cumătru

Forms

cumătru m (plural cumetri, feminine equivalent cumătră)^[1] The vocative is cumetre, regionally cumătre.^[2] MDA2 records the old stress cúmătru, the regional variant comatru and the Moldavian plurals cumătri, cumătre.^[3]

Etymology

Its origin is disputed: DELR, after Pușcariu, Skok and the DA, derives it from Latin: inherited from Latin commāter (“godmother”) and compater (“godfather”) blended in the Latin of the Danube into one stem ⟨commatr-⟩, which took the masculine ending ⟨-u⟩ and the feminine ⟨-a⟩ and so gave cumătră and the masculine.^[4][5][4][5] The stress on the first syllable came from the word for godfather and the stress on the second from the word for godmother.^[4] Standard ⟨cumắtru⟩ blends the two, and dialects still have ⟨cúmătru⟩ and ⟨cumátră⟩.^[4] The DA puts it differently: the masculine was formed in Romanian after the feminine, replacing an expected ⟨*cumpatru⟩ from the Latin word for godfather.^[5]

Ciorănescu and the DEX take it borrowed from Old Church Slavonic къмотра (kŭmotra, “godmother”) instead, the Slavonic word being itself from Latin.^[4] Miklosich, Cihac, Tiktin's first edition, Densusianu and CADE held the same view.^[6][7][4] Ciorănescu grants that the Slavic forms are quite different from the Romanian ones, as in Bulgarian кум (kum), and that many scholars therefore think a Slavic source impossible; the Latin explanation, he says, has not been fully worked out either.^[6] Vasmer explains the Slavic masculine Proto-Slavic *kъmotrъ as a new formation on the feminine.^[8]

The Latin words are made of com- (“together”) and māter (“mother”) or pater (“father”).^[1] The word survives in Istro-Romanian cumatru.^[4] Its Romance cognates include Italian comare, French commère and Spanish comadre.^[1][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR dates the masculine to 1581, in Lucaci's Pravila; the feminine is recorded much earlier, as the place name Cumătra in a document of 1517.^[4] MDA2 cites the Moldavian Pravila of Vasile Lupu.^[3] The sense is spiritual kinship: the old law codes punished a union between cumetri as a “mixing of blood”.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The word names the relationship between a child's godfather and its parents, and in places between the wedding sponsor and the couple's family.^[5][3] The DA notes that this spiritual kinship was respected, that Justinian's code forbade marriage between godfather and the child's mother, and that in the Banat, Oltenia and western Transylvania the word has been replaced by naș.^[5] At weddings some regions distinguish cumătru mare, the groom's sponsor or witness, from cumătru mic.^[5][3]

From a family title it became a familiar form of address between villagers of the same age, and in tales and fables a title for animals: cumătrul lup in Creangă.^[2][7][10] In familiar speech it can simply mean a man.^[7][3] The derivative cumetrie names both the kinship and, in Moldavia, the christening feast.^[4]

Timeline

• 1517 – the place name Cumătra, the first record of the feminine.^[4]
• 1572 – cumătrie “spiritual kinship”.^[4]
• 1581 – cumătru and încumătri “to become godparent to someone's child” in Lucaci's Pravila.^[4]
• 1660 – in the Slavonic–Romanian lexicon Lex.St.^[11]
• 1743 – cumătri “to become co-godparents” in Neculce's chronicle.^[4]
• 1847 – the diminutives cumetrel and cumetriță in Anton Pann.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. godfather or the godparent of a child, as related to the child's parents or other kin: Cumătrul a venit la cumetrie cu daruri.^[7][3]
2. (rural) A familiar form of address between men of the same age; in tales and fables, a title for animals, as cumătrul lup.^[7][2]
3. (familiar) A man.^[7][3]
4. cumătru mare: the groom's sponsor or witness at a wedding;^[3] cumătru mic, the bride's.^[3]

Word family

• cumetrie
• încumetri
• cumetrel

Related words

• cumătră
• naș
• cuscru

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1, 601
3. ^ 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
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n 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. cumătră
5. ^ a b c d e f g 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. cumătru
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. cumătru
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. 259
8. ^ Vasmer, Max (1964–1973), Ètimologičeskij slovar' russkogo jazyka, transl. and suppl. by O. N. Trubačev, 4 vols., Moskva: Progress
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 2082
10. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 376
11. ^ Ungureanu, Mădălina; Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Moruz, Alexandru (eds.), eRomLex: The First Romanian Bilingual Dictionaries (17th century), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. s.v. cumătru