căpătâi

Forms

căpătâi n (plural căpătâie)^[1] Scriban gives căpătîi as the western and căpătăi as the eastern pronunciation.^[2] Sălaj has căpătii and căpătui.^[3] In the Moldovan Cyrillic alphabet it was written кэпэтый.^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin capitāneum, the neuter of capitāneus (“of the head, chief”), from caput (“head”).^[3][4][5][1] It survives south of the Danube as Aromanian cãpitãnj and Megleno-Romanian căpiton, both meaning “pillow”.^[3][1][6] Ciorănescu compares Italian capitagna, and the REW gives the word under the same etymon.^[4][3] For the sense “pillow”, Candrea and Densusianu compare Latin capitāle, glossed “cervical” in the Latin glossaries.^[7] The neologism căpitan goes back to the same Latin adjective.^[1][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin and DELR date the first record to 1561, in Coresi's Tetraevanghel at Mark 4:38.^[8][3] MDA2's first record is the New Testament of 1648.^[9] A lexicon of 1664 or later glosses căpătîiul with Old Church Slavonic възглавие (vŭzglavije, “pillow”).^[10]

Semantic evolution

The word first named the head end of a bed or of anything one lies on, then the pillow or other object put under the head.^[5][8] An old text tells how Jacob took a stone and put it „la căpătăiul lui” “at his head”.^[8][11] A sta la căpătâiul cuiva is “to watch at someone's sickbed”.^[5] Support pieces of the household and the mill took the name too: a beam on which a barrel or a mill shaft rests.^[5][8][3] In Banat it was a load of wood carried on the head.^[3][7]

From the pillow the word came to mean a home of one's own: a face cuiva de căpătâi “to settle someone, to marry them off”, and a man fără căpătâi has no fixed home, no family and no livelihood.^[8][5] The verb căpătui “to settle, to provide for”, dated 1829, grew out of these phrases.^[3] Carte de căpătâi is a fundamental book in a field, or a favourite one.^[5][9] The sense “end” survives in a scoate la căpătâi “to bring to a successful end”.^[5]

Timeline

• 1561 – căpătâi in Coresi's Tetraevanghel (Mark 4:38), the first record.^[8][3]
• 1648 – in the New Testament of that year.^[9]
• 1664 or later – căpătîiul glossed “pillow” in a Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[10]
• 1688 – căpătâiul in the Bucharest Bible (Genesis 28:18).^[11]
• 1801 – Klein glosses it as the head end of a bed.^[12]
• 1829 – the verb căpătui.^[3]
• 1852 – căpătâier “a man settled with house and family”.^[3]
• 1885 – căpătuială.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. The head of a bed or of anything one lies on; by extension a pillow or whatever is put under the head.^[5][9][1]
2. Fără căpătâi: without a steady occupation or a settled life;^[5][9] a nu avea căpătâi “to have no purpose in life”.^[5][9]
3. Carte de căpătâi: a fundamental book in a discipline, or a favourite book.^[5][9]
4. Each of the two small cushions on which bride and groom kneel in church.^[9]
5. A name of various household and mill objects that serve as a support.^[5][8]
6. An end, capăt: a scoate la căpătâi “to finish successfully”, a da de căpătâi “to get to the bottom of something”.^[5]

Word family

• căpătui
• căpătuială
• căpătâier

Related words

• cap
• capăt
• căpitan
• Aromanian cãpitãnj

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 247
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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. căpătâi
4. ^ 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), p. s.v. căpătâi
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 158
6. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română
7. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București, p. 41
8. ^ a b c d e f g Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. căpătâi
9. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 325
10. ^ a b Ungureanu, Mădălina; Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Moruz, Alexandru (eds.), eRomLex: The First Romanian Bilingual Dictionaries (17th century), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. s.v. căpătîiul
11. ^ a b Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Genesis 28:18
12. ^ Gáldi, László (ed.) (1944), Samuel Klein: Dictionarium valachico-latinum. Primul dicționar al limbii române, Budapest: Királyi Magyar Pázmány Péter Tudományegyetemi Román Intézet (Klein's dictionary of 1801, with Gáldi's etymological study), p. 325