coptură

Forms

coptură f (plural copturi)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin coctūra (“cooking”), a noun formed on coquō (“to cook”).^{[2][3][4][5][1]} The regular outcome would have been ⟨*cutură⟩; the ⟨-pt-⟩ was remade after the participle copt “baked, ripe”, as Pușcariu and DELR explain.^[3][2] Scriban takes it as formed in Romanian, from Romanian copt + -ură, and DEX and MDA2 give that view too.^[6][7][8]

The noun survives in Aromanian cupturã “pus”.^[9][2] Its Romance cognates are Italian cottura, Old French cuiture, Occitan coitura and Spanish cochura.^[3][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR's first record is in a medical book, Meșteșugul doftoriei, of 1760–1770, and Tiktin's is Molnar's grammar of 1788.^[2][10] The Lexicon de la Buda of 1825 gives both main senses: a piece of baked dough, and the matter of a ripened boil, “pus”.^[11][8]

Semantic evolution

Both main senses follow from coace, which means both “to bake” and “to ripen, fester”: baked dough, and the pus of a boil that has come to a head.^[2][3] The baked-goods sense is regional, in Bucovina and northern Transylvania, while “pus, abscess” is more widespread.^[4][10] Ciorănescu notes that the word is known almost everywhere but rare in the north-east.^[3] In mining it names a piece of rock partly broken away from the roof or walls of a gallery, which threatens to fall.^[7][12]

Timeline

• 1760-1770 – in Meșteșugul doftoriei, the first record.^[2]
• 1788 – in Molnar's grammar.^[10]
• 1825 – “baked dough” and “pus” in the Lexicon de la Buda.^[11][8]
• 1888 – the variant coptătură in Pop-Reteganul's tales.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A food made of dough and baked in an oven or in hot ashes; a homemade pastry.^[7][8]
2. (popular) pus; a ripened boil, an abscess.^[7][13]
3. (mining) A piece of rock partly detached from the roof or walls of a mine gallery and likely to fall.^[7][12]

Related words

• copt
• coace
• cuptor
• Aromanian cupturã

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. coace
3. ^ a b c d e 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. coptură
4. ^ 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. coptură
5. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 2020
6. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 346
7. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 234
8. ^ a b c d Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 506
9. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 333
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. coptură
11. ^ a b Lesicon românescu-latinescu-ungurescu-nemțescu quare de mai mulți autori, în cursul a trideci și mai multor ani s-au lucrat (1825), Buda: Typographia Universității (the Lexicon of Buda, ed. Petru Maior et al.), p. 138
12. ^ a b Ștef, Dorin (2021), Dicționar de regionalisme și arhaisme din județul Maramureș, 3rd ed., Baia Mare, p. s.v. coptură
13. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. coptură