cremă

Forms

cremă f (plural creme)^[1] An old variant crem (neuter) is also recorded.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French crème.^{[4][5][1][6][7]} DELR takes the first record, of 1754, from Modern Greek κρέμα (kréma), itself from Italian crema, and the later word from French;^[2][3] MDA2 gives French and Italian.^[2][3]

The French word is first recorded as Old French craime (c. 1190) and cresme (1261).^[8] It comes from Late Latin crama (“cream”) (6th century), a Gaulish word that was crossed early with Latin chrisma (“anointing, unction”), from Ancient Greek χρῖσμα (khrîsma).^[8][1][2] Italian took the word from French as well.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR's first record is in a document of 1754 published by Iorga.^[2] Tiktin's is of 1840, and MDA2's is in Costinescu's dictionary of 1870, in the sense “cream” of milk.^[6][3]

Semantic evolution

The first sense was the cream on milk, now obsolete, and with it “whipped cream” and “froth”.^[3][10] As in French, the word came to mean the best part of something, the elite: Costinescu has it in 1870, and the DA quotes tot crema “all the cream” of society from the Convorbiri literare.^[10][11] Later senses are a sweet made of milk, eggs and sugar, served as a dessert or used in cakes, a fine liqueur (cremă de mentă), a soup of puréed vegetables, and a cosmetic or medical ointment for the skin, with cremă de ghete “shoe polish”.^{[5][12][13][10]}

Timeline

• 1754 – the first record, in a document published by Iorga.^[2]
• 1840 – the first record Tiktin gives.^[6]
• 1870 – “cream” and the figurative “elite” in Costinescu's dictionary.^[3][10]
• 1900 – the derivative cremometru “an instrument measuring the fat in milk”.^[2]
• 1904 – the derivative cremos “creamy”.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A custard-like sweet made of milk, eggs and sugar, flavoured with coffee, chocolate or vanilla, served as a dessert or used in cakes.^[5][3]
2. With a qualifier, a fine liqueur: cremă de mentă.^[5][13]
3. A cosmetic, medical or technical cream, an ointment;^[5][3] cremă de ghete “shoe polish”.^[5][3]
4. A cream soup of puréed vegetables: supă cremă.^[3][12]
5. (figurative) The best part of something; the elite.^[5][3]
6. (obsolete) The cream of milk; smântână.^[3][10]

Word family

• cremometru
• cremos

Related words

• crem
• French crème

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. cremă
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 544
4. ^ 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. cremă
5. ^ a b c d e f g DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 248
6. ^ 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. cremă
7. ^ Costăchescu, Adriana; Dincă, Daniela; Dragoste, Ramona; Popescu, Mihaela; Scurtu, Gabriela (2009–2010), Dicționar de împrumuturi lexicale din limba franceză (DILF), 2 vols., Craiova: Universitaria
8. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
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. cremă
11. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 363
12. ^ a b Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual
13. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească