covor

Forms

covor n (plural covoare)^[1] Old texts have the plural covoară beside covoare: „Și așternuture și covoară să așternem” “and let us spread bedding and carpets”.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is a Slavic loan, and DELR thinks it probably borrowed from Old East Slavic ковьръ (kovĭrŭ), the Old Russian word, in the form ⟨kovorŭ⟩, itself a loan from a Turkic language, perhaps Proto-Bulgar, after Cihac and Mihăilă.^[4] DER and Tiktin give Old Church Slavonic ковръ (kovrŭ) as the source instead, after Miklosich and Berneker,^[5][2] and Wikționar follows DER.^[6] The DEX gives Russian ковёр (kovjór) and the Ukrainian form, and Wiktionary the Russian word alone,^[7][1] while the MDA2 names Bulgarian.^[3]

DELR answers the Bulgarian view: the word appears in the Slavonic documents of the Romanian lands as ⟨kovor⟩ as early as 1482, while Bulgarian ковьор (kovjór) and the dialectal ковор (kovor) come from Russian, and, after BER, the form ⟨kovor⟩ may even come from Romanian.^[4] BER traces the Bulgarian word to the Russian and Old Russian words, with Ukrainian ко́вер (kóver), and rejects a link with English cover.^[8] Ciorănescu compares Serbo-Croatian kover and a Ukrainian form.^[5]

DER adds that Hungarian kóbor comes from Romanian, after Edelspacher,^[5] but the TESz rejects that and takes the Hungarian word, “basket, wagon cover”, from German.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin and DELR date the first record to 1482, a Slavonic charter of the Romanian lands where the word appears as ⟨kovor⟩.^[2][4] The first Romanian text is the Anonymus Caransebesiensis, a Romanian–Latin glossary of about 1650, which glosses it “carpet”.^[4][3][10]

Semantic evolution

The DA describes the word first as a thick woollen fabric of foreign, mostly Oriental, make, spread on the floor, hung on walls or laid over tables, beds and saddles; by extension it came to name the peasant fabric woven on the loom after a pattern, also called scoarță and velință.^[10] CADE still separates carpets from scoarțe and velințe as goods imported or made in the foreign manner, and Alecsandri's verse has a covor de Ispahan “Isfahan carpet”.^[11][10] The 17th-century Slavonic–Romanian lexicons use it to translate Slavonic words for a carpet.^[12] In the 19th century writers used it for ground covered with grass, leaves or flowers: Alecsandri's “carpet of leaves”, Coșbuc's road that was “a carpet of May flowers”.^[10][2] Newer senses are a layer of asphalt on a road, covor roșu “red carpet” (2002) and covor termic “underfloor heating” (2007).^[13][14]

Timeline

• 1482 – kovor in a Slavonic charter of the Romanian lands, the first record.^[2][4]
• c. 1650 – kovor in the Anonymus Caransebesiensis glossary, the first Romanian text.^[4][3]
• 1660 – covorul in a Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[12]
• 1822 – covorat “covered with carpets”, in Bobb's dictionary.^[4]
• 1870 – the diminutives covoraș and covorel in Costinescu's dictionary.^[4]
• 1929 – încovora “to hang walls with carpets”, in the DA.^[4]
• 2002 – covorul roșu “the red carpet” in the press.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. A carpet or rug: a thick fabric of wool, cotton and the like, often with coloured patterns, laid on the floor or hung on walls.^[7][3]
2. A patterned peasant fabric woven on the loom; scoarță, velință.^[3][10]
3. (figurative) A layer of plants, leaves, snow and the like covering the ground: un covor de frunze.^[3][7]
4. A thin surface layer of asphalt on a road.^[13]

Word family

• covoraș
• covorat
• covorel
• încovora

Related words

• covergă
• coviltir

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. covor
3. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 534
4. ^ 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. covor
5. ^ 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. covor
6. ^ Wikționar (Romanian Wiktionary), ro.wiktionary.org
7. ^ a b c DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 244
8. ^ Georgiev, Vladimir I. et al. (eds.) (1971–), Bălgarski etimologičen rečnik, Sofija: Izdatelstvo na Bălgarskata akademija na naukite, p. 2, 513
9. ^ Benkő, Loránd (ed.) (1967–1976), A magyar nyelv történeti-etimológiai szótára, 3 vols., Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, p. 2, 507
10. ^ 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. covor
11. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. covor
12. ^ a b 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. covor
13. ^ a b Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. covor
14. ^ a b Dimitrescu, Florica (1997), Dicționar de cuvinte recente, 2nd ed., București: Logos (with the 3rd ed., 2013, in CLRE), p. s.v. covor