cum

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin quōmodo (“in what way, how”), shortened already in popular Latin to quomo.^{[2][3][4][5][1]} The Latin word is formed of quō and modō, “in what way”.^[2] The word survives in all four branches of Romanian: Aromanian cum, Megleno-Romanian cum and Istro-Romanian cum.^[3][2][5] Its Romance cognates include Italian come, Occitan com, French comme, Spanish como and Portuguese como.^[3][5][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR dates the first record to the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century, where the word occurs several times.^[2][7] Tiktin's first date is Neacșu's letter of 1521, and MDA2's first record is the Codicele Voronețean.^[8][4]

Semantic evolution

The interrogative sense “how?” is the oldest; from it come “what? pardon?” and exclamations of surprise.^[9][3] As a conjunction it introduces comparative clauses, “as, like”, and temporal ones: in old chronicles cum… cum means “as soon as… then”: „cum au văzut apa, cum au năvălit în apă” “as soon as they saw the water, they rushed into it”.^[3][8] In the old language it also meant “so that” with the subjunctive, and before a comparative “as… as possible”: „cum mai curând” “as soon as possible”.^[3][8]

The word formed many compounds: cumva “somehow” with -va, an old form of vrea, oarecum “somewhat”, oricum “anyhow”, nicidecum “by no means” and precum “as”.^[2][3]

Timeline

• c. 1500 – cum and cumva in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki, the first records.^[2]
• 1521 – in Neacșu's letter.^[8]
• 1567–1568 – necum and nicicum in Coresi's Tâlcul evangheliilor.^[2]
• 1570 – cumuși “how” in Coresi's Liturghier.^[2]
• 1582 – oarecum in the Palia de la Orăștie.^[2]
• 1592 – precum “as”.^[2]
• 1599 – oricum “anyhow”.^[2]
• 1723 – altcum “otherwise”.^[2]
• 1746 – nicidecum “by no means”.^[2]

Meanings

Adverb

1. how, in what way: Cum ai ajuns aici? “How did you get here?”;^[9][4] cum de…? “how come…?”^[9][4]
2. Expresses surprise or indignation: is it possible?^[9][4]
3. What? pardon?^[9][4]
4. At what price: Cum vindeți cartofii? “How much are you selling the potatoes for?”^[9][4]
5. Why?^[9][4]
6. (exclamatory) How much, how greatly.^[9]

Conjunction

1. How, introducing object clauses: Nu știu cum s-a întâmplat. “I don't know how it happened.”^[9]
2. As, the way that; introduces manner and comparative clauses.^[9][3]
3. since, as: introduces causal clauses.^[9]
4. Although; introduces concessive clauses.^[9]
5. So that; to the extent that.^[9]
6. As soon as: Cum a ajuns, a adormit. “As soon as he arrived, he fell asleep.”^[9][8]
7. In which, introducing attributive clauses;^[9][3] (old) in order that, with the subjunctive.^[9][3]

Word family

• altcum
• cumva
• fiecum
• necum
• nicicum
• nicidecum
• oarecum
• oricum
• precum

Related words

• vrea
• Aromanian cum

Usage notes

A separate regional word cum “wedding sponsor”, recorded in the Banat, is a loan from Serbian.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. cum
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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. cum
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 570
5. ^ a b c Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 38
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6972
7. ^ Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Ungureanu, Mădălina; Moruz, Alexandru et al., roPsalt: Re-evaluating the Sixteenth Century Romanian Psalters (aligned corpus), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. Ps 10:1
8. ^ a b c d e Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. cum
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 259