supă

Forms

supă f (plural supe)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French soupe according to DEX, Wiktionary and the neologism dictionaries,^[2][1][3] but the older dictionaries give it several sources: DLR names Modern Greek σούπα (soúpa) and French, MDA2 Greek, French and German, Tiktin German, French and Greek.^[4][5][6] The Transylvanian and Bukovinian variant zupă comes from German Suppe.^[4][7] Ciorănescu compares Italian suppa as well.^[8]

The French word goes back to Late Latin suppa (“bread soaked in broth”), of disputed origin: Bloch and Wartburg take it from Germanic,^[9] and Wiktionary gives Proto-Germanic *supô (“broth, sop”).^[1] The Greek word is itself from French, through Venetian supa.^[10]

The word is also found in Aromanian: Aromanian supã, which Papahagi takes from Italian.^[11][12][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is from 1762, in Gheorgachi's account of the court ceremonial: the steward ladles soup for the prince onto a plate with the great silver spoon, „scoate Domnului pe talger supă”.^[6][4] MDA2 cites an undated cookbook, Mâncările, for its first record.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The meaning has stayed a liquid dish of meat or vegetables, often with pasta or dumplings.^[6][2] Scriban distinguishes it from the sour ciorbă and borș: the clear broth served without the meat, which remains as the rasol.^[7] The Lexicon de la Buda of 1825 explains it with the native zeamă and marks it as French.^[13] A slang sense among painters is a yellow varnish that gives a picture an old golden patina.^[3] Recent compounds include supă-cremă “cream soup”.^[14]

Timeline

• 1762 – first record, in Gheorgachi's account of the court ceremonial.^[6][4]
• 1825 – in the Lexicon de la Buda, explained by zeamă and marked French.^[13]
• 1870 – Costinescu gives the synonyms ciorbă, fiertură and zeamă.^[15]
• 1886 – Barcianu lists meat, rice and vegetable soups.^[16]

Meanings

Noun

1. soup: a liquid dish of meat, vegetables or both, boiled together, sometimes with noodles, vermicelli or dumplings.^[2][5][1]
2. A course or serving of soup: Am mâncat două supe.^[2]

Related words

• ciorbă
• zeamă
• Aromanian supã

Usage notes

The verb supa “to have a late supper” and the nouns supeu and supieră “soup tureen” are separate borrowings from French souper and soupière, not derivatives of supă.^[8]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1073
3. ^ a b Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. supă
4. ^ a b c d Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. supă
5. ^ a b c Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 1059
6. ^ 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. supă
7. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1266
8. ^ 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. supă
9. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. soupe
10. ^ Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, p. s.v. σούπα
11. ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 987
12. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 993
13. ^ 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. 687
14. ^ Dimitrescu, Florica (1997), Dicționar de cuvinte recente, 2nd ed., București: Logos (with the 3rd ed., 2013, in CLRE), p. s.v. supă
15. ^ Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 580
16. ^ Barcianu, Sava Popovici (1886), Dicționar român-germân și germân-român, revised by D. P. Barcianu, part I: român-germân, Sibiu: Institut tipografic, p. 624