cor

Forms

cor n (plural coruri)^[1] The oldest form is horiu, from Greek: „Acesta în horiul strigătorilor cu Evod apostolul să sălășluiește” “he dwells in the choir of the heralds with Evodius the apostle” (Dosoftei).^[2][3] The form hor was still used by Alecsandri: „Lipsești tu numai din horul lor?” “are you alone missing from their choir?”.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from New Latin chorus, with French chœur as a second model, DELR's two sources; the Latin word is from Ancient Greek χορός (khorós, “round dance, band of dancers, choir”).^[3][1] The sources weigh the donors differently: DEX and MDA2 give Latin, compared with German Chor; the DA French or German;^{[4][5][6][2][7]} Tiktin Modern Greek χορός (chorós), Italian coro and the German word; the DN Latin, Greek and Italian.^{[4][5][6][2][7]} Ciorănescu sees a direct loan from Greek in the 17th century, renewed through Latin and Italian in the 19th.^[8]

DELR separates the forms: horiu comes from Modern Greek, hor from German or Latin, and ⟨cor⟩ from Latin and French.^[3] An older ⟨cor⟩ “gathering, round dance”, inherited from Latin chorus, is a doublet of this word, as is horă.^[8][6][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the Greek form horiu in Dosoftei's Lives of the Saints (1682), of a heavenly choir.^[3][2] The modern form cor is recorded in 1839.^[3]

Semantic evolution

In Dosoftei the word named a company of saints singing together, a church sense.^[2] With the 19th-century loans it gained the classical sense, the chorus of Greek tragedy, which Negruzzi used, and the modern one of a group of singers.^[6][5] From the singers it passed to the music written for them, to the part of a church where they stand, and figuratively to any group that says the same thing: a face cor cu alții “to side with others”, usually in something bad.^[4][9]

The family is of the same period: coral “church chorale” from German in 1852, the adjective coral “choral” from French in 1858, and corist “chorister” in 1871.^[3]

Timeline

• 1682 – horiu “choir” in Dosoftei's Lives of the Saints.^[3]
• 1839 – the form cor.^[3]
• 1852 – coral “chorale”.^[3]
• 1858 – the adjective coral “choral”.^[3]
• 1871 – corist “chorister” and coreut “member of an ancient chorus”.^[3]
• 1872 – chor of the chorus in tragedy, in Negruzzi.^[5][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A choir: a group of singers who perform a piece of music together;^[4][1] în cor “all together, in unison”.^[4][1]
2. A piece of music written for several voices, or its performance.^[4]
3. In ancient theatre, the chorus: a group of actors who took part in the action as one character, voicing public opinion in song, recitation and dance; the verses they sang.^[4][9]
4. The part of a church where the choir stands; in Catholic churches, the central and side naves together.^[9][7]

Word family

• coral
• coreut
• corist

Related words

• horă
• Ancient Greek χορός (khorós)

Usage notes

Another cor is an old and regional word: “gathering, company” in the 17th-century texts (Varlaam's Cazania of 1643 has coriu), and in Transylvania a round dance and hay gathered in squares for haystacks.^[3][5][10] It is inherited from Latin chorus, and Aromanian has cor “round dance”.^[3][11] The cor that DEX refers to cori is a Moldavian name for a measles-like illness, which Scriban takes from Russian.^[4][12]

The plural is coruri.^[1] A face cor cu alții means to make common cause with others, usually in something bad.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. cor 2
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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. cor
4. ^ 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. 235
5. ^ 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, 506
6. ^ a b c d e 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. cor
7. ^ a b c Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. cor
8. ^ a b 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. cor
9. ^ a b c Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. cor
10. ^ Bulgăr, Gheorghe; Constantinescu-Dobridor, Gheorghe (2002), Dicționar de arhaisme și regionalisme, 2 vols., București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. cor
11. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 305
12. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 346