cușcă

Forms

cușcă f (plural cuști)^[1] Besides the plural cuști, older and regional texts have cușce and cuște: „și în cerdac feliuri de feliuri de pasări în cușce” “and on the porch all kinds of birds in cages” (1771).^[2][3] MDA2 records the variant crușcă.^[4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ukrainian кучка (kučka, “hen coop”), as DEX, MDA2, DELR and Wiktionary give it.^[5][4][6][1] DELR explains the Ukrainian word as a diminutive of куча (kuča, “coop, pigsty”), from Proto-Slavic *kǫtja, and compares Old Church Slavonic кѫща (kǫšta, “tent”), Bulgarian къща (kăšta) and Serbo-Croatian kuća.^[6][7] Tiktin and Scriban compare also Polish kuczka (“booth”) and Russian куща (kušča, “tent”), which match the Jewish festival sense of the Romanian word.^[3][8] The DA gives the source as Ruthenian (Russian), and Șăineanu as Russian.^[9][10]

Ciorănescu accepts the Ukrainian source after Cihac but thinks the word was probably crossed with the Turkish words for “bird” and “birdcage”, since the Romanian word names a coop of laths or bars.^[11] Vasmer notes that the Russian word is a Church Slavonic loan.^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is in Dosoftei's Lives of the Saints, in the volume for March, dated 1683.^[3] DELR cites the same work under 1686.^[3][6] Tiktin lists a place name Kusklya of 1444 under the word.^[3] The early texts are Moldavian: the 17th- and 18th-century literary language knew it as “birdcage” and “cage with bars”, as in Nicolae Costin's chronicle, where Sultan Bayezid is put in an iron cage: „l-au băgat în cușcă de fier” “they put him in an iron cage”.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

From a coop or hutch for poultry, dogs and rabbits the word spread to the barred cage of wild beasts and, figuratively, to a cramped house or room.^[9][5][4] The sărbătoarea cuștilor, the “feast of booths”, was the Jewish Sukkot, during which the booths were also called cuști.^[3][9][13] In the countryside a cușcă was also a rack of withies on which maize was threshed, and in folk usage the 40 days a mother kept indoors after giving birth.^[6][9][3] The theatre gave the word the prompter's box under the front of the stage.^[6][5]

Timeline

• 1444 – Kusklya, a place name that Tiktin lists under the word.^[3]
• 1683 – the first record, in Dosoftei's Lives of the Saints.^[3][6]
• 1771 – the plural cușce “birdcages”.^[2]
• 1879 – the diminutive cușchiță, in Cihac's dictionary.^[6]
• 1939 – cușcaie, a wooden chute for bringing firewood down from the mountain forests, and the diminutive cușculiță.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A cage or hutch: a box-shaped shelter, with or without bars, for animals or birds, tame or wild.^[5][4]
2. (figurative) A cramped room or a poky little house.^[5][4][8]
3. The prompter's box, a small space below the level of the stage.^[5][6]
4. (dated) A booth of the Jewish feast of Sukkot.^[4][3]
5. (regional) A rack of withies on which maize is beaten.^[4][6]

Word family

• cușcaie
• cușchiță
• cușculiță

Related words

• coteț
• colivie

Usage notes

A proverb says that whoever gets into the cage must crow like a cock: cine intră-n cușcă trebuie să cânte cocoșește, that is, one must go along with the place one is in.^[9][14]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Costinescu, Mariana; Georgescu, Magdalena; Zgraon, Florentina (1987), Dicționarul limbii române literare vechi (1640–1780): termeni regionali, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică, p. 118
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. cușcă
4. ^ 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, 585
5. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 265
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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. cușcă
7. ^ Kurz, Josef; Hauptová, Zoe (eds.) (1958–1997), Slovník jazyka staroslověnského / Lexicon linguae palaeoslovenicae, 4 vols. + supplements, Praha: Academia; digital ed. gorazd.org
8. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 384
9. ^ 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. cușcă
10. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 187
11. ^ 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. cușcă
12. ^ Vasmer, Max (1964–1973), Ètimologičeskij slovar' russkogo jazyka, transl. and suppl. by O. N. Trubačev, 4 vols., Moskva: Progress
13. ^ Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 1, 286
14. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. cușcă