suna

Forms

suna (third-person singular present sună, past participle sunat, third-person subjunctive sune) 1st conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin sonō (“to sound”),^{[2][3][4][5][1][6]} which goes back to Proto-Indo-European *swenh₂- (“to sound, resound”).^[1] It survives in Aromanian asun and Megleno-Romanian sun.^[2][7][8] Romance cognates include Dalmatian sonuar, Italian sonare, French sonner, Spanish sonar and Portuguese soar.^[2][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is the Psaltirea Voronețeană of the mid-16th century (Psalm 82:3).^[9] The psalter index finds sunară in Coresi's Psalter of 1570.^[10] MDA2 dates it from Coresi's Carte de învățătură of 1581, which Wiktionary also gives as the first record.^[3][1]

Semantic evolution

The verb first meant “to give a sound, to ring”, said of metal, wood and the earth, and with an object “to make ring”.^[5][9] The chroniclers used it for rumours: Miron Costin wrote of what „se sunase în târg și la curte” “had been rumoured in the town and at court”, a sense now rare.^[9][4] It also meant “to play an instrument”, and “to announce by bells or horn”.^[4][1] With the doorbell and the telephone it took on its common modern sense “to ring someone, to call”.^[4][1] Aromanian asun also means “to beat”, and Romanian has the popular phrase a-i suna cuiva cojocul “to give someone a beating”.^[7][3]

Ciorănescu derives sunet “sound” from Latin sonitus or from the verb with the suffix -et;^[2][11] răsuna “to resound” follows French résonner.^[2][11]

Timeline

• c. 1551–1558 – in the Psaltirea Voronețeană.^[9]
• 1570 – sunară in Coresi's Psalter.^[10]
• 1581 – in Coresi's Carte de învățătură.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To sound, to ring: to give out a sound; of a clock, to strike or to ring an alarm: Telefonul a sunat de trei ori.^[4][1]
2. Of words or songs, to be heard, to sound (a certain way).^[4][1]
3. To play a musical instrument.^[4][1]
4. To announce something by bells or a horn; with an object, to call someone by the doorbell or by telephone: Te sun mâine seară.^[4][1]
5. (rare, reflexive) To be rumoured.^[4][1]

Word family

• sunător
• sunătoare
• răsuna
• răsunet
• sunare

Related words

• sunet
• sun
• Aromanian asun
• Latin sonō

Usage notes

A-i suna cuiva ceasul means “someone's last hour has come”;^[4] a suna a gol “to sound hollow”.^[4] The old present sunează is obsolete.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. suna
3. ^ a b c d Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 1057
4. ^ 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. 1073
5. ^ a b Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. suna
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 8087
7. ^ a b Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 172
8. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 280
9. ^ a b c d Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. suná
10. ^ a b Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Ungureanu, Mădălina; Moruz, Alexandru et al., roPsalt: Re-evaluating the Sixteenth Century Romanian Psalters (aligned corpus), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. Ps 82:2
11. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 8089