cornut

Forms

cornut m or n (feminine singular cornută, masculine plural cornuți, feminine/neuter plural cornute)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin cornūtus (“horned”), an adjective formed on cornū (“horn”).^{[2][3][4][5][1]} It survives south of the Danube as Aromanian curnut.^[2][6] The Romance cognates include Italian cornuto, French cornu, Occitan cornut, Catalan cornut, Spanish cornudo and Portuguese cornudo.^[3][5]

The DA holds that Romanian shepherds took the word to the Albanians, Greeks, Poles, Slovaks and Czechs: Albanian kërrutë, Polish kurnuty, Slovak kornuta and Czech kurnota.^[4] Ciorănescu also sees it behind the Albanian word, and Scriban names a Ukrainian form among the descendants.^[3][7] Wiktionary gives Albanian a second source, Vulgar Latin.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is a place name, Kornuthfalva “the village of Cornut”, which Tiktin dates to 1427 and DELR to 1437 after Drăganu.^[8][2] In a Romanian text MDA2 first cites the 17th-century Lexicon Marsilianum.^[9]

Semantic evolution

The adjective describes animals with horns, and especially with big, well-grown ones.^[10][4] Vite cornute “horned beasts” are cattle, as opposed to sheep.^[9][11] Used as a noun, Cornuta is a name for a cow or ewe with big horns, and Cornutul “the horned one” is the devil, a euphemism.^[4][8][2] Plant names were made with it too: secară cornută “ergot” and, in the Banat, cornută “thorn apple” (Datura stramonium).^[10][2][7]

Timeline

• 1427 – the place name Kornuthfalva (Tiktin, DELR dates it 1437).^[8][2]
• 1660 – cornut in a Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[12]
• 17th century – in the Lexicon Marsilianum.^[9]
• 1822 – the diminutive cornuț “small horn; crescent roll” in Bobb's dictionary.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. horned: having horns; as a feminine noun, a horned animal.^[10][9]
2. With big, well-grown horns.^[10][9]
3. In compounds: secară-cornută “ergot”, the fungus on rye.^[10]
4. (as a noun, euphemism) Cornutul, the devil.^[9][2]
5. (as a noun, regional, botany) cornută, the thorn apple.^[9][2]

Related words

• corn
• Aromanian curnut
• Latin cornūtus

Usage notes

Vite cornute is the usual phrase for cattle.^[9][8]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. corn
3. ^ a b c 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. corn
4. ^ 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. cornut
5. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 2242
6. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 340
7. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 351
8. ^ 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. cornut
9. ^ 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, 514
10. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 238
11. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 169
12. ^ 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. cornut