sută

Forms

sută f (plural sute)^[1] Diminutives are sutișoară and sutică; the ordinal is al o sutălea (sutelea), feminine a o suta.^[2]

Etymology

Its origin is disputed: it is the only Romanian numeral not of Latin origin, and DEX calls it of unknown origin.^[3][4] The common view, Miklosich's and Cihac's, followed by Ciorănescu, Tiktin and Vasmer, is that it is borrowed from Old Church Slavonic съто (sŭto, “hundred”).^[3][2][5][6] Its cognates are Bulgarian сто (sto), Russian сто (sto), Polish sto and Czech sto, and the reconstructed Proto-Slavic *sъto goes back to Proto-Indo-European *ḱm̥tóm, the source also of Latin centum.^[7][5][1] The difficulty is the vowel: Slavonic /ŭ/ does not normally give Romanian /u/, as Meillet and Skok pointed out, and this led G. Meyer to think of a Persian source instead.^[3]

MDA2 labels it a native word, comparing the Slavonic numeral.^[8] Wiktionary's Romanian entry derives it from Vulgar Latin *suta, whose page records the proposal that the Slavic and the Romanian words were parallel borrowings from an unattested Thracian descendant of the Indo-European word.^[1]

The word survives south of the Danube: Aromanian sutã and Megleno-Romanian sută.^[3][9][10] Papahagi and Pascu derive the Aromanian word from Slavonic too.^[9][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Codicele Voronețean of the 16th century: „Gotoviți doao sute de voinici” “make ready two hundred soldiers”.^[8][11] Tiktin cites the canticle of Exodus 15:4 in the Psaltirea Scheiană of the same century.^[2] Coresi's Gospel book has o sută de bani “a hundred coins”.^[11]

Semantic evolution

Beside the numeral, the word is a noun for a hundred units: la sută “per cent”, sută la sută “completely, a hundred per cent”, and a 100-lei banknote.^[4][2] In the early 19th century it was also used for “century”: în cursul sutei a 16-a “in the course of the 16th century”.^[11] In Moldova it also names a glass of 100 grams.^[12] Proverbs use it with mie “thousand”: unde s-a dus mia, ducă-se și suta “where the thousand went, let the hundred go too”.^[4]

Its derivatives include sutaș “centurion”, sutime “hundredth” and the verb însuti “to multiply a hundredfold”; slang sutar is a hundred-lei note.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1563-1583 – doao sute “two hundred” in the Codicele Voronețean, the first record.^[8][11]
• c. 1573-1578 – in the Psaltirea Scheiană.^[2]
• 1648 – o mie de sute de mii in the New Testament.^[11]
• 1829 – suta in the sense “century”.^[11]

Meanings

Numeral

1. A hundred: the number between ninety-nine and a hundred and one, written 100 or C; usually joined to its noun by de: o sută de oameni “a hundred people”.^[4][1]
2. (as an ordinal) Hundredth: pagina o sută “page one hundred”.^[4]

Noun

1. The figure 100; a hundred units, a hundred of something: la sută “per cent”.^[4][2]
2. A banknote of a hundred lei.^[4]
3. (obsolete) A century.^[11]

Word family

• sutaș
• sutime
• sutălea
• însuti
• sutar

Related words

• Aromanian sutã
• Old Church Slavonic съто (sŭto)

Usage notes

Sute și mii and o sută și-o mie stand for a large, indefinite number.^[4] Sută is also a surname.^[1][13]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. sută
3. ^ 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. sută
4. ^ a b c d e f g h DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1081
5. ^ a b Vasmer, Max (1964–1973), Ètimologičeskij slovar' russkogo jazyka, transl. and suppl. by O. N. Trubačev, 4 vols., Moskva: Progress
6. ^ Kurz, Josef; Hauptová, Zoe (eds.) (1958–1997), Slovník jazyka staroslověnského / Lexicon linguae palaeoslovenicae, 4 vols. + supplements, Praha: Academia; digital ed. gorazd.org
7. ^ Derksen, Rick (2008), Etymological Dictionary of the Slavic Inherited Lexicon, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 4, Leiden / Boston: Brill
8. ^ 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, 1078
9. ^ a b Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 998
10. ^ 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, p. 2, 209
11. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. sută
12. ^ Stati, Vasile (2003), Dicționar moldovenesc-românesc, Chișinău, p. 294
13. ^ Constantinescu, N. A. (1963), Dicționar onomastic romînesc, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. s.v. sută