cru

Forms

cru (feminine crua, masculine plural crus, feminine plural cruas)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese wrote cruu and cru, feminine crua; the 14th-century chronicles also have the plural cruyos.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin crūdus (“bloody; raw; rough, cruel”), written Old Galician-Portuguese cruu in the oldest texts.^[2][3][1] The same Latin adjective is Galician cru, Spanish crudo, Catalan cru, French cru, Italian crudo and Romanian crud.^[1][5]

The Latin adjective is connected with cruor (“blood”), and the adjective crūdēlis (“cruel”) is derived from it.^[6][7] De Vaan tentatively reconstructs Proto-Indo-European *kreuh₂-odʰ-o- (“raw”) and compares Middle Irish cruaid (“hardy, harsh, stern”), with a question mark.^[7] Wiktionary calls the derivation disputed: other scholars start from the root *krewh₂- (“raw meat, fresh blood”) with a dissimilation that de Vaan rejects.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Cantigas de Santa Maria the word means “cruel, harsh”: morte crua e maa “a cruel and evil death”, and one who would refuse to eat or drink terria por crua cousa “would think it a cruel thing”.^[4] The same text also has the sense “hard”: mui cruu de creer “very hard to believe”.^[4] The sense “raw, untreated” appears in the 14th century, in avarcas de coyro cruu “sandals of raw leather”, and Houaiss dates “not cooked” to the same century.^[4][2]

Semantic evolution

The medieval word was first a moral adjective (“cruel, fierce”, “grievous, hard to bear”), as in the cantigas d'escarnho, where a company of people is assaz brava e crua “quite wild and cruel”.^[4] The material senses, “untanned” of leather and “not cooked” of food, are recorded from the 14th century on.^[2][3] Bluteau gives “not cooked”, “undyed” of silk, “badly digested” of the humours, and a painter's sense, of colours set side by side without a transition.^[8] Morais adds unbleached linen and undyed wool.^[9]

The modern senses extend the idea of something left in its natural state: a harsh, unsoftened light or colour, a blunt truth, a crude style, and a person still inexperienced.^[2][10] In Rio Grande do Sul the word is also used of a boil that has not yet come to a head.^[11] Guinea-Bissau Creole has kru.^[1]

Timeline

• 13th century – cruu and crua “cruel” in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[4][2]
• 14th century – coyro cruu “untanned leather” in a chronicle; first record of the sense “not cooked”.^[4][2]
• 1480–1510 – cruu in the Vida de Santo Agostinho (dated by its witness).^[12]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau lists the word as crù, with the painter's sense.^[8]
• 1789 – Morais records coiro cru and unbleached linen.^[9]
• 1844 – first record of encruar “to make raw”, according to Cunha.^[3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. raw, not cooked (cozido): Ela prefere a cenoura crua.^[2][13][1]
2. Not cooked enough, underdone.^[2][14]
3. In its natural state, not treated or processed: untanned leather, unbleached cotton, undyed wool.^[2][15][9]
4. Harsh, not softened: of light or colour, glaring; in painting, of tones set side by side without a transition.^[2][16]
5. Plain, undisguised, blunt; in the set phrase a verdade nua e crua “the naked truth”.^[2][13][15]
6. Coarse, shocking, too free in expression.^[2][10]
7. (figurative) Still undeveloped, crude; of a person, inexperienced, naive.^[2][17]
8. Cruel, merciless; bloody (of a battle).^[2][16]
9. Painful, hard to bear.^[2][10]

Word family

• encruar
• encruecer

Related words

• cruel
• crueldade
• Latin crūdus
• Galician cru
• Spanish crudo

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. cru
3. ^ a b c d Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. cru
4. ^ a b c d e f g Instituto da Lingua Galega, Dicionario de dicionarios do galego medieval (DDGM), ed. Ernesto González Seoane, Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/ddgm, p. s.v. cruu
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 2342
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. crūdus
7. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ a b Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. crù
9. ^ a b c Silva, António de Morais (1789), Diccionario da lingua portugueza composto pelo padre D. Rafael Bluteau, reformado, e accrescentado, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 1, 350
10. ^ a b c Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, revised online edition (2023–) of the Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa Contemporânea (2001), https://dicionario.acad-ciencias.pt, p. s.v. cru
11. ^ Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. s.v. cru
12. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. cruu
13. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. cru
14. ^ Aulete, Francisco Júlio Caldas, Dicionário contemporâneo da língua portuguesa (1st ed. 1881), online as Aulete Digital, Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, https://aulete.com.br, p. s.v. cru
15. ^ a b Michaelis: Moderno Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, São Paulo: Melhoramentos (online as Michaelis Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa, https://michaelis.uol.com.br), p. s.v. cru
16. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. cru
17. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 2602