ciura

Forms

ciura (third-person singular present ciurează, past participle ciurat), 1st conjugation^[1]

Etymology

MDA2, Wiktionary and Ciorănescu take it as a Romanian verb, formed from Romanian ciur + -a on the noun for “sieve”.^[2][3][1] The DA and Candrea–Densusianu derive it instead from Vulgar Latin *cibrō, a dissimilated form of Latin crībrō (“to sift”), and DELR gives both views.^[4][5][6] The REW lists the Romance continuations of the Latin verb, in dialectal Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese and other languages, such as French cribler, Spanish cribar and Portuguese crivar.^[6][5] The Latin verb is formed on crībrum (“sieve”).^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the Anonymus Caransebesiensis, the Romanian–Latin glossary of about 1650, where csurădz renders Latin “cribro” “I sift”.^[4][2][6]

Semantic evolution

The sense “to sift”, which the DA equates with ciurui, is now archaic.^[4][8] In Transylvania and Maramureș the verb took the sense “to embroider with small holes”, after ciur “openwork embroidery”.^[4][9] The participle ciurat is a folk-song word for openwork-embroidered clothes, as in „Poalele tale ciurate” “your openwork skirts”.^[4] The Banat has ciurătură “openwork embroidery”.^[4][6]

Timeline

• c. 1650 – csurădz “I sift” in the Anonymus Caransebesiensis.^[4][2]
• 1885–1890 – ciurătură “openwork embroidery” in the Banat.^[6]
• 1901 – înciura, a variant of the verb.^[6]
• 1931 – the verbal noun ciurat.^[6]

Meanings

Verb

1. (archaic) to sift through a sieve; the same as ciurui.^[2][8][1]
2. (regional, Transylvania) to embroider with small holes, to do openwork.^[2][9][1]

Word family

• ciurătură
• înciura

Related words

• ciurar
• ciurui
• ciur
• Latin crībrō

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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, 424
3. ^ 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 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. ciura
5. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București, p. s.v. ciura
6. ^ a b c d e f g 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
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Bulgăr, Gheorghe; Constantinescu-Dobridor, Gheorghe (2002), Dicționar de arhaisme și regionalisme, 2 vols., București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. ciura
9. ^ a b Ștef, Dorin (2021), Dicționar de regionalisme și arhaisme din județul Maramureș, 3rd ed., Baia Mare, p. s.v. ciurá