cumplit

Forms

cumplit m or n (feminine singular cumplită, masculine plural cumpliți, feminine/neuter plural cumplite)^[1]

Etymology

It is the past participle of an old verb meaning “to destroy, to kill”, used as an adjective: from Romanian cumpli (“to kill”).^{[2][3][4][5][1]} The verb goes back to Vulgar Latin *complīre, a form of Latin complēre (“to fill up, to complete”) that passed into the fourth conjugation.^[2][3][6] Pușcariu, Candrea and Densusianu, the REW, Tiktin and the DA all take this view, and DELR follows it.^[2][3] The Latin verb is formed from con- and pleō (“to fill”), which is recorded almost only in compounds.^[2][7] The Romance relatives of the verb include Italian compiere, Old French complir, Occitan complir, Catalan complir, French accomplir and Spanish cumplir.^[2][3]

The meaning of the participle moved from “complete, perfect” to “extreme”, through phrases with ger “frost”, sete “thirst” and durere “pain”, in which it marked the highest degree.^[2] Ciorănescu finds the shift of the verb from “to finish” to “to kill” a natural one, and notes that both senses are old.^[3] The sense “full, complete” found in a few 19th-century texts is, according to DELR, probably a new reading of the word after its learned doublet complet.^[2] Tiktin also names this doublet.^[5] Cihac had placed the word in the family of plin, from plēnus.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The adjective is first recorded in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki, of the early 16th century, in the sense “terrible, ferocious”; the verb cumpli and the old noun cumplit “totality; end” appear in the same text.^[2] Tiktin's first record is from the Psaltirea Scheiană, and MDA2 dates the adjective to Varlaam's Cazania of 1643.^[5][9]

Semantic evolution

In the old language the adjective meant “cruel, merciless, fierce, terrible”: a 17th-century manuscript speaks of „o fiară cumplită ce să chiamă Gorgonia” “a terrible beast called the Gorgon”, and Miron Costin wrote „Cumplită domnia lui Aron Vodă” “cruel was the reign of Prince Aron”.^[5] MDA2 also lists the old senses “full, whole”, “harsh” and “wicked”.^[9] From “terrible” it came to stand for any extreme degree: used as an adverb it means “very, terribly”, and in familiar speech a dish or a drink can be cumplit “excellent”.^[2][4] An old sense “stingy, miserly” is recorded too, alongside the noun cumplitate “excessive stinginess”.^[4][2]

Timeline

• c. 1500-1520 – the adjective, the verb cumpli and the noun cumplit “end” in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[2]
• c. 1573-1578 – in the Psaltirea Scheiană, where the noun cumplire “end; cruelty” also appears.^[5][2]
• 1643 – the adjective and the noun cumpliciune “cruelty” in Varlaam's Cazania.^[9][2]
• 1691 – the variant încumplit “terrible”.^[2]
• 1847 – cumplitate “excessive stinginess” in Anton Pann.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. terrible, dreadful; cruel, merciless, ferocious: un ger cumplit “a terrible frost”.^[4][9][1]
2. (colloquial, of food and drink) Excellent, very tasty.^[4][9]
3. (as an adverb, intensifying) Very, extremely, terribly: Mă doare cumplit. “It hurts terribly.”^[4][10]
4. (obsolete) stingy, miserly.^[4][9]
5. (obsolete) Full, whole, complete.^[9][2]

Word family

• cumplitate
• încumplit

Related words

• cumpli
• cumplire
• cumpliciune
• complet
• Latin compleō

Usage notes

The old neuter noun cumplit meant “totality” and “end, limit”; the phrase (până) în cumplit meant “for ever”.^[9][10]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p 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. cumplit
3. ^ a b c d e 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. cumpli
4. ^ a b c d e f g DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 260
5. ^ 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. cumplit
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 2101
7. ^ Graur, Alexandru (1980), Cuvinte înrudite, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică, p. 76
8. ^ Cihac, A. de (1870), Dictionnaire d'étymologie daco-romane I: Éléments latins comparés avec les autres langues romanes, Frankfurt am Main, p. 210
9. ^ 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, 572
10. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 377