cu

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin cum (“with”).^{[2][3][4][5][1]} The Latin preposition comes from Proto-Indo-European *ḱóm (“next to, at, with”).^[1]

The preposition survives in all four branches: Aromanian cu, Megleno-Romanian cu and Istro-Romanian cu.^[2][3][6] Its Romance cognates include Italian con, Spanish con and Portuguese com;^[3][7][8] French kept it only in compounds.^[3][7][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR dates it to about 1500, in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki, where it occurs over three hundred times.^[2][9] Tiktin's first dated record is Neacșu's letter of 1521.^[10]

Semantic evolution

From the Latin sense of company the preposition came to express the instrument, the content, possession and quality, the manner, the cause and the time of an action.^[3][11] Ciorănescu compares its use in manner phrases such as cu drag “fondly” with the Romance adverbs in -mente.^[3] In phrases like cu toate că “although” it builds conjunctions, and between two nouns it can mean “and”.^[11]

Timeline

• c. 1500 – the first record, in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[2][9]
• 1521 – in Neacșu's letter.^[10]
• c. 1563 – the Codicele Voronețean.^[5]

Meanings

Preposition

1. “with”: links a noun to another, showing what goes with it, what it contains, has or is like: o cană cu lapte “a mug of milk”, un om cu noroc “a lucky man”.^[11][1]
2. Introduces an indirect object: a ține cu cineva “to side with someone”.^[11]
3. Introduces the manner, the instrument or the company of an action: scrie cu creionul “writes in pencil”, merge cu sora lui “goes with his sister”.^[11][3]
4. Introduces a cause or a time: nu venea cu lunile “he stayed away for months”; with a repeated noun, a succession: zi cu zi “day by day”.^[11][3]
5. In conjunctional and prepositional phrases: cu toate că “although”, la fel cu “the same as”.^[11]
6. Used as a conjunction, “and”: tata cu mama “father and mother”.^[11]

Related words

• Latin cum

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d 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. cu
3. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. cu
4. ^ Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 37
5. ^ a b Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 560
6. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 315
7. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 2385
8. ^ a b Cihac, A. de (1870), Dictionnaire d'étymologie daco-romane I: Éléments latins comparés avec les autres langues romanes, Frankfurt am Main, p. 64
9. ^ a b 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 2:1
10. ^ a b Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. cu
11. ^ a b c d e f g h DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 255