suprem

Forms

suprem m or n (feminine singular supremă, masculine plural supremi, feminine/neuter plural supreme)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French suprême and Latin suprēmus (“highest, last”).^{[2][3][4][5][1]} DEX names the French word first, MDA2 and DLR the Latin one, and Scriban only the Latin.^[3][2][6] The Latin adjective is the superlative of superus (“upper”), with the suffix -ēmus.^[7][8] The French adjective was borrowed from Latin around 1466.^[9] Graur lists superior, sumă and suveran in the same Latin family.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

MDA2 and DLR date the first record to Budai-Deleanu's Romanian–German lexicon (1818).^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

The first sense is “highest, greatest, above all”, the source of “highest in rank” and, by extension, of “last, extreme”.^[3][2] The 19th-century press spoke of supremă autoritate and of liberty as binele suprem “the supreme good”.^[4] The sense “last” lives in set phrases about death: ora supremă “the hour of death”, voința supremă “a dying person's last wishes”, onoruri supreme “funeral honours”.^[6][2] Ființa supremă is God.^[2]

Timeline

• 1818 – first record, in Budai-Deleanu's lexicon.^[2][4]
• 1860 – supremă domnie “supreme rule” in a calendar.^[4]
• 1875 – in Antonescu's Romanian–French dictionary.^[10]
• 1889 – de o calitate supremă “of the highest quality”, of wheat.^[4]
• 1893 – Damé still marks it as a neologism.^[11]

Meanings

Adjective

1. supreme: existing in the highest degree; the best, the greatest, above all; by extension extreme, last: moment suprem “decisive moment”, onoruri supreme “funeral honours”.^[3]
2. Highest in rank or grade: comandant suprem “commander-in-chief”.^[3][12]

Related words

• superior
• suveran

References

1. ^ a b c 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, 1068
3. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1078
4. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. suprem
5. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. suprem
6. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1268
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Graur, Alexandru (1980), Cuvinte înrudite, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică
9. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
10. ^ Antonescu, G. M. (1875), Dictionariu romanu-francesu, Bucuresci: Typografia Curții (Lucrători Associați)
11. ^ Damé, Frédéric (1893–1895), Nouveau dictionnaire roumain-français, 4 vols., Bucarest: Imprimerie de l'État
12. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional