cunună

Forms

cunună f (plural cununi)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin corōna (“wreath, crown”), a word found in all the Romance languages.^[2][3][4][1] The Latin word is from Ancient Greek κορώνη (korṓnē, “crow; anything curved; a kind of crown”).^[5][1] The word survives south of the Danube: Aromanian curunã and Megleno-Romanian curună.^[3][2][1] Its Romance cognates include Italian corona, Spanish corona, French couronne and Portuguese coroa;^[3] the Albanian word is kurorë.^[3]

The /n/ of the second syllable is not the regular outcome of Latin /r/: Ciorănescu takes the dialect form curună (northern Transylvania, Aromanian, Megleno-Romanian) as the normal one, later altered by assimilation.^[3][6] Wiktionary explains the /n/ as a hypercorrection of the rhotacism of some Old Romanian dialects, which turned /n/ into /r/.^[1] DELR records rhotacized forms such as curură from those areas.^[2]

coroană is a later borrowing of the same Latin word, and the DA and Ciorănescu call the two doublets.^[7][3] Giuglea derived the variant corună from Latin columna (“column”), a view Ciorănescu reports.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century, in the forms cunrură and conrură.^[2] MDA2 dates its first record to the Codicele Voronețean of about 1563–1583.^[4] Tiktin cites the Psaltirea Scheiană (Psalm 64:12).^[8] In the old texts it meant a royal crown as well as a wreath: the Bible of 1688 tells how David took the crown from the head of the king of the Ammonites, „luo David cununa lui Molhom”.^[8]

Semantic evolution

The word first meant both a wreath of leaves or flowers and a ruler's crown.^[2][8] The sense “royal crown” passed in time to coroană, and cunună kept the wreath, especially the crowns of the Orthodox wedding, held over the heads of the bride and groom, and the laurel wreath of a victor.^[8][9]

From the shape came many transferred senses: a string of onions or garlic, a woven wattle of osiers along a fence, a ring of mountains or of teeth, the beams that close the top of the walls of a wooden house (Maramureș, Transylvania), the treadles of a loom (Bukovina), the coronet of a horse's hoof, and in Moldavia cununa cerului “the rainbow”.^[2][3] Regional glossaries add the beam above the water that holds the paddles of a watermill.^[10] The plant Coronilla varia is also called cunună.^[3][11]

Timeline

• c. 1500-1520 – cunrură and conrură in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki, the first record.^[2]
• c. 1563-1583 – cunună in the Codicele Voronețean.^[4]
• c. 1573-1578 – cunună in the Psaltirea Scheiană.^[8]
• 1688 – cununa “royal crown” in the Bucharest Bible.^[8]
• 1838 – the diminutive cununiță, also a plant name.^[2]
• 1897 – the diminutive cununică.^[2]
• 1909 – the diminutive cununaș in folk poetry.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A wreath or garland of flowers, leaves or branches, worn on the head;^[9][1] cunună de lauri a laurel wreath.^[9][1]
2. The crown held over or placed on the heads of a couple at an Orthodox wedding.^[9][12]
3. A ring of things arranged in a circle: cunună de munți a ring of mountains;^[9] cunună de raze a halo.^[9]
4. A string of onions or garlic.^[9][13]
5. (dated) A royal crown.^[4][8]
6. (regional) The top beams of the walls of a wooden house, on which the roof rests.^[3][10]

Word family

• cununa
• cununaș
• cununat
• cununică
• cununie
• cununiță
• descununa
• încununa

Related words

• coroană
• Aromanian curunã
• Latin corōna

Usage notes

The plural is cununi;^[4] MDA2 also records a rare plural cunune.^[4] Regional variants are curună (northern Transylvania) and curură.^[2][6]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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. cunună
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. cunună
4. ^ a b c d e f 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. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1, 378
7. ^ 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. cunună
8. ^ a b c d e f g Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. cunună
9. ^ 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. 1, 260
10. ^ a b Ștef, Dorin (2021), Dicționar de regionalisme și arhaisme din județul Maramureș, 3rd ed., Baia Mare, p. s.v. cunună
11. ^ Panțu, Zach. C. (1929), Plantele cunoscute de poporul român. Vocabular botanic cuprinzând numirile române, franceze, germane și științifice, 2nd ed., București: Editura Casei Școalelor, p. 76
12. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. cunună
13. ^ Breban, Vasile (1980), Dicționar al limbii române contemporane de uz curent, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică, p. 133