supăra

Forms

supăra (present supăr, third-person singular supără, past participle supărat, subjunctive să supere), 1st conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin superō (“to surpass, overcome”).^{[2][3][4][1][5]} Ciorănescu lists the scholars who held this view, from Cipariu and Cihac to Pușcariu, Pascu and the REW.^[2] The verb survives as Aromanian shupãr (“to mock, ridicule”).^[2][6][7] The Romance cognates are Old Italian soprare and Old Occitan sobrar, Catalan sobrar, Spanish sobrar and Portuguese sobrar, which mean “to be left over, be too much”.^[2][5]

The meaning grew from “to surpass” to “to be more than one can bear”;^[2][1] Ciorănescu compares French outrer “to go too far; to offend” and excéder “to exceed; to exasperate”.^[2][1] He rejects the other proposals: Old Church Slavonic сѫпьрь (sǫpĭrĭ, “adversary”) (Miklosich, Cihac), Ukrainian супра (supra, “quarrel”) (Domaschke), and a derivation from asupra (Crețu).^[2][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

MDA2's first record is the Codicele Voronețean (c. 1563–1583), where Tiktin quotes supărară-me “they troubled me” from Acts 25:24.^[3][9] In Coresi's Gospel the unjust judge gives in to the widow să nu cumva să vie să mă supere “lest she come and trouble me” (Luke 18:5).^[9]

Semantic evolution

In the old language the verb kept military senses close to Latin: to defeat, to occupy a country, to lay waste, to harass an army.^[3][2] Neculce wrote of Duca Vodă's army, supărată from St George's to St Nicholas' day and then scattered.^[9] From pressing and burdening came “to hinder, disturb”, which in turn led to “to grieve” and “to anger”, the main senses today.^[2][3][4] The reflexive meant “to grow weary, be unable to go on” in the old language, and now means “to get angry, take offence”.^[2]

Its derivatives include supărare “trouble, sorrow, annoyance”, which also meant epilepsy in Transylvania, and supărăcios “touchy”.^[2] In Aromanian the verb took another path, to “to mock”.^[6][7]

Timeline

• c. 1563–1583 – supărară “they troubled” in the Codicele Voronețean.^[3][9]
• 16th century – in the Psaltirea Scheiană and in Coresi's Gospel.^[9]
• 1649 – supăr glosses Slavonic stužaju “I trouble” in Mardarie's lexicon.^[10]
• early 18th century – Neculce's chronicle uses it of an army worn down by fighting.^[9]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive and reflexive) To upset, grieve or sadden; to be upset.^[4][3][1]
2. (transitive) To bother, disturb or inconvenience; to cause mild pain or discomfort.^[4][3]
3. (transitive and reflexive) To anger, irritate; to get angry.^[4][1]
4. (obsolete) To defeat, overcome; to occupy or lay waste a country.^[3][2]

Word family

• supărăcios
• supărăciune
• supăralnic
• supărelnic
• supărare
• supărător
• nesupărat

Related words

• spre
• asupra
• Latin superō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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. supăra
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 1059
4. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1073
5. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 8458
6. ^ a b Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1014
7. ^ a b 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
8. ^ Kurz, Josef; Hauptová, Zoe (eds.) (1958–1997), Slovník jazyka staroslověnského / Lexicon linguae palaeoslovenicae, 4 vols. + supplements, Praha: Academia; digital ed. gorazd.org
9. ^ a b c d e f Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. supăra
10. ^ 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. supăr