căuta

Forms

Present caut, third person caută; past participle căutat; first conjugation.^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin, but its exact source is disputed;^[2][3] MDA2, DEX and Papahagi trace it to a form built on cautus.^[2][3] According to them it is inherited from Vulgar Latin *cautō (“to take care”), formed on that participle of caveō (“to beware, take care”).^[2][4][5] Densusianu, Pușcariu, the DA and the REW prefer *cavitō, built on a popular participle cavitum.^[2][6] Tiktin and Hasdeu derived it from captō (“to try to catch, strive for”), which Wiktionary also gives.^[2][1]

The word survives in all four branches of Romanian: Aromanian caftu, Megleno-Romanian caft and Istro-Romanian cǫwtu.^[3][7][8] Ciorănescu finds the second etymon possible but unconvincing, since its sound development is uncertain;^[3] he derives both Romanian forms from the verb meaning “to try to catch”: a popular *cattō gave the variant căta, as it gave Spanish catar and Portuguese catar, and a pronunciation *cabtō gave the standard form, as presbyter gave preot.^[3] The Aromanian and Istro-Romanian forms match their words for “priest”, preftu and prewt.^[3] DELR lists all these views and, for the variant, both an origin in that popular Latin form and a reduction of the standard form.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR dates the first record to about 1500.^[2] The Voroneț psalter of about 1551–1558 has the infinitive căuta (Psalm 111:7), and Coresi's psalter of 1570 the forms caut and căutai.^[9][10] MDA2's first record is Coresi's prayer book of 1564, with the sense “to take an interest in”.^[4]

Semantic evolution

In the old language the verb meant “to look at, watch”, “to take care of, see to”, “to pay attention”, “to seem” and, used impersonally, “to be fitting, be necessary”;^[2] “to try to find” and “to examine” are the senses that remain.^[2] Ciorănescu notes that “look” was already a Latin sense: Isidore of Seville glosses cattat as videt “he sees”; from “look” the verb moved on to “seek”, as in Spanish.^[3] Tiktin quotes the Bible of 1688: „Căutați și veți afla” “seek and ye shall find” (Matthew 7:7).^[11] Reflexively, of goods, it means “to be in demand”, and of a sick person “to have oneself treated”.^[5][11]

The derivatives keep the older senses: căutătură “look, glance” is recorded from 1563, căutător “seeker; fortune-teller; estate steward” from 1636, căutătoare “mirror” in Transylvania from 1814, and cătare “gun sight” from 1870.^[2] The adjective căutat “affected, studied” (of style or manner), recorded from 1876, is a semantic calque of French recherché.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1500 – the first record, according to DELR.^[2]
• c. 1551–1558 – căuta in the Voroneț psalter.^[9]
• 1563 – căutătură “look, glance”.^[2]
• 1564 – Coresi's prayer book, MDA2's first record.^[4]
• 1570 – caut and căutai in Coresi's psalter.^[10]
• 1636 – căutător “seeker”.^[2]
• 1688 – „Căutați și veți afla” in the Bucharest Bible.^[11]
• 1814 – căutătoare “mirror”.^[2]
• 1870 – cătare “gun sight”.^[2]
• 1876 – căutat “affected”, after French recherché.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To search for, look for someone or something; to rummage.^[5][1]
2. To try to obtain, to seek: a căuta ceartă “to look for a quarrel”; reflexive, of goods: to be in demand.^[5][11]
3. To take care of, look after; reflexive: to have oneself treated by a doctor.^[5][3]
4. To strive, try hard (followed by să).^[5][3]
5. (informal, chiefly negative) To have business somewhere: n-ai ce căuta (undeva) “you have no business (there)”.^[5][1]
6. (obsolete, impersonal) To be necessary, be fitting.^[5][2]
7. (dated) To look at, gaze.^[5][2]

Word family

• cătare
• căutat
• căutătură
• căutător
• căutare

Related words

• Aromanian caftu

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s 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. căuta
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. căuta
4. ^ a b c Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 337
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 161
6. ^ 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. căuta
7. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne
8. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română
9. ^ 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 111:7
10. ^ 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 118:6
11. ^ 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. căuta