crunt

Forms

crunt m or n (feminine singular cruntă, masculine plural crunți, feminine/neuter plural crunte)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin cruentus (“bloody, blood-stained; cruel”).^[2][3][4][1] Tiktin compares the loss of the vowel with junc from iuvencus.^[5] The Latin adjective is built on the root of cruor (“blood”) and crūdus (“raw”); de Vaan traces it to Proto-Indo-European *kruh₂- (“blood, gore”).^[2][6]

DELR and Pușcariu compare Engadine kriaint;^[2][7][3] Ciorănescu compares Italian cruento, Spanish cruento and Portuguese cruento.^[2][7][3] The verbs crunta and încrunta are traced directly to Latin cruentō (“to stain with blood”) by DELR, Pușcariu, Candrea and Densusianu and the DA;^[2][3] Ciorănescu thinks the “frown” senses of the latter verb have a separate source, assimilated by folk etymology.^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR's first record is Coresi's psalter of 1570, with the sense “blood-stained, bloody”: crunt and crunți are in Psalms 5 and 25 there.^[2][8] Tiktin cites the Psaltirea Scheiană, and the Psaltirea de la Alba Iulia glosses it “bloodied”.^[5][9]

Semantic evolution

The Latin sense “covered in blood” is old and survives in some regions: Miron Costin writes of a knife „crunt de sângele nevinovatei femei” “red with the innocent woman's blood”.^[10][1][5] From it come ou crunt, a pullet's first egg with traces of blood, and rană cruntă “a deep wound”.^[10][11] A battle that sheds much blood is cruntă.^[10] From “bloodthirsty” the adjective passed to “cruel, violent” and “terrible, dreadful”.^[10][4] Under the influence of încrunta it also means “frowning, grim-looking”.^[4][12] Muncă cruntă or bani crunți are hard toil and hard-earned money, already in the Lexicon of Buda.^[13][5] As an adverb it means “cruelly” and, in familiar use, “very much”.^[4][11]

Timeline

• 1570 – crunt and crunți in Coresi's psalter.^[2][14]
• 1581 – the verbs crunta and încrunta “to stain with blood”.^[2]
• 1651 – încruntător “bloodthirsty” in the Psaltirea de la Alba Iulia.^[2]
• 1825 – sudoare cruntă “bloody sweat” and muncă cruntă “hard toil” in the Lexicon of Buda.^[13]
• 1886 – descrunta “to stop frowning”.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (of people and their deeds) cruel, violent, inhuman; frowning, grim.^[4][1]
2. Inspiring dread; terrible;^[4] (also adverb, figurative) very much, extremely.^[4]
3. (of wars and blows) Bloody, fierce: o luptă cruntă.^[4][15]
4. (old and regional) Covered in blood, bloodstained.^[4][11]

Related words

• încrunta
• crunta
• crud
• Latin cruentus

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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. crunt
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. crunt
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. 254
5. ^ 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. crunt
6. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
7. ^ a b Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 36
8. ^ Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Ungureanu, Mădălina; Moruz, Alexandru et al., roPsalt: Re-evaluating the Sixteenth Century Romanian Psalters (aligned corpus), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. Ps 25:9
9. ^ Psaltirea tipărită în Mitropolia Bălgradului la 1651 (2001), ed. Eva Mârza et al., Alba Iulia: Editura Reîntregirea, p. 706
10. ^ 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. crunt
11. ^ a b c Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 559
12. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. crunt
13. ^ 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. 149
14. ^ Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Ungureanu, Mădălina; Moruz, Alexandru et al., roPsalt: Re-evaluating the Sixteenth Century Romanian Psalters (aligned corpus), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. Ps 5:7
15. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. crunt