cucută

Forms

cucută f (plural cucute)^[1] The stress varies: Tiktin and Scriban record cúcută beside cucútă, the eastern form in Scriban's account.^[2][3] MDA2 gives the regional variants cucătă and cucâtă, and a rare plural cucuți.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *cucūta, a popular form of Latin cicūta (“hemlock”) with the first vowel assimilated to the second.^[5][6][7][1] The same change appears in Occitan coucudo and in French dialects, while northern Italian dialects, Old French and Old Spanish kept the form with ⟨ci-⟩.^[6][5][8] Tiktin finds the shift of stress in ⟨cúcută⟩ striking.^[2] The origin of the Latin word is unknown.^[9] Wiktionary connects it with the source of the Welsh and Cornish hemlock names.^[1]

The word survives in Aromanian cucutã.^[6][10][11] Albanian kukutë is close to it: DELR takes it as a loan of the same Latin form, and Ciorănescu thinks it may come from Romanian.^[5][6] Serbo-Croatian kukuta was borrowed from Romanian, according to Ciorănescu, who rejects Cihac's view that it was the source of the Romanian word.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the place name Cucutean in a document of 1535.^[5] Tiktin's first record, from the same collection of documents, is of 1592.^[5][2] MDA2 dates the common noun from the Lexicon de la Buda of 1825, which glosses it as hemlock, as cow parsnip and as a mould for candles.^[4][12]

Semantic evolution

The name belongs above all to poison hemlock, and by extension to the poison made from it; dictionaries of the early 20th century already gave Socrates' drink of hemlock as the example.^[5][13] It also names several other plants: water hemlock, fool's parsley, a bedstraw, cow parsnip in Transylvania and thorn apple in the Banat, the last two a mistake in Ciorănescu's view.^[4][6][5] In Transylvania it also meant the mould for pouring candles.^[5][12]

Because hemlock was thought to cause madness, a mânca cucută, “to eat hemlock”, means to lose one's mind; it is used mostly in the negative, doar n-am mâncat (băut) cucută, “I'm not mad”.^[2][7][4] A fi ca o cucută is said of someone very thin.^[4] In Aromanian, to be cucută is to be dead drunk.^[10]

Timeline

• 1535 – the place name Cucutean, the first record.^[5]
• 1592 – a record in the published documents.^[2]
• 1825 – hemlock, cow parsnip and a candle mould in the Lexicon de la Buda.^[4][12]
• 1910 – cucățică de bălți “water dropwort”.^[5]
• 1928 – cucuțeală “sharp-tongued woman”, in a Transylvanian glossary.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. hemlock, poison hemlock (Conium maculatum): a poisonous plant of the umbellifer family with a strong smell, large leaves and white flowers, used in medicine.^[7][4]
2. The poison made from this plant.^[5][13]
3. cucută-de-apă: water hemlock (Cicuta virosa), a marsh plant with white flowers in umbels.^[7]
4. cucută-de-pădure: a bedstraw with pointed leaves and white flowers (Galium schultesii).^[7]
5. (regional) Cow parsnip, thorn apple, stag's-horn clubmoss and other plants.^[4][5]

Word family

• cucuțeală

Related words

• Aromanian cucutã
• Latin cicūta

Usage notes

The set phrase doar n-am băut cucută (ca să…) or doar n-am mâncat cucută means “I'm not out of my mind (to …)”.^[7][2]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. cúcută
3. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 373
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 564
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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. cucută
6. ^ a b c d e f 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. cucută
7. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 256
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 1909
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 317
11. ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 343
12. ^ a b c 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. 151
13. ^ a b Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 182