cânt

Forms

cânt n (plural cânturi)^[1]

Etymology

It is a back-formation from Romanian cânta (“to sing”), as Tiktin, the DEX and DELR explain it;^[2][3][4][5] Ciorănescu and DELR add that the noun was shaped on Italian canto and French chant.^[2][3][4][5] The verb is from Latin cantō (“to sing”).^[5]

Pușcariu, Șăineanu and Gabinschi took the noun straight from Latin cantus (“song”), and Scriban from the Latin word with French influence.^[5][6][7][8] The Latin noun survives in the Italian and French nouns and in Spanish canto and Portuguese canto.^[9][1] Ciorănescu objects that the word seems never to have been a popular one, though Megleno-Romanian has cǫntu.^[5] Wiktionary gives the back-formation as the likelier view.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin records cânt in Coresi's Cazania of 1564, with the sense “song, singing”.^[2] DELR dates the noun, in the senses “song” and “canto of an epic or didactic poem”, from 1835, and MDA2 cites it first from the 1872 edition of Negruzzi's writings.^[4][10]

Semantic evolution

The word stayed a literary one, used mostly in poetry, where it means a song, the singing of a voice or the song of birds.^[6][11] From “song” it passed to “poem”, sometimes set to music.^[3][10] After French chant it also names a division of an epic poem, a canto: Scriban's example is the twelve cantos of Virgil's Aeneid.^[4][8]

Timeline

• 1564 – cânt in Coresi's Cazania, the first record.^[2]
• 1835 – cânt “song; canto of a poem”.^[4]
• 1872 – first record in MDA2, from the edition of Negruzzi's writings.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. song, singing; the chirping of birds.^[3][1]
2. A poem, sometimes set to music.^[3][10]
3. A division of an epic or of an epic poem, a canto.^[3][1]

Related words

• cântare
• cântec
• cânta
• canto

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. cânt
3. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 163
4. ^ a b c d e Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2011–), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române (DELR), vol. I: A–B (2011), vol. II: C (2015–2018), București: Editura Academiei Române; continued online at delr.lingv.ro, p. s.v. cânta
5. ^ 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. cânta
6. ^ a b Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 191
7. ^ Gabinschi, Marcu (2001), Dicționar de dublete etimologice ale limbii române, 2nd ed., Chișinău: Litera, p. 76
8. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 294
9. ^ Cihac, A. de (1870), Dictionnaire d'étymologie daco-romane I: Éléments latins comparés avec les autres langues romanes, Frankfurt am Main, p. 39
10. ^ a b c d Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 341
11. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1, 447