Etymologically
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shcurtu

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Forms

shcurtu[1]

  • Feminine scurtã, masculine plural scurtsã, feminine plural scurti or scurte, in Cunia's dictionary, which heads the word as scurtu and refers shcurtu to it.[2][3]
  • Other spellings: scúrtu and șcúrtu in Papahagi's dictionary;[4][5] ŞCURTU, with scurtu, in Pascu;[6] scúrtu-ă in Mihăileanu's Romanian-based spelling;[7] șcurtu in Dalametra;[8] σκούρτου (skúrtu), feminine -τὰ, in Nikolaidis;[9] Σσκούρτου in the Greek script of Kavalliotis's word list.[10]
  • Regional forms: şcúrtu, feminine şcúrtă, plural şcúrţâ, şcúrti, at most points of the Aromanian dialect atlas, and scúrtu, plural scúrţâ, at one point;[11] sk'urtu, feminine sk'urtā, for "low" in the village of Turia;[12] skurtu in Weigand's texts.[13]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin curtus (“cut short, mutilated”),[6][14][1] or a Vulgar Latin *excurtus formed from it with the prefix ex-.[4][9][14][1] Pascu explains the initial s by the influence of the verb for "to shorten", from *excurtō;[6] for REW the s comes from *excurtiō.[15] Under the spelling with ș, Papahagi compares a Greek place name and Albanian shkurt (“short, February”),[5] and Wiktionary considers the Albanian word a probable influence, itself perhaps from the same Latin source or an early loan from Eastern Romance.[1]

The word is common to the four Eastern Romance languages: Romanian scurt, Megleno-Romanian scurt and Istro-Romanian scurt.[14][16][17][18] Further west the Latin word gave Italian corto or scorto, French court, Spanish corto and Portuguese curto.[15] De Vaan traces curtus to Proto-Italic *korto- and Proto-Indo-European *kr̥-to- (“cut off”).[19]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Kavalliotis's Greek–Aromanian–Albanian word list of 1770, where Σσκούρτου translates Modern Greek κοντός (kontós, “short”).[10]

Semantic evolution

From the Latin sense "cut short", the adjective means short in length and in time, and of people short in stature or small.[20][4][8][13] Cunia records cu minti scurtã and scurtu di minti for someone who does not think well,[20] and Papahagi's tales have scurtul di minţi "the short-witted one".[21] As a noun with the article, scurtul is the month of February;[7][5] Wiktionary explains the name by February being the shortest month,[1] and Pascu compares Albanian, which also calls February "the short one".[6] Another noun sense is a short coat lined with fur;[7][21] Pascu compares the Romanian scurteică.[6]

Timeline

  • 1770 – Σσκούρτου “short” in Kavalliotis's word list.[10]
  • 1894 – skurtu “small, short” in Weigand's glossary.[13]
  • 1901 – scúrtu-ă “short”, and the noun scúrtu “February” and “short fur-lined coat”, in Mihăileanu's dictionary.[7]
  • 1906 – șcurtu “short, small of stature” in Dalametra's dictionary.[8]
  • 1925 – Pascu derives it from Latin curtus.[6]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Short in length.[20][4][1]
  2. Brief, lasting a short time.[20][4]
  3. Short in stature, small.[20][8][11]
  4. (figurative, with minti "mind") Dim-witted.[20][21]

Noun

  1. (with the article) February.[7][5][1]
  2. A short coat of cloth lined with fur.[7][21][5]
  • Romanian scurt

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 916
  3. ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 929
  4. ^ a b c d e Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 936
  5. ^ a b c d e Papahagi, Tache (1974), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, 2nd augmented ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. 1073
  6. ^ a b c d e f 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. 1, 166
  7. ^ a b c d e f Mihăileanu, Ștefan (1901), Dicționar macedo-român, București, p. 458
  8. ^ a b c d Dalametra, I. (1906), Dicționar macedo-român, București: Academia Română, p. 186
  9. ^ a b Νικολαΐδης, Κωνσταντίνος (1909), Ετυμολογικόν λεξικόν της κουτσοβλαχικής γλώσσης, Αθήνα, p. 488
  10. ^ a b c Meyer, Gustav (1895), Albanesische Studien IV: Das griechisch-südrumänisch-albanesische Wörterverzeichnis des Kavalliotis, Sitzungsberichte der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften in Wien, phil.-hist. Classe 132, p. 69
  11. ^ a b Saramandu, Nicolae (2023), Glosar aromân, Fonetică și dialectologie XLII: 103–176, p. 167
  12. ^ Бара, Мариана; Каль, Теде; Соболев, Андрей Н. (2005), Южноарумынский говор села Турия (Малый диалектологический атлас балканских языков, серия монографий 1), p. 312
  13. ^ a b c Weigand, Gustav (1894), Die Aromunen: ethnographisch-philologisch-historische Untersuchungen, vol. II: Volksliteratur der Aromunen (with a glossary), Leipzig: J. A. Barth, p. 331
  14. ^ 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)
  15. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  16. ^ Candrea, I.-A. (1927–1937), Glosar megleno-romîn I–IV, Grai și suflet III: 175–209; IV: 381–413; VI: 163–193; VII: 194–233, p. 197
  17. ^ Kovačec, August (1998), Istrorumunjsko-hrvatski rječnik (s gramatikom i tekstovima), Pula
  18. ^ Popovici, Iosif (1909), Dialectele romîne din Istria II: texte și glosar, Halle a. S., p. 148
  19. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  20. ^ a b c d e f Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net)
  21. ^ a b c d Papahagi, Pericle (1905), Basme aromâne și glosar, București: Academia Română, p. 707