coastă

Forms

coastă f (plural coaste)^[1] MDA2 records the variant cuastă and regional plurals coste and costi.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin costa (“rib; side”).^{[3][4][5][2][1]} DELR adds that the sense “seashore” follows French côte.^[3] It survives in all four branches: Aromanian coastã, Megleno-Romanian coasta and Istro-Romanian costę.^[3][4][6][7] The Romance cognates include Dalmatian cuasta, Italian costa, Spanish cuesta and Portuguese costa.^[4][8] De Vaan finds no etymology for the Latin word: the comparison with Slavic words for “bone” does not hold.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is of 1463, in a Slavonic–Romanian document.^[3][10] In Romanian texts it appears in the early 16th-century Psaltirea Hurmuzaki (coastele)^[11] and in the Palia of 1581, where God makes the woman „den coasta ce eră scos dentru Adam” “from the rib he had taken out of Adam”.^[12]

Semantic evolution

All the senses grew out of Latin costa “rib, side”.^[12][4] From the rib the word passed to the side of the body and the flank of an animal, then to the side of a thing, the slope of a hill and, in the old language, the flank of an army.^[3][5] Tiktin quotes a 17th-century manuscript that speaks of a Roman town „sus în coastă” “up on the hillside”, and Alecsandri's hillside paths.^[10] For the slope, the DA compares French coteau and Friulian cueste.^[12] The sense “sea coast” came later, after French, and Tiktin records it in Cantemir.^[3][10]

Many idioms keep the rib: a pune cuiva sula în coastă “to put pressure on someone”, a avea pe cineva în coaste “to have someone always at one's side”, and slab de-i poți număra coastele “so thin you can count his ribs”.^[10][5] A scoate coasta de drac was said of beating the wickedness out of a woman, in an allusion to Eve made from Adam's rib.^[2][12]

Timeline

• 1463 – the first record, in a Slavonic–Romanian document.^[3]
• early 16th century – coastele in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[11]
• 1581 – coasta “rib” in the Palia.^[12]
• 1583 – costiș “slope” in a place name.^[3]
• 1630 – costiță “small rib; cutlet”.^[3]
• 1843 – costal “of the ribs” from French.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A rib, one of the curved paired bones joined to the spine and the breastbone.^[5][1]
2. The side of the body from the shoulders to the hips; the flank of an animal; a side of a thing: pe o coastă “on one side”.^[5][1]
3. One of the ribs of a ship's frame.^[5]
4. A steep slope, hillside.^[5]
5. A sea coast, shore.^[5][1]
6. (obsolete) The flank of an army.^[5][3]

Word family

• costal
• costier
• costină
• costișa
• costișoară
• costiță
• costiș

Related words

• Aromanian coastã
• Latin costa

Usage notes

MDA2 and the DA list a regional coastă “iron fork for digging”, which the DA treats as a form of coarște;^[2][12] MDA2 calls its origin unknown.^[2][12]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f 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, 445
3. ^ 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. coastă
4. ^ 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. coastă
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 200
6. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 301
7. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 74
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 2279
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ a b c d Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. coástă
11. ^ a b Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Ungureanu, Mădălina; Moruz, Alexandru et al., roPsalt: Re-evaluating the Sixteenth Century Romanian Psalters (aligned corpus), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. Ps 21:18
12. ^ 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. coastă