căruță

Forms

căruță f (plural căruțe)^[1] The Coresi psalter (1570) has the plural: „ceștea în căruțe și ceia călari” “some in chariots and some on horses”.^[2][3] Klein's dictionary (1801) spells it Carútza.^[4]

Etymology

Most dictionaries derive it from car (“cart, wagon”): DLRM, NODEX and MDA2 form it from Romanian car + -uță, and DEX gives only the base noun.^[5][6][7][8] Graur (1963) points out that Romanian has no other feminine in ⟨-uță⟩ formed on a neuter noun.^[9] He explains the word as a singular remade from the plural of the diminutive căruț, which is often used in the plural; nearby words such as teleguță may have helped.^[9] Ciorănescu also gives this analogical singular, but says the word could as well be inherited from Latin carrūca (“travelling carriage”), whose Romanian plural would have been reshaped under the influence of the same diminutive.^[10] He finds Pascu's Latin *carrucia unnecessary.^[10] Scriban reconstructs *carrucea and CADE does the same, without support according to Graur.^[11][9] Tiktin refers it to carrus and compares Italian carrozza (“coach”).^[2]

The word survives south of the Danube: Aromanian cãrutsã and Megleno-Romanian căruță.^[10][12] Graur takes Bulgarian каруца (karuca), which has the same form and meaning, from Romanian, and rejects an Italian source for it.^[9][1] The Latin word for a travelling carriage, a derivative of the Latin word for a cart, of Gaulish origin, also gave French charrue (“plough”).^[13][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is Coresi's Praxiu (the Acts and Epistles) of 1563, at Acts 8.^[2] The Coresi psalter of 1570 has the plural căruțe for the chariots of Psalm 19:8.^[3] In these texts it renders the war chariot of the Bible; the Slavonic–Romanian lexicons of the 1660s gloss Slavonic колесница with it.^[14]

Semantic evolution

The modern word is a light cart, smaller than the ox wagon (car), drawn mostly by horses, and also the load it holds: o căruță de lemne “a cartload of wood”.^[8][2] In the old army it was a supply wagon, also used as a measure, and the carriage of a gun;^[7][2][15] Tiktin and CADE record the căruță de poștă, the light coach of the old post.^[7][2][15] In Bucovina it could mean a luxury carriage, and in astronomy the Little Bear.^[7]

Several idioms use it: a se lăsa de căruță “to give up something begun”, a rămâne de căruță “to fall behind; to miss a chance”, and nici în car, nici în căruță of someone whom nothing pleases.^[8][7][11]

Timeline

• 1563 – in Coresi's Praxiu, the first record.^[2]
• 1570 – the plural căruțe in Coresi's psalter.^[3]
• 1660 – glossing Slavonic колесница “chariot” in a Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[14]
• c. 1675 – căruțe in Miron Costin's chronicle.^[7]
• 1801 – Carútza in Klein's dictionary.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A cart, wagon: a vehicle shaped like an ox wagon but smaller and lighter, drawn by animals, mostly horses: Au dus fânul acasă cu căruța. “They took the hay home by cart.”^[8][7]
2. A cartload: as much hay, wood and the like as a cart can hold.^[8][7]
3. (obsolete) A supply wagon of an army; the carriage of a gun.^[7]

Related words

• car
• căruț
• căruțaș
• Aromanian cãrutsã
• Bulgarian каруца (karuca)

Usage notes

A cincea roată la căruță “the fifth wheel of the cart” is someone superfluous.^[16] Căruța-dracului is a folk name of the field eryngo (Eryngium campestre).^[7]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. căruță
3. ^ a b c 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 19:8
4. ^ a b 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. 327
5. ^ Academia Republicii Populare Romîne (1958), Dicționarul limbii romîne moderne, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1, 128
6. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. căruță
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 332
8. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 160
9. ^ a b c d Graur, Alexandru (1963), Etimologii romînești, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. s.v. căruță
10. ^ 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. car
11. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1, 250
12. ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 268
13. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. charrue
14. ^ 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. căruță
15. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. căruță
16. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1, 371