cânta

Forms

cânta (third-person singular present cântă, past participle cântat) first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin cantō (“to sing”), the frequentative of canō (“to sing”), and is found throughout the Romance languages.^{[2][3][4][5][1]}

It survives in all four branches: Aromanian cântu, Megleno-Romanian cǫnt and Istro-Romanian cănt.^[3][2][6] The Romance cognates include Italian cantare, Sardinian cantare, French chanter, Occitan cantar, Catalan cantar, Spanish cantar, Portuguese cantar and Dalmatian kantuor.^[3][5][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR dates the verb to about 1500.^[2] The Hurmuzaki psalter, of the early 16th century, has the imperative cîntați “sing!” in Psalm 9:11.^[7] MDA2 gives the Codicele Voronețean as its first record, and Tiktin the Psaltirea Scheiană.^[4][8]

Semantic evolution

The verb has covered singing with the voice and playing an instrument (a cânta la vioară, din fluier) since the old texts, and is used of birds and insects; for the cock it means “to crow”, and folk belief reads luck in where the cuckoo is heard “singing”.^[8][9] From “to sing of” came “to praise in verse” and “to tell in verse”, and colloquially “to keep saying, to prattle on”.^[9][8]

In northern Transylvania, Maramureș and Bukovina the reflexive a se cânta means “to lament, to keen for the dead”, a sense recorded in the old literary language.^[10][11][4] In Maramureș cânta is used only of singing in church, while other singing is hori.^[11] Aromanian cântu also means “to read” and “to bewitch”.^[12] Thieves' slang uses cânta for “to confess” and “to inform on”, and the press of the 1990s also for “to steal”.^[13][14]

Timeline

• c. 1500 – cânta, with descânta “to charm away (an illness)” and descântător “charmer”.^[2]
• early 16th century – cîntați “sing!” in the Hurmuzaki psalter.^[7]
• 1561 – cântători in the phrase “at cockcrow”.^[2]
• c. 1563–1583 – the Codicele Voronețean.^[4]
• 1581 – descântec “spell, charm”.^[2]
• 1643 – cântat “singing”.^[2]
• 1649 – cântăreț “singer; church cantor”.^[2]
• 1688 – cântăreață “female singer”.^[2]
• 1835 – cânt “song; canto”, on the model of French chant.^[2][3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To sing; to play a tune or an instrument: Cântă la pian în fiecare seară. “She plays the piano every evening.”^[9][1]
2. (of birds and insects) To sing, to chirp;^[10][11] (of a cock) to crow.^[9][8]
3. To praise in verse; to tell of something in verse, to celebrate.^[9]
4. (colloquial) To keep repeating idle talk, to prattle.^[9]
5. (regional, reflexive) To lament, to keen for a dead person.^[4][10][11]
6. (slang) To confess; to inform on someone.^[13]

Word family

• cânt
• cântare
• cântat
• cântăreț
• cântăreață
• cântător
• cântătură

Related words

• cântec
• descânta
• încânta
• Aromanian cântu

Usage notes

Joacă cum îi cântă (altul) “he dances to someone else's tune”: he does exactly as he is told.^[9]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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
3. ^ a b c d 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. cînta
4. ^ a b c d e Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 341
5. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 1611
6. ^ a b Buchi, Éva; Schweickard, Wolfgang, eds. (2008–), Dictionnaire Étymologique Roman (DÉRom), Nancy: ATILF, http://www.atilf.fr/DERom
7. ^ a b Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Ungureanu, Mădălina; Moruz, Alexandru et al., roPsalt: Re-evaluating the Sixteenth Century Romanian Psalters (aligned corpus), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. Ps 9:11
8. ^ 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. cânta
9. ^ a b c d e f g DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 163
10. ^ a b c Costinescu, Mariana; Georgescu, Magdalena; Zgraon, Florentina (1987), Dicționarul limbii române literare vechi (1640–1780): termeni regionali, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică, p. 109
11. ^ a b c d Ștef, Dorin (2011), Dicționar de regionalisme și arhaisme din Maramureș, Baia Mare: Ethnologica, p. s.v. cânta
12. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 288
13. ^ a b Volceanov, George (2007), Dicționar de argou al limbii române, București: Niculescu, p. s.v. cânta
14. ^ Dimitrescu, Florica (1997), Dicționar de cuvinte recente, 2nd ed., București: Logos (with the 3rd ed., 2013, in CLRE), p. s.v. cânta