sunet

Forms

sunet n (plural sunete)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin sonitus (“sound, noise”), a noun formed on sonō (“to sound”).^{[2][3][4][5][6][1][7]} Pușcariu discusses it as article 1695 of his Latin dictionary, and the REW lists only Romanian for the Latin noun.^[3][4]

Ciorănescu counts it among the derivatives of suna and allows a second explanation: a Romanian formation with the suffix -et that also makes tunet, muget and răcnet.^[2] The older noun sun “sound” is probably sonus, or a back-formation from the verb.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is Coresi's Tetraevanghel of 1561, at Luke 21:25.^[8] Coresi's Psalter of 1570 has it at Psalm 9:7, and the Slavonic–Romanian lexicons of 1649 and after use it to gloss Slavonic words for “sound” and “noise”.^[9][10] MDA2 gives Varlaam's Cazania of 1643 as its first record.^[5]

Semantic evolution

In the old texts the word meant any sound or noise, often a loud one: Miron Costin writes that tall trees make a greater sound when they fall, and Nicolae Costin tells of „mare sunet de arme” “a great clash of arms”.^[8] The sense of a musical sound, of bells, horns or a pipe, is recorded alongside.^[8][11]

Modern usage added the physical definition, a vibration that travels through a medium and reaches the ear, and technical terms such as sunet complex and sunet reverberat.^[12][5] In linguistics it names a speech sound.^[12] Figurative senses are an echo or a stir, and the announcing of an event.^[12]

Timeline

• 1561 – in Coresi's Tetraevanghel (Luke 21:25), the first record.^[8]
• 1570 – sunet in Coresi's Psalter (Psalm 9:7).^[9]
• 1643 – in Varlaam's Cazania, MDA2's first record.^[5][6]
• 1649 – in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[10]
• 1688 – eight times in the Bucharest Bible, among them Acts 2:2.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. A sound: a vibration of the particles of an elastic medium that the ear can perceive.^[12][5][1]
2. A musical sound or tone; by extension, the signal announcing an event.^[12]
3. An echo or resounding; a stir, an uproar.^[12]
4. (linguistics) A speech sound, produced by articulating the outgoing breath.^[12]

Related words

• suna
• răsunet
• sun
• Latin sonitus

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c 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 Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 156
4. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 8089
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, 1058
6. ^ a b Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. sunet
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. sonitus
8. ^ 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. sunet
9. ^ 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 9:7
10. ^ 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. sunet
11. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1265
12. ^ 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
13. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Acts 2:2