cătușă

Forms

cătușă f (plural cătușe)^[1] Besides cătușe the plural cătuși is used, as in a folk song: „Cu picioarele-n butuci / Și cu mâinile-n cătuși” “with feet in the stocks and hands in fetters”.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian *cată (“cat”) + -ușă, on a Romanian word for “cat” that has not survived, which came from Latin catta (“she-cat”).^[4][3][5][1] Ciorănescu derives the lost base from cattus (“tomcat”), following Pușcariu and Candrea, and DELR names both Latin forms.^[6][5] The sense “cat” survives in Aromanian cãtushi.^[6][7][1] DELR records an old variant ⟨cotușă⟩, perhaps influenced by cotoi.^[5]

The shift from “cat” to “fetters” is explained by the way the objects grip like a cat's claws.^[8][9] Wiktionary also mentions the influence of Serbo-Croatian лисице (lisice), which means both “foxes” and “handcuffs”.^[1] DA and DELR explain the old sense “anchor” by the Slavonic word for anchor.^[5] Tiktin compares the Slavic word for an executioner and Polish katusz “torture chamber”.^[2] Ciorănescu and Scriban hold instead that the Polish word comes from Romanian.^[6][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Codicele Voronețean (c. 1563–1583), in the account of the shipwreck in Acts 27, where the word means “anchor”.^[2][4][5] The sense “cat” is known only from an 18th-century Slavonic–Romanian glossary, from place names and folk charms.^[8][6]

Semantic evolution

The oldest senses are “cat”, “mousetrap” and “anchor”: things that grip or catch hold, as a cat does with its claws.^[8][5] Mardarie's lexicon of 1649 still glosses the Slavonic word for anchor with cătușe.^[11] A lexicon of about 1678 glosses a Slavonic word for chains with it, and the Lexicon de la Buda of 1825 gives handcuffs and a neck iron.^[12][13] The modern sense is the pair of metal rings joined by a chain that is put on the hands of an arrested person.^[3][4]

In Moldavia and Transylvania the word names a curved piece of wood on the front of a cart pole, under which the yoke is fixed, and a beam that ties two rafters near the ridge.^[2][6][4] The plant cătușă is the black horehound, and cătușnică, the catnip, is “the plant cats like”.^[6][10]

Timeline

• c. 1563–1583 – cătușă “anchor” in the Codicele Voronețean, the first record.^[4][5]
• c. 1570–1580 – cătuș “tomcat”.^[5]
• 1649 – cătușe “anchor” in Mardarie's lexicon.^[11]
• 1783 – cătușnică “catnip”.^[5]
• 1825 – cătușă “handcuff, neck iron” in the Lexicon de la Buda.^[13]
• 1852 – încătușa “to put in irons”.^[5]
• 1893 – descătușa “to unshackle”.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A handcuff: one of the two metal rings joined by a chain that are put on the hands, and sometimes the feet, of an arrested person.^[3][4][1]
2. The black horehound, a herb with violet flowers and a strong smell (Ballota nigra).^[3][1]
3. (regional) A curved piece of wood at the front of a cart pole into which the yoke is fitted.^[4][6]
4. (regional) A crossbeam joining two rafters.^[6][2]
5. (obsolete) An anchor.^[4][5]
6. (obsolete) A cat.^[4][5]

Word family

• încătușa
• descătușa
• cătușnică
• cătușar

Related words

• Aromanian cãtushi

Usage notes

The word is mostly used in the plural, cătușe.^[1][3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. cătușă
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. 161
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 335
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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. cătușă
6. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. cătușă
7. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 283
8. ^ a b c 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. cătușă
9. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 113
10. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 251
11. ^ 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. cătușe
12. ^ 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. cătușă
13. ^ a b Lesicon românescu-latinescu-ungurescu-nemțescu quare de mai mulți autori, în cursul a trideci și mai multor ani s-au lucrat (1825), Buda: Typographia Universității (the Lexicon of Buda, ed. Petru Maior et al.), p. 107