canură

Forms

canură f (plural canuri)^[1] Regional variants are canoră and cănură;^[2][3] DELR takes cănură from the plural cănuri.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin cannula (“small reed”), a diminutive of canna (“reed”), itself from Ancient Greek κάννα (kánna, “reed”).^{[2][4][5][1][6]} Papahagi based this on the Aromanian sense “reed spool wound with weft thread”, which would be the original one.^[2][3] The REW compares Venetian kanola, also Bergamasque.^[7][7]

The word survives south of the Danube as Aromanian canură (“thick woollen thread”).^[4][8][9] Earlier, Tiktin and Pușcariu derived it, with dissimilation, from Vulgar Latin *carula, formed on careō (“to card wool”);^[4][2][10] Ciorănescu finds this unlikely.^[4][2][10] From Romanian or Aromanian the word passed into Bulgarian ка̀нура (kànura, “hank of weft thread”), Serbo-Croatian and Modern Greek.^[4][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is a gloss in Dosoftei's Psalter of 1673.^[2][10] MDA2 dates it to Creangă's Amintiri (1892): „Și canură toarsă nu era pentru bătătură” “and there was no spun canură for the weft”.^[12][10]

Semantic evolution

In the processing of wool the long fibres combed out are called păr, and the shorter ones left behind are the canură; a further carding yields miezură.^[3] By extension the word names the thicker thread spun from them, used for coarse cloth, winter stockings, cloaks and above all for the weft.^[3][5] Tiktin glosses it as second-quality wool, spun into weft while the first quality went into the warp.^[10] Sadoveanu speaks poetically of clouds of canură.^[13]

Timeline

• 1673 – a gloss in Dosoftei's Psalter, the first record.^[2][10]
• 1892 – canură in Creangă's Amintiri din copilărie.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. combings: the short fibres of wool left in the teeth of the comb after carding, spun into thread for coarse fabrics, mainly as weft: Din canură se țesea pânza pentru saci. “Sacking was woven from the combings.”^[5][1]
2. The thick thread spun from such fibres.^[3]

Related words

• caier
• Aromanian canură
• Latin canna

Usage notes

The word is mostly used in the singular, as a mass noun; the plural canuri refers to the single threads.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. canură
3. ^ a b c d e f g 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. canură
4. ^ 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. canură
5. ^ a b c DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 140
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 1607
8. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 244
9. ^ Pascu, Giorge (1925), Dictionnaire étymologique macédoroumain, 2 vols. (I: Les éléments latins et romans; II: Les éléments grecs, turcs, slaves, albanais, germaniques, magyars, néologismes, créations immédiates, obscurs), Iași: Cultura Națională, p. 1, 56
10. ^ 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. canură
11. ^ Georgiev, Vladimir I. et al. (eds.) (1971–), Bălgarski etimologičen rečnik, Sofija: Izdatelstvo na Bălgarskata akademija na naukite, p. 2, 210
12. ^ a b Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 288
13. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1, 326