sus

Forms

sus^[1] MDA2 records a rare old variant sos and old plurals of the noun, suși, suse and susuri.^[2] The word could once be an adjective: „Scaunele ... sunt mult mai suse-n picioare” “the chairs are much higher on their legs”.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin sūsum (“upward”), the popular form of sursum with /rs/ reduced to /s/.^{[4][2][5][6][1]} The form without /r/ is already written by Cato.^[7] The classical form was formed from sub (“under”) and vorsum (“turned”), literally “turned from below”.^[8][1][9]

The word survives in all four branches: Aromanian sus (more often nsus), Megleno-Romanian ansus and Istro-Romanian sus.^{[4][10][11][12]} Its Romance cognates include Dalmatian sois, Italian su and suso, Old French sus, Occitan sus, Catalan sus, Spanish suso and Portuguese suso.^[4][13]

Earliest recorded meaning

The psalters show the word from the early 16th century: the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki has it more than thirty times.^[14] A letter of 1521 already uses it of a direction: „s-au dus în sus pre Dunăre” “went up the Danube”.^[15] MDA2's first record is the Psaltirea Scheiană (c. 1573–1578).^[2]

Semantic evolution

In the old texts the word was also a noun, susul “the height, the Most High”: Coresi's psalter has „Plătește susului făgăduitul tău” “pay your vows to the Most High”, translating the Slavonic word for “highest”.^[3] The New Testament of 1648 calls the hill country alsusurile.^[3] The noun now survives mainly in phrases: în susul apei “upstream”, cu susul în jos “upside down”.^[3][5]

Upward direction gave “upstream” and “towards the north”: Scriban explains țara de sus as the north of Moldavia.^[2][16] A high place gave a high rank (de sus “of the upper classes”) and heaven: Cel de Sus is God.^[5][4] The word also refers back in a text (mai sus “above”) and forms the compounds sus-numit and sus-pus.^[5] As an interjection, Sus! is a command to rise and a cry of encouragement.^[5] Recent slang uses it as an adjective, “high” on drugs.^[17]

Timeline

• early 16th century – sus in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[14]
• 1521 – în sus pre Dunăre “up the Danube” in a letter.^[15]
• 16th century – the noun susul “the Most High” in Coresi's psalter.^[3]
• c. 1573–1578 – in the Psaltirea Scheiană, MDA2's first record.^[2]
• 1648 – alsusurile “the hill country” in the New Testament.^[3]
• 1688 – the Bucharest Bible uses sus 179 times.^[18]

Meanings

Adverb

1. up, above: in a higher place than something else; upstairs; in the sky.^[5][1]
2. upward: towards a higher place;^[5][2] în sus upward, also upstream or towards the north.^[5][2]
3. (figurative) In a high position or rank: Are prieteni sus.;^[5] a privi de sus to look down on someone.^[5]
4. Earlier in a text: cum am arătat mai sus “as shown above”.^[5]
5. Loudly, in a high voice: sus și tare openly, firmly.^[5]
6. (religion) In heaven: Cel de Sus God.^[5][4]

Interjection

1. Up!, rise!; a cry of encouragement or approval: Sus inimile!^[5][19]

Noun

1. susul: the upper part or side of something: a întoarce cu susul în jos to turn upside down.^[5][16]

Adjective

1. (slang) Under the influence of drugs, high.^[17]

Word family

• susean
• sus-numit
• sus-pus

Related words

• Aromanian nsus
• Latin sursum

Usage notes

Many fixed expressions use the word: în sus și în jos “back and forth”, cu nasul pe sus “stuck-up”, a duce pe sus “to carry off by force”, a sări în sus “to jump (with joy, fright or anger)”.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c d 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, 1075
3. ^ 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. sus
4. ^ 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. sus
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1080
6. ^ Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 157
7. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
10. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 997
11. ^ Byhan, Arthur (1899), Istrorumänisches Glossar, Sechster Jahresbericht des Instituts für rumänische Sprache zu Leipzig: 174–366, p. 357
12. ^ Kovačec, August (1998), Istrorumunjsko-hrvatski rječnik (s gramatikom i tekstovima), Pula
13. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 8478
14. ^ 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 12:6
15. ^ a b Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. sus
16. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1271
17. ^ a b Volceanov, George (2007), Dicționar de argou al limbii române, București: Niculescu
18. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Gen 7:20
19. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 631