cuc

Forms

cuc m (plural cuci)^[1]

Etymology

Most dictionaries take it as inherited from Late Latin cucus or cuccus, a word imitating the bird's call.^{[2][3][4][5][1][6]} Because it imitates a sound, its consonants stayed unchanged everywhere.^[6] DELR is more cautious: the Latin ⟨cuc(c)us⟩ is not certain, having been restored by some editors in Plautus and Isidore, and DELR sees the noun as formed on the call cucu, probably already in Latin times; it compares cucūlus (“cuckoo”) and Old Italian, Sardinian, Friulian and Portuguese forms of the same type.^[7]

The word is found in all four branches: Aromanian cuc, Megleno-Romanian cuc and Istro-Romanian cuc.^[2][7][8] That Latin word itself survives in Italian cuculo and Occitan cogul, and similar words are French coucou and Portuguese cuco.^[7] Ciorănescu also compares German Kuckuck and Albanian kuko, and a Ukrainian dialect word comes from Romanian.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is a personal name of 1203.^[7][9] MDA2 dates the bird's name in Romanian texts to before 1640.^[4] The Bucharest Bible of 1688 has the genitive cucului.^[10]

Semantic evolution

Folk belief made the cuckoo a bird of omens: its call heard in front or on the right brings luck, behind or on the left bad luck; it sings from Lady Day until the cherries ripen.^[3][9] So bată-l cucul! “may the cuckoo strike him!” is a mild oath meaning roughly “bless him”, and a-i cânta cucul în casă is to be left alone.^[4][9] As the bird lays its eggs in other nests and lives alone, singur cuc means “all alone”.^[5][11]

Other phrases are lapte de cuc “something impossible”, de flori de cuc “for nothing” and beat cuc “dead drunk”.^[5][11] A cuckoo clock is ceas cu cuc, and the ironic cuc-armenesc is the hoopoe.^[5] The word also names children's games and many plants.^[5][3]

Timeline

• 1203 – a personal name, the first record.^[7][9]
• before 1640 – cuc in a text of Gaster's chrestomathy.^[4]
• 1688 – cucului in the Bucharest Bible.^[10]
• 1784 – the interjection cucu.^[7]
• 1801 – Klein's dictionary glosses cuc with Latin cuculus.^[12]
• 1847 – the verb cucui “(of the cuckoo) to call”.^[7]
• 1866 – the diminutive cuculeț.^[7]
• 1883 – cucă “female cuckoo”.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. cuckoo: a grey migratory bird with a long tail, known for its call, that lays its eggs in other birds' nests (Cuculus canorus).^[5][1]
2. (adverbial) Isolated, alone: singur cuc “all alone”.^[5][1]
3. Part of plant names: ciuboțica-cucului “primrose”, limba-cucului.^[5]
4. (children's games) A high stroke of the ball.^[5]

Word family

• cucă
• cucu
• cucui
• cuculean
• cuculeasă
• cuculeț
• cucușel
• cucușor
• cucuț

Related words

• cuculiforme
• Aromanian cuc
• Latin cucūlus

Usage notes

Several other words are spelled cuc.^[7] An adverb cuc “straight up”, in ball games, is of uncertain origin: DELR thinks of this word or of a Transylvanian Saxon word for “high”, and the DA derived it from Hungarian, though the Hungarian word seems to come from Romanian.^[7][3] Cuc “cake; smoked black pudding” (around Sibiu) is from German Kuchen, and cuci “masked young men who chase away evil” is from Bulgarian.^[7] A Transylvanian cuc is the lower end of a log chute.^[3][4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. cuc
3. ^ 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. cuc
4. ^ a b c d e Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 562
5. ^ 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. 256
6. ^ a b Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 37
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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. cuc
8. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 315
9. ^ 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. cuc
10. ^ a b Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Zec 5:9
11. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 372
12. ^ Gáldi, László (ed.) (1944), Samuel Klein: Dictionarium valachico-latinum. Primul dicționar al limbii române, Budapest: Királyi Magyar Pázmány Péter Tudományegyetemi Román Intézet (Klein's dictionary of 1801, with Gáldi's etymological study), p. 343