ciur

Forms

ciur n (plural ciururi)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *cībrum (“sieve”), a dissimilated form of Latin crībrum (“sieve”).^{[2][3][4][5][6][1]} Candrea and Densusianu found this form in a Latin glossary and think the dissimilation began in the derivatives, where the second ⟨r⟩ was unstressed; the REW and Meyer-Lübke doubt the gloss.^[7][6][2] Ciorănescu mentions a second possible source, the archaic cilibrum recorded in Dioscorides, which Sardinian continues.^[3][1] The Latin noun is from Proto-Indo-European *krey- (“to sift, separate”), the root of cernō (“to sift”), with an instrument suffix.^[8][1]

The word survives in all four branches: Aromanian tsir, Megleno-Romanian ciur and Istro-Romanian čur.^[2][3][9] Other Romance languages show different dissimilations: French crible from Late Latin criblum, and Spanish cribo, Portuguese crivo and Italian crivo from cribum.^[3][10][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR and Tiktin date the first record to 1508, from the Slavonic–Romanian documents.^[2][11] MDA2 has it first in the Anonymus Caransebesiensis, about 1650.^[4] In the Bible of 1688 the genitive ciurului occurs in Ecclesiasticus 27:4, and Cantemir's Istoria ieroglifică (1705) has „și în ciur și în dârmoniu cernute” “sifted through both sieve and riddle”.^[12][11]

Semantic evolution

The ciur is the leather or wire sieve for cleaning grain of chaff and weed seed, with holes larger than the fine sită and smaller than the coarse dârmon.^[11][5] From its round wooden frame came the sense “embroidery hoop”, and in Transylvania and Maramureș the word also means openwork embroidery or lace.^[3][2][13] Anatomy took it for the second stomach of ruminants.^[2][14] Ciorănescu adds an organ's sound box and a hole in some children's games.^[3]

Many sayings use the sieve: a trece prin ciur și prin dârmon “to examine closely; to pick someone to pieces”, and in the participle “to have been through much”;^[14][4][11] a căra apă cu ciurul “to labour in vain”;^[14][4][11] a vedea ca prin ciur “to see dimly”;^[14][4][11] ochi de ciur “tiny eyes”.^[14][4][11] The word passed into Serbian and Slovak as čura.^[13]

Timeline

• 1508 – the first record, in the Slavonic–Romanian documents.^[2][11]
• c. 1650 – ciur in the Anonymus Caransebesiensis, with the verb ciura.^[4][2]
• 1688 – ciurului in the Bucharest Bible.^[12]
• 1691–1697 – ciurar “sieve maker” and ciurui “to sift”.^[2]
• 1705 – în ciur și în dârmoniu in Cantemir.^[11]
• 1840 – ciuruitor “sifting”.^[2]
• 1847 – the diminutive ciurel.^[2]
• 1905 – ciur-petec, a mocking name for someone in town clothes.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A sieve or riddle for granular or powdery materials, a dense wire mesh or perforated sheet of tin or leather on a frame; compare sită.^[14][4][1]
2. The amount a sieve holds.^[14][4]
3. A screen for sorting granular materials by size, made of metal bars, wire mesh or perforated sheet.^[14][15]
4. (dated) a round frame on which material is stretched for embroidery.^[14][15]
5. (regional, Transylvania) openwork embroidery; lace.^[2][13]
6. The second of the four compartments of a ruminant's stomach.^[14][2]

Word family

• ciurui
• ciuruială
• ciuruit
• ciuruitor
• ciuruitură
• ciura
• ciurar
• ciuraș
• ciurat
• ciurăriță
• ciurel
• ciurișor

Related words

• cerne
• sită
• Aromanian tsir
• Latin crībrum

Usage notes

Ciur is also an interjection imitating a thin trickle of water, recorded from 1871;^[2][4][11] DELR, MDA2 and Tiktin treat it as a separate, onomatopoeic word, the base of ciuroi “trickle” and of ciurui “to trickle”.^[2][4][11] The plural is ciururi, rarely ciure.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f 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 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. ciur
3. ^ a b c d e f 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. ciur
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 424
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. ciur
6. ^ a b Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 33
7. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București, p. s.v. ciur
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 1041
10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 2324
11. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. ciur
12. ^ a b Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Sir 27:4
13. ^ a b c Ștef, Dorin (2021), Dicționar de regionalisme și arhaisme din județul Maramureș, 3rd ed., Baia Mare, p. s.v. ciúr
14. ^ a b c d e f g h i j DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 191
15. ^ a b Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. ciur