ȘURUB · ȘURUP · SCHRAUBE

Why the east says șurub and the west says șurup?

One German word with two doors — perhaps: in the east it would enter via Polish and Ukrainian and keep its b, șurub; in the west it enters via Hungarian — sróf, attested 1559 — and turns to p, șurup, with modern phonology. DEX says direct borrowing; MDA2 lists three roads. And the earliest attestation is disputed: Dosoftei (ed. 1683) or a marginal addition in ms. 45.

Drive the thread

c. 1680?: ms. 45 or Dosoftei: disputed date
2 doors?: east with b, west with p — a hypothesis
0×: the Turkish route, unsupported by the verified sources

Three pictures, one screw:

The tip, the press, Junimea: three ways of seeing one screw.Photo: Dario Crespi (CC BY-SA 4.0), Wein-Natur-Liebhaber (CC BY-SA 3.0), Junimea 1883 (public domain), Wikimedia Commons

Thread
Years
Toolbox
Witnesses
The tally
Four dates
Dispute
Game
Sources

The page machine

The thread, turn by turn

Seven turns, six languages, four grades of tightness. Press each turn: the label shows the language, and the seals show how tight the link is: attested, etymology, phonological, hypothesis. The sow carries a question mark.

șurub today's Romanian RO ETYMOLOGY

DEX '09: “– Din germ. dial. Schrube” — a threaded rod, with the șurup variant. No intermediary is specified: a dictionary etymology, not a proven chain. (DEX)

Schraube German DE ATTESTED

Pfeifer: “spätmhd. schrūbe (1361)”; Kluge: Swabian schrauf — the key to șraf. Attested; what lies deeper — the sow — is hypothesis. (Pfeifer, Kluge)

śruba Polish, 1562 PL ATTESTED

WDLP: “ab 1562” at Rej — “szroba, szruba”. Etymon: “mhd. Schrûbe”. Attested; UESz lists it as a correspondent of Hung. sróf. (WDLP, UESz)

шруб Ukrainian UK ETYMOLOGY

MDA2 lists it among the etymons: “ucr шруб”. The Ukrainian dictionary: unchecked; date: unknown. It stands as a dictionary etymology. (MDA2)

sróf Hungarian, 1559 HU ATTESTED

UESz: attested 1559 (“shcraufollja”), a German loan, Bavarian-Austrian forms šråf, šraof; Rom. șrof — from Hungarian too. The western door, with papers. (UESz)

șurup the west RO PHONOLOGICAL

Both 2016: Hung. sróf /ʃro:f/ yields Rom. șirof, șorof, șurup through anaptyxis; Scriban (1939): “șurúb (est) și șurúp (vest)”. The split, phonologically supported. (Both, Scriban)

scrōfa the sow? LA HYPOTHESIS DISPUTED

Pfeifer: the origin of Schraube is “nicht eindeutig gesichert”; Lat. scrōfa, conceivable — with a sexual semantic bridge, not a piglet's tail. Vasmer instead: the tail (“zakručena, kak svinoj xvost”). Two hypotheses, one sow. (Pfeifer, Vasmer)

How to read the seals: attested means found in a dated text; etymology, a route a dictionary proposes; phonological, a link modern analysis supports; hypothesis, an unresolved reconstruction. The western door is tight (attested plus phonological); the eastern door is hypothesis — DEX even proposes direct borrowing.

At home

From ms. 45 to Damé: c. 1680?–1898

Three centuries of paper, with a dispute at the start: MDA2 gives Dosoftei, Arvinte 1991 pulls a marginal addition out of ms. 45 — but the manuscript copy is dated around 1680 too. From Cihac on, everything is scan and page.

The 1680s: Dosoftei and ms. 45 — a dispute

MDA2: “At: DOSOFTEI, V. S. octombrie 73v/21” — the Lives of the Saints (Iași 1683 ed., per Tiktin); passage: unseen. Arvinte 1991: in ms. 45, a marginal addition in the same hand — “Suruburile” (Ex. 25:31,34), “surub” (25:33) — which “change the first-attestation date in Tiktin²: instead of 1683, Dosoftei — 1665–1680”. But Dumitru's copy is dated c. 1683–1686 (Cândea) or c. 1679 (Andriescu), and the addition is in the same hand: 1665 does not hold. MDA2 (2010) still gives Dosoftei. (MDA2, Arvinte, Munteanu)

1879: Cihac, page 397

The cloud of cognates — Russian, Polish, Czech, Hungarian — filed under “Slavs” yet derived “du mhall. schrûbe”. DER cites it as “II, 394”: the entry sits at 397. The Hungarian in the cloud (sróf) is now attested at 1559 (UESz). (Cihac)

1881–1892: Creangă, the mother and the șuruburi

Serialization in Convorbiri (1881–82), then the book: p. 41 “să ne facă musai cite-un șurub, două prin cap”, p. 98 “s-o întoarcă la șurub”. Both pages verified in the scan. (Creangă)

1895–1898: Damé, in two books

Damé: “ŞURUB… [Mold.] V. şurup” — the Moldavian seal; plus “şurupul vioarei”. The same Damé, in Terminologie, p. 113: the first șurubelniță — scan unfound. (Damé, Dame)

What was not found

Pontbriant 1862: no scan. The Buda Lexicon: bot-walled, human-checkable in minutes. Tiktin², tariffs, catalogues: nothing — only the “Dos. VS.” abbreviation, with its «Iași 1683» dating from the abbreviation list, verified in Tiktin I. Alecsandri and Caragiale: works unidentified. (holes)

First page of the Amintiri din copilărie manuscript — First page of the Amintiri manuscript: the book with the mother's șuruburi. Photo: Ion Creangă, Wikimedia Commons, public domain

Creangă: Amintiri (Wikisource) →

Toolbox neighbours

The toolbox: who else fastens beside the screw

Four neighbours with dictionary seals: the Latin one, the Slavic one, the home-grown one, and the iron guests.

The nail, the Latin in the box

DEX: “– Lat. cuneus” — the sharp-tipped piece you hammer. The nail is the incumbent; the screw is the newcomer you twist. (DEX)

Piron, the great Slav

DEX: “– Din sl. pironŭ” — “p. gener. cui mare”, first seen at Coresi, per MDA2. Construction timber, not fine mechanics. (DEX)

Piuliță, the home-grown nut

DEX: “Piuă + suf. -uliță” — the mortar's diminutive, no borrowing. The screw's mate is Romanian born and bred. (DEX)

The iron guests: nit, diblu, șaibă

Nit from German Niet (1875, per MDA); diblu from German Dübel; șaibă from German Scheibe; holțșurub straight from holzschraube — the last one is only in dexonline, not in DEX. French vis does not show up as a rival in the lexicographic sources consulted. (DEX)

A replica of Archimedes' screw — Archimedes' screw, a replica: the propeller is a screw too, at MDA2. Photo: Eunostos, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

DWDS: Schraube (dictionary) →

Who saw the screw

Six witnesses

Four Romanian dictionaries, one Hungarian, and a phonology study: each with its bit of the thread.

DEX '09: direct

“…[Var.: șurup s. n.] – Din germ. dial. Schrube.”

The explanatory dictionary, s.v. șurub

No intermediary specified: German dialect, direct. The most cited seal.

MDA2: three roads

“[At: DOSOFTEI, V. S. octombrie 73v/21 / E: ger dal Schrūbe, ucr шруб, mg sróf…]”

MDA2 (2010), s.v. șurub

Three etymons and dozens of variants — but ms. 45 is missing: earliest attestation still Dosoftei.

Scriban: east and west

“șurúb (est) și șurúp (vest)… (rut. šruba, rus. ščurúp, pol. szrub…)”

Scriban (1939), s.v. șurub

The -b/-p split, with the Slavic chain in brackets: a 1939 description.

Cihac: the 1879 cloud

“Șurúb, șurúp, s., vis…; russ. šturupŭ…; pol. szrub…; magy. csavar, sróf…; du mhall. schrûbe…”

Cihac, vol. II, p. 397 (scan)

Filed under “Slavs”, derived from Middle High German: the filing paradox.

UESz: sróf in 1559

“sróf, 1559 “shcraufollja”…; “Német jövevényszó”…; Rom. șrof…”

UESz (Hungarian etymological dictionary)

A German loan attested 1559; Rom. șrof from Hungarian too.

Both 2016: the anaptyxis

“sróf /ʃro:f/… șirof, șorof, șurup…”

Both 2016 (phonology study)

The only source taking sróf explicitly all the way to șurup.

DEX: șurub (dictionary) →

Where we stand

What we know and what we reconstruct

Four drawers for the whole page: what we know, what we reconstruct, why it holds, and what stays open.

What we know

The word's German house; Scriban's east-west split (1939); the dated attestations: schrūbe 1361, sróf 1559, śruba 1562; ms. 45 and Dosoftei, both around 1680.

What we reconstruct

The eastern door (Polish, Ukrainian, Romanian) is hypothesis: MDA2 lists the etymons, DEX proposes straight from German. The sow (Pfeifer vs Vasmer) is hypothesis too.

Why it holds

The western door: sróf attested 1559 plus 2016 phonology. The -b/-p split fits; șurubelniță is a Romanian formation attested in 1898, per MDA; holțșurub comes straight from holzschraube (dexonline).

What stays open

The Dosoftei passage — unseen. The exact date of the ms. 45 addition — disputed. The Buda Lexicon — unchecked. Tiktin², tariffs, catalogues — unfound. The dating of шруб — unknown.

Four stops

Four dates

The whole road on one thread: the root, the western door, the neighbour, the first Romanian layer.

Pfeifer
1361
“spätmhd. schrūbe (1361)” — the German form's date, per the dictionary. The deed behind it: unchecked.
stop at 1 of 4
UESz
1559
“shcraufollja” — Hung. sróf, a German loan. The western door gets a frame and hinges.
stop at 2 of 4
Rej
1562
“ab 1562” — Polish śruba at Rej, with the “mhd. Schrûbe” etymon. The first dated link of the eastern door.
stop at 3 of 4
ms. 45
c. 1680?
“Suruburile”, a marginal addition at Exodus 25. Arvinte 1991 says 1665–1680; the copy: c. 1679 (Andriescu) or c. 1683–1686 (Cândea). The first Romanian layer — perhaps.
stop at 4 of 4

Dosoftei, ed. 1683 · 1879 Cihac · 1881 Creangă · 1892 Creangă · 1895 Damé · 1898 Damé.

Two possible roads

schrūbe, śruba, șurub
the eastern door: hypothesis
schrauff, sróf, șurup
the western door: attested 1559

Where the thread creaks

Three question marks, no hasty verdicts

The doors hold — one tight, one as hypothesis. The dating is disputed. The page verdict: DISPUTED

Dosoftei or ms. 45?

MDA2: Dosoftei, V. S. (Iași 1683 ed., per Tiktin) — passage unseen. Arvinte 1991: the marginal addition in ms. 45 “changes the first-attestation date in Tiktin²: instead of 1683, Dosoftei — 1665–1680”. But the copy is c. 1679 (Andriescu) or c. 1683–1686 (Cândea), and the addition is “in the same hand”: ms. 45 presses Dosoftei, it does not dethrone him. MDA2 (2010) still gives Dosoftei.

Direct or via the Slavs?

DEX '09: straight from German dialect, no intermediary specified. Scriban and Cihac: via Ruthenian, Russian, Polish. MDA2: all three. The page verdict: the western door attested, the eastern door hypothesis — one German house.

Turkish and the Balkans?

Turkish: the route is unsupported by the verified sources — vida is the screw, şurup is the syrup, a false friend. The Balkans: Serbo-Croatian šaraf is a parallel loan from Hungarian (UESz), not the donor; in RBE, Bulgarian lacks the word. Verdict: bypassed for lack of evidence.

No disputed route gets an uncited truth on this page: datings stand with their holes beside them, doors with their grades of tightness, and unsupported routes with the gap named.

What is NOT disputed: the word's German house; Scriban's east-west split; the dated attestations 1361, 1559, 1562; Creangă's mother — on these the consulted sources agree.

WDLP: śruba (PDF) →

Test yourself

Which is older?

Six attestations from the page, shuffled. Set them from the oldest to the newest.

Move each card to its place, 1 to 6. Keys 1–6 move the chosen card; cards also drag by finger.

1879
Cihac: the cloud at page 397
Place
1559
UESz: sróf “shcraufollja”
Place
1892
Creangă: the mother's șuruburi
Place
1361
Pfeifer: schrūbe
Place
c. 1680?
ms. 45: “Suruburile”, a marginal addition
Place
1562
Rej: śruba
Place

Score: 0 of 6

The right order, oldest first:

1361 — Pfeifer: schrūbe
1559 — UESz: sróf “shcraufollja”
1562 — Rej: śruba
c. 1680? — ms. 45: “Suruburile”, a marginal addition
1879 — Cihac: the cloud at page 397
1892 — Creangă: the mother's șuruburi

The settled row: 1361 schrūbe, 1559 sróf, 1562 śruba, c. 1680 ms. 45, 1879 Cihac, 1892 Creangă in the book. Ms. 45 is dated with a question mark: Arvinte 1991 says 1665–1680; the copy, c. 1679 (Andriescu) or c. 1683–1686 (Cândea).

Sources

First the German thread, then the Romanian years and the toolbox; the neighbours last. Every risky claim points at its source.