cufunda

Forms

cufunda (third-person singular present cufundă, past participle cufundat), first conjugation^[1] Old texts also have a present cufundez.^[2] Moldavian sometimes has acufunda, Muntenian also scufunda, which Tiktin calls the stronger form.^[3] DELR explains acufunda as a blend with afunda.^[4]

Etymology

DELR calls it uncertain but probably inherited from Vulgar Latin *cōnfundāre, a first-conjugation form of Latin cōnfundō (“to pour together, mix”), itself made of con- and fundō (“to pour”); the meaning was shaped by *affundāre (“to sink to the bottom”), formed on fundus (“bottom”).^[4][5] Ciorănescu, the DEX and MDA2 also give the Latin verb, and the REW lists the Vulgar Latin verb with the sense “to bring to the bottom, sink”.^[6][7][2][8] Pușcariu, Candrea–Densusianu, Tiktin and the DA take the Latin verb as formed directly on the noun for “bottom”.^[4][3][9] DELR finds this hard, since the prefix ⟨con-⟩ has no sense of direction and Latin already had other verbs of that meaning.^[4][3][9] A southern Italian dialect form supports a Latin date for the change of conjugation, according to DELR and the REW.^[4][8] Scriban instead derived it in Romanian from fund.^[4]

The verb is a doublet of confunda, a 19th-century loan of French confondre.^[6][9] Candrea and Densusianu explain the loss of ⟨n⟩ in the prefix as regular.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1563, in Coresi's Apostle.^[3] DELR dates the same text 1566.^[3][4] The sense there is to go or put under water or into something soft.^[4] The Anonymus Caransebesiensis glosses it with Latin immergo “I plunge”, about 1650.^[9][4]

Semantic evolution

The DA describes the verb as a movement from the surface downward until the thing is wholly covered and no longer seen, in contrast to floating.^[9] From plunging into water came drowning, sinking into the ground, collapsing (of the earth), being hidden or buried, and disappearing from sight.^[2][9] Poets used it of the sun setting into the sea and of shapes sinking into darkness.^[9][3] The figurative reflexive, to be absorbed in an activity, in thought or in sleep, is the main modern sense beside the physical one.^[7][3] In popular speech a se cufunda could also mean to get into trouble.^[2]

Several bird names come from it: cufundar and cufundaci, names for divers and grebes, recorded from 1857 and 1868.^[4]

Timeline

• 1563 – the first record, in Coresi's Apostle (1566 in DELR).^[3][4]
• c. 1650 – cufundătură “plunging; hollow”, and the verb glossed immergo, in the Anonymus Caransebesiensis.^[4][9]
• 1688 – the participle cufundat in the Bucharest Bible (Psalm 123:3).^[11]
• 1780–1801 – cufundător “diver” in Samuil Micu's dictionary.^[4]
• 1794 – acufunda in Văcărescu's history.^[4]
• 1825 – scufunda and cufundos “deep” in the Lexicon de la Buda.^[4]
• 1857 – cufundar, a name for divers and grebes, in Polizu.^[4]
• 1892 – de-a cufundul “diving under” in Creangă.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. (reflexive and transitive) To go, or to make something go, into a liquid or a soft mass; to immerse, sink: Și-a cufundat mâinile în apa rece.^[7][2]
2. (reflexive) To go down deep; to disappear somewhere; of the ground, to collapse; of the eyes, to be sunken; of the stars, to set.^[7][2]
3. (reflexive, figurative) To become absorbed in an activity, in thought or in sleep.^[7]
4. (transitive, figurative, rare) To ruin, to compromise.^[7][2]

Word family

• acufunda
• cufundar
• cufundător
• cufundătură
• cufundiș
• cufundos
• cufunzime
• scufunda
• scufundar

Related words

• afunda
• înfunda
• fund
• confunda

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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, 564
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. cufundá
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q 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. cufunda
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b 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. cufunda
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. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 2140
9. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. cufundá
10. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București, p. s.v. cufunda
11. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Ps 123:3