cunoaște

Forms

a cunoaște (third-person singular present cunoaște, past participle cunoscut, third-person subjunctive cunoască), 3rd conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *connōscō, the popular form of Latin cognōscō (“to get to know”), remade after the simple verb nōscō.^[2][3][4] Wiktionary gives the Late Latin form as conōscō.^[1] The Latin verb is formed from con- and gnōscō (“to know”).^[1][2]

The word survives in all four branches: Aromanian cunoscu, Megleno-Romanian cunos and Istro-Romanian cunoscu.^[3][5][6] The form with ⟨-nn-⟩ also gave Italian conoscere, French connaître, Catalan conèixer and Spanish conocer, while the regular ⟨cognōscere⟩ lives on in northern Italian dialects and Portuguese.^[2][3][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR dates the verb to about 1500, the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki, which has cunoaşte, cunoscu and other forms.^[2][8] MDA2 gives the Codicele Voronețean (c. 1563–1583) and Tiktin the Psaltirea Scheiană.^[4][9]

Semantic evolution

The old language used the verb more widely than today: “to understand, conclude”, “to admit as true”, “to recognise” and “to be grateful”.^[2][3] The Bible of 1688 has the imperative cunoaște! “know!” after Ancient Greek γνῶθι (gnôthi); it also had the biblical sense of carnal knowledge.^[9][3] In modern times many of these senses passed to recunoaște.^[3]

The family is old: cunoaștere “knowledge” is recorded from 1559–1560, cunoscut “acquaintance” from 1581, and cunoștință “knowledge, acquaintance” is derived from the verb as well.^[2][3] Cipariu, Drăganu and the DA took the 17th-century plural cunoștințe “acquaintances” from the Latin participle cognoscentem.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1500 – the first record, in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[2][8]
• 1559–1560 – cunoaștere “knowledge” in the Codex Bratul.^[2]
• c. 1563–1583 – in the Codicele Voronețean.^[4]
• 1581 – cunoscut “acquaintance” in Coresi's Evanghelie cu învățătură.^[2]
• 1688 – the imperative cunoaște! “know!” in the Bucharest Bible.^[9]
• 1763 – binecunoscând “knowing well”.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To know: to grasp the nature and properties of things truly; to have knowledge from study or experience.^[10]
2. To know who someone is; to be acquainted with someone; reflexive, to know each other.^[10][1]
3. To recognise, identify; to tell apart.^[10]
4. Reflexive, impersonal, to be noticeable, to show: se cunoaște că a plouat “you can tell it has rained”.^[10]

Word family

• arhicunoscut
• autocunoaște
• autocunoaștere
• cunoaștere
• cunoscut
• cunoștință
• încunoștința
• necunoaștere
• necunoscător
• recunoaște
• cunoscător
• binecunoaște

Related words

• ști
• Aromanian cunoscu
• Latin cognōscō

Usage notes

Expressions include a-și cunoaște lungul nasului “to know one's place” and a face cunoscut “to make known”.^[10][4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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. cunoaște
3. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. cunoaște
4. ^ a b c d Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 573
5. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 330
6. ^ Popovici, Iosif (1909), Dialectele romîne din Istria II: texte și glosar, Halle a. S., p. 103
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 2031
8. ^ a b 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 91:6
9. ^ a b c Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. cunoaște
10. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 260