căutare

Forms

căutare f (plural căutări)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian căuta + -re, the long infinitive of the verb used as a noun.^[1][2][3] DELR traces căuta itself to *cautō, from Latin caveō (“to take care, beware”), or to captō (“to try to catch”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1581.^[3] The 16th-century texts use it for “care, treatment”, the sense of the verb “to look after”.^[5][6] In the Slavonic–Romanian lexicon of Mardarie (1649) it glosses Slavonic words for “seeing” and “seeking”.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The noun followed the old senses of căuta: “looking, glance”, which Klein's dictionary of 1801 renders with Latin respectus beside quaesitus “search”; care, administration and inspection.^[8][9] The Lexicon of Buda (1825) also has “visit” and “investigation”.^[10] Bălcescu used it for a review of troops, a sense now obsolete.^[3][11]

From “being sought” came “demand” for a ware and “favour, esteem” for a person: a avea căutare.^[3][9] The negative necăutare “neglect” is recorded from 1776.^[4] The popular form cătare was used by Bolintineanu for a look.^[3]

Timeline

• 1581 – the first record.^[3]
• 1649 – in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[7]
• 1776 – necăutare “neglect”.^[4]
• 1801 – glossed Latin respectus and quaesitus in Klein's dictionary.^[8]
• 1825 – “search, visit, investigation” in the Lexicon of Buda.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. search: the act of looking for something or someone.^[9][1]
2. care; in particular medical treatment.^[9]
3. (obsolete) The administration of property.^[9]
4. (obsolete) inspection, examination.^[9]
5. Effort; striving.^[9]
6. A look, glance; căutătură.^[9]
7. demand, good price; esteem: a avea căutare “to be in demand; to be well regarded”.^[9]

Related words

• căutător

Usage notes

The popular variant is cătare;^[9][2] MDA2 also has cotare.^[9][2]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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, 338
3. ^ a b c d e f Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. căutare
4. ^ a b c 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
5. ^ Gaster, M. (1891), Chrestomatie română: texte tipărite și manuscrise (sec. XVI–XIX), dialectale și populare, cu o introducere, gramatică și un glosar româno-francez, vol. II, Leipzig: Brockhaus / București: Socec, p. s.v. căutare
6. ^ Mareș, Alexandru (coord.) (1994), Crestomația limbii române vechi, vol. I (1521–1639), București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. căutare
7. ^ 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. căutare
8. ^ 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. 328
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 162
10. ^ 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
11. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. căutare