coase

Forms

coase (present cos, third person coase, past participle cusut), third conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *cōsō (“to sew”), the popular form of classical cōnsuō.^{[2][3][4][5][1]} Candrea and Densusianu cite the form ⟨cosere⟩ from a Latin glossary and explain it by the loss of /n/ and the reduction of the hiatus.^[6] The Latin verb is formed from con- and suō (“to sew”), and the compound replaced the simple verb in the Romance languages.^[3][7][1]

The word survives in all four branches: Aromanian cos, Megleno-Romanian cos and Istro-Romanian cose.^[2][3][8][6] Its Romance cognates include Dalmatian koser, Italian cucire, French coudre, Occitan cozer, Catalan cosir, Spanish coser and Portuguese coser.^[2][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Coresi's Tetraevanghel (1560–1561), in the parable of the new patch on an old garment in Luke 5.^[3][10] MDA2 dates the word to the Anonymus Caransebesiensis (c. 1650–1700).^[5]

Semantic evolution

The sense “to sew” has been stable since the first record: to join pieces of cloth or fix a button with needle and thread, and also to make a garment.^[4][5][7] Sewing flowers on the embroidery frame gave the sense “to embroider”.^[10][4] Medicine uses it for stitching the edges of a wound, and bookbinding for sewing the leaves of a book.^[4][5]

DELR and DA record regional senses: in Moldavia, to nail, and to fasten the logs of a raft, figuratively to pierce or riddle, and around Sibiu, reflexively, to freeze.^[3][7] A coase petic de petic “to sew patch onto patch” means to be stingy.^[4][5] Ciorănescu notes that cusătură “seam, sewing” may continue a Latin *consutūra directly.^[2]

Timeline

• 1560–1561 – coase and cusătură “sewing” in Coresi's Tetraevanghel, the first record.^[3]
• c. 1650 – cusător “tailor” in the Anonymus Caransebesiensis.^[3]
• c. 1660 – coase glossing a Slavonic verb for “to sew” in a Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[11]
• 1857 – cusătoreasă “seamstress”.^[3]
• 1870 – cusătorie “tailoring”.^[3]
• 1925 – coseală “sewing” in Maramureș.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To sew: to join parts of a garment, or fix a patch or a button, by passing a thread through them with a needle.^[4][5][1]
2. To embroider.^[4][5]
3. (medicine) To suture the edges of a wound.^[4][5]

Word family

• cusătoreasă
• cusătorie
• cusătură
• cusut
• descoase
• cusător

Related words

• Aromanian cos

Usage notes

Some forms of coase coincide with forms of cosi “to mow”: the imperfect coseam belongs to both verbs.^[10] Coase is also the plural of coasă “scythe”.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. coase
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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. coase
4. ^ a b c d e f g h DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 200
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 445
6. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București
7. ^ a b c 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. coase
8. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 307
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 2174
10. ^ a b c Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. coase
11. ^ 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. coase