cărunt

Forms

cărunt m or n (feminine singular căruntă, masculine plural cărunți, feminine/neuter plural cărunte)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin cānūtus (“grey”), a popular Latin form beside cānus (“white, grey”).^[2][3][1][4] Wiktionary analyses it as the adjective with the suffix -ūtus, and notes that it is attested in the Philoxenus glossary of the 6th century.^[1] De Vaan records an uncertain occurrence already in Plautus.^[5]

⟨Cănut⟩ became ⟨cănunt⟩ as the nasal spread to the next syllable, then ⟨cărunt⟩ by dissimilation.^[2][6] A regional ⟨cănunt⟩ is still recorded in Sălaj.^[2][7] Scriban compares mărunt from minūtus.^[8]

The word survives in Aromanian cãnut.^[2][3][9] Its Romance cognates include Italian canuto, French chenu, Occitan canut, Catalan canut and Old Spanish canudo.^[3][10] Ciorănescu notes that Modern Greek κανούτον (kanoúton) was borrowed from Romanian.^[3] The Latin adjective goes back to Proto-Indo-European *ḱh₁s-no- (“grey”), the root of the word for “hare” in other languages.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is a personal name, Căruntul, in a Wallachian document of about 1500.^[11][12] A place name Cărunți follows in 1585.^[2][11] As an adjective it is in Varlaam's Cazania of 1643: „Amândoi eră bătrâni și cărunți” “both were old and grey-haired”.^[7][4]

Semantic evolution

The adjective describes hair that has begun to turn white, and then a person with such hair.^[13][7] From there it came to mean old: Nicolae Costin writes of a “grey” knowledge, and Sbiera of a manuscript of grey age.^[7][4] Poets use it of mountains under snow and of foaming water: Alecsandri's „munților cărunților” and Eminescu's „stâncelor cărunte”.^[7][11] Ciorănescu notes that the word is known throughout the country.^[3]

As a noun it is a name for a grey dog or goat, and MDA2 records a breed of dog with greyish hair.^[7][4] The family grew early: căruntețe “grey hair, old age” is recorded from 1649 and încărunți “to go grey” from 1683.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1500 – Căruntul as a personal name in Wallachia, the first record.^[11][12]
• 1585 – the place name Cărunți.^[2][11]
• 1643 – cărunți in Varlaam's Cazania.^[4][7]
• 1649 – căruntețe “grey hair, old age”.^[2]
• c. 1660–1670 – a Slavonic–Romanian lexicon glosses Slavonic сѣдъ “grey” with it.^[14]
• 1683 – the verb încărunți “to go grey”.^[2]
• 1785 – the verb cărunți “to go grey”.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (of hair, a beard, a moustache) Turning white, grizzled.^[13][1]
2. (of people) grey-haired, having white hairs.^[13][1]
3. (old, poetic) Old, ancient.^[4][7]
4. (figurative) (of mountains and rocks) Grey, capped with snow.^[15][16]

Noun

1. A breed of dog with greyish hair; a name for a grey dog.^[4][7]

Word family

• căruncior
• căruntate
• căruntețe
• cărunțeală
• cărunțel
• cărunți
• cărunțiu
• încărunți

Related words

• Aromanian cãnut
• Latin cānus

Usage notes

Besides cănunt in Sălaj, DELR records a variant cărăunt in Dobrogea.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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. cărunt
3. ^ 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. cărunt
4. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 331
5. ^ 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
6. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București, p. 274
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i Academia Română (1913–1949), Dicționarul limbii române (DA), ed. Sextil Pușcariu, tom I (A–B, C, D–De) and tom II (F–I, J–Lojniță), București: Socec / Universul / Monitorul Oficial și Imprimeriile Statului; page scans at cflr-scans.solirom.ro, p. s.v. cărunt
8. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 250
9. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 267
10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 1622
11. ^ a b c d e Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. cărunt
12. ^ a b Constantinescu, N. A. (1963), Dicționar onomastic romînesc, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. s.v. cărunt
13. ^ a b c DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 160
14. ^ 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. cărunt
15. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1, 370
16. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. cărunt