ciutură

Forms

ciutură f (plural ciuturi)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *cytola, a form of Latin cotyla (“small cup”) with its first two vowels swapped, from Ancient Greek κοτύλη (kotúlē, “bowl, small cup”).^{[2][3][4][5][6][1]} DELR cites Pușcariu, the REW, the DA and Mihăescu for this view;^[2] Pușcariu thought the metathesis may be due to κύτος (kútos, “hollow, vessel”).^[2] Italian ciotola (“bowl”) comes from the same Latin word.^[7][8]

Other derivations have been proposed: Vulgar Latin *cytula from the same Greek word (Pascu and Philippide), χύτρα (khútra, “pot”) (the CADE), situla (“bucket”) (Scriban), the Turkish çotra (Cihac), Hungarian csutora (Weigand and Șăineanu), or a Romanian derivative of ciot like butură (Șăineanu 1929).^[2][9][10] Ciorănescu finds the derivations from other Greek words less likely.^[3]

The word survives south of the Danube: Aromanian ciuturã or ciutrã, and Megleno-Romanian ciutură, a grain measure there.^[2][11][12] Romanian lent it to its neighbours: Bulgarian чутура (čutura), Serbo-Croatian čutura, the Hungarian word just named, Albanian çuturë, Gagauz çotra and Modern Greek τσιότρα (tsiótra).^[3][2][1] Ciorănescu argues that the Turkish word cannot come from Italian, because its ⟨r⟩ is explained only by the Romanian form.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is a personal name of 1563 in the Slavonic–Romanian documents.^[2][6] The Slavonic–Romanian lexicons of about 1660 have the form citură, glossing Slavonic words for a scoop.^[13] The Bible of 1688, MDA2's first record, uses it for a water jar: Rebecca comes out „având ciutură pre umăr” “with a jar on her shoulder” (Genesis 24:45).^[14][15][5]

Semantic evolution

From a vessel for water the word came to mean, above all, the wooden bucket of a well, made of staves or a hollowed trunk;^[4][15] plouă de toarnă cu ciutura “it pours as from a bucket” means it rains heavily.^[4][15] In Transylvania and the Banat it is a wooden flask, especially the flask of brandy or wine the bride and groom carry when they invite relatives to the wedding.^[15][5] It also names parts of the water mill (the bucket or paddle of the wheel, the wheel and its shaft, a small mill) and, in Transylvania, the stem or mouthpiece of a pipe.^[5][6] DELR takes the pipe sense as a semantic calque on Hungarian csutora.^[2]

Timeline

• 1563 – a personal name, the first record.^[2][6]
• c. 1660 – citură in a Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[13]
• 1688 – ciutură “water jar” in the Bucharest Bible.^[14][5]
• 1852 – the diminutive ciuturea.^[2]
• 1893 – ciuturei, the hub of a mill wheel, in Gorj.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A bucket of staves or a hollowed trunk, for drawing water from a well; the same as găleată.^[4][16][1]
2. The amount of water such a bucket holds.^[4][5]
3. (regional, Transylvania and Banat) a wooden flask;^[5][6] (rare) a water jug.^[5][6]
4. (regional) a part of the water mill: the bucket of the wheel, the wheel and its shaft, or a small mill.^[5][9]
5. (regional, Transylvania) the stem or mouthpiece of a pipe.^[5][6]

Word family

• ciuturea
• ciuturei

Related words

• găleată
• fântână
• Italian ciotola
• Ancient Greek κοτύλη (kotúlē)

Usage notes

Plouă de toarnă cu ciutura means “it is raining cats and dogs”.^[4][5] The variant citură is used in western Muntenia.^[9]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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. ciutură
3. ^ a b c d 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. ciutură
4. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 192
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 426
6. ^ a b c d e f g Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. ciutură
7. ^ Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
8. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
9. ^ a b c Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 292
10. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 137
11. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 372
12. ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 318
13. ^ 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. citură
14. ^ a b Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Gen 24:45
15. ^ a b c d 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. ciutură
16. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. ciutură