cadavru

Forms

cadavru n (plural cadavre)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French cadavre (“corpse”).^[2][3][1] DEX 2009 and MDA2 name French alone,^[2][3] DELR the learned Latin cadaver (“dead body, corpse”) beside French,^[4] and Wiktionary adds German Kadaver.^[1] The DA and Scriban take it from French, which had it from Latin.^[5][6]

French borrowed the Latin noun in the 16th century, spelled ⟨cadaver⟩ before 1550.^[7] The Latin word was linked already in antiquity to cadō (“to fall”), as “the fallen one”; its ending is obscure.^[8][9][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR dates the first record to 1682–1686, in the form cadaver, with the sense “dead body”.^[4] Tiktin's first record of the form cadavru is from 1794.^[10]

Semantic evolution

The Lexicon de la Buda of 1825 explains cadavru by trupu mortu and mortăciune “dead body, carrion” and compares the Italian, French and Spanish words.^[11] Costinescu (1870) notes that it was said mostly of a human body.^[12] The DA distinguishes leș for a human corpse from hoit and stârv for an animal's, and records the figurative cadavru ambulant “walking corpse”, a thin, sallow person with little life in him.^[5] The adjective cadaveric “corpse-like” followed in 1840, from French cadavérique.^[4]

Timeline

• 1682–1686 – cadaver “dead body”, the first record.^[4]
• 1794 – the first record of the form cadavru.^[10]
• 1825 – cadavru in the Lexicon de la Buda, with Latin cadaver.^[11]
• 1840 – the derivative cadaveric.^[4]
• 1862 – Pontbriant gives the plural cadavre.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. The dead body of a person or an animal; a corpse, a carcass.^[2][3][1]
2. (figurative) cadavru viu, (colloquial) cadavru ambulant: a very thin, pale person.^[2][3]

Word family

• cadaveric

Related words

• leș
• hoit
• stârv

Usage notes

The phrase a călca (or a trece) peste cadavre “to walk over corpses” means to stop at nothing to reach one's goal.^[2][3] The plural is cadavre.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 131
3. ^ a b c d e Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 273
4. ^ a b c d e 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. cadavru
5. ^ a b 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. cadavru
6. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 214
7. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 462
10. ^ a b Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. cadavru
11. ^ 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. 81
12. ^ Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 1, 136
13. ^ Pontbriant, Raoul de (1862), Dictiunaru romano-francesu, Bucuresci: A. Ulrich / Göttingen: Dieterich, p. 96