum perforatum), also called pojarniță, used in medicine as an antiseptic and for healing wounds.^[7][2][10]
3. (botany, regional) henbane (Hyoscyamus niger), also called măselariță.^[7][9]
4. (botany) Another plant, also called sulițică.^[7]

Related words

• sănătate
• sănătos
• Latin sānō

Usage notes

The name is not the feminine of the adjective sunător “sounding”, though it was reshaped after it.^[7][4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 1058
3. ^ a b Lesicon românescu-latinescu-ungurescu-nemțescu quare de mai mulți autori, în cursul a trideci și mai multor ani s-au lucrat (1825), Buda: Typographia Universității (the Lexicon of Buda, ed. Petru Maior et al.), p. 686
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. sunătoare
5. ^ a b Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. sunătoare
6. ^ Wikționar (Romanian Wiktionary), ro.wiktionary.org
7. ^ a b c d e f g DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1073
8. ^ a b Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 628
9. ^ a b c Panțu, Zach. C. (1929), Plantele cunoscute de poporul român. Vocabular botanic cuprinzând numirile române, franceze, germane și științifice, 2nd ed., București: Editura Casei Școalelor, p. 295
10. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 4, 307