cucui

Forms

cucui n (plural cucuie)^[1] Variants: cocoi, cucoi, gugui and huhui.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *cucullium, formed on cucullus (“hood”).^[4][5][1][3] DELR marks the etymology uncertain: it accepts this reconstruction and compares Byzantine Greek κουκούλλιον (koukoúllion, “monk's cap”), a diminutive that may have come back into Balkan Latin; another possibility it gives is a diminutive of coccum (“berry”), which the DA prefers.^[2] Ciorănescu rejects the explanation from this word of Pușcariu and the DA as hard to square with the first senses and with the dialect forms.^[4] Tiktin starts from the Latin word for “hood” itself, with the same change as in pui.^[2][6]

The word has kin south of the Danube: Aromanian cucul'u “hood; crest; cocoon” and Megleno-Romanian cucul' “bump, swelling”.^[4][7][8] The DDM derives its Megleno-Romanian word from Bulgarian instead.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word first appears as a place name, Cucuiul, in a charter of 1496.^[2][6] As a common noun MDA2 dates it to the Latin–Romanian glossary of Caransebeș of c. 1650–1700.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The senses range from a bird's tuft and a person's forelock to any raised part of an object, the top of a plant, a hilltop and, most often today, the bump on the head left by a blow.^[4][2][5] The adjective cucuiat “bumpy, crested” is recorded from 1675, and the verb cucuia “to climb up and perch on something high; to dress up” from c. 1650.^[2]

Timeline

• 1496 – the place name Cucuiul, the first record.^[2][6]
• 1598 – the place name Cucuiați.^[2]
• c. 1650–1700 – cucui and the verb cucuia in the glossary of Caransebeș.^[2][3]
• 1675 – the adjective cucuiat in Miron Costin.^[2]
• 1900 – the diminutive cucuiete.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A bump on the head, a swelling caused by a blow against something hard: S-a ales cu un cucui în frunte.^[5][1]
2. (regional) A crest or tuft of feathers on the head of some birds.^[5][1]
3. (regional) A projecting part of an object; a top, a summit.^[3][2][1]

Word family

• cucuia
• cucuiat
• cucuiete
• cucuioavă
• cucos

Related words

• Aromanian cucul'u

Usage notes

Separate verbs spelled cucui are cucui “to call like a cuckoo”, from cucu, and a regional cucui “to doze”.^[3][6]

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 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. cucui
3. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 563
4. ^ a b c d 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. cucui
5. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 256
6. ^ 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. cucui
7. ^ Pascu, Giorge (1925), Dictionnaire étymologique macédoroumain, 2 vols. (I: Les éléments latins et romans; II: Les éléments grecs, turcs, slaves, albanais, germaniques, magyars, néologismes, créations immédiates, obscurs), Iași: Cultura Națională, p. 1, 71
8. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 83
9. ^ Saramandu, Nicolae (coord.) et al. (2010–), Dicționarul dialectului meglenoromân, general și etimologic, fascicles in Fonetică și dialectologie XXIX–, p. 163