cuprins

Forms

cuprins n (plural cuprinsuri)^[1] A variant coprins is common in older texts: „Tot celălalt coprins al lui Tartă-Cot, îl împărțiră între dânșii Strâmbă-Lemne și Freacă-Pietre” “all the rest of Tartă-Cot's property was shared out between Strâmbă-Lemne and Freacă-Pietre” (Ispirescu).^[2][3]

Etymology

It is a noun made from the past participle from Romanian cuprinde (“to embrace, contain”).^{[3][4][5][6][2]} The verb continues Latin comprendō (“to grasp, comprehend”), a contracted form of comprehendō, built on prendō (“to seize”).^[5][6]Wiktionary takes the noun directly from the Latin participle comprensus.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR dates the noun to about 1650, in an anonymous glossary, with the variant coprins.^[5] MDA2's first record is in Miron Costin, as printed in the Letopisețe, with old senses such as “enclosure” and “fortified courtyard of a castle”.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The early senses are concrete and legal: an enclosure, the fortified court of a castle, the occupation of a country, rule over it, and the property someone holds.^[4][3] From “what is held within bounds” came “territory, region”, “boundary” and “the surrounding space”, and then the expanse of something, as in „în tot cuprinsul României” “throughout the whole of Romania”.^[4][2] The sense “contents”, of a pot or a book, is recorded by Tiktin and Scriban, and “table of contents” is the main modern one.^[2][7][3] Tiktin also records cuprins de casă “farmstead” and necuprinsul “the infinite”.^[2]

Timeline

• 1560–1561 – the verb cuprinde in Coresi's Tetraevanghel.^[5]
• 1643 – the participle as an adjective, in Varlaam.^[2]
• 1648 – necuprins “infinite”.^[5]
• c. 1650 – the noun, in an anonymous glossary.^[5]
• 1691–1697 – the adjective “well-off” in Corbea's dictionary.^[5]
• 1825 – the Lexicon de la Buda gives the participle with Latin occupatus.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. The contents of something, such as a book; a table of contents.^[3][9][1]
2. expanse, area, surface: în tot cuprinsul țării “throughout the country”; the surrounding space;^[3][9][1] (obsolete) a place, region.^[3][9][1]
3. (obsolete) Rule, dominion; property.^[3][4]
4. (obsolete) The fortified courtyard of a castle.^[3][4]

Word family

• necuprins

Related words

• cuprinde
• cuprinzător
• prinde

Usage notes

DEX has a separate adjective cuprins, the participle of cuprinde: rarely “embracing each other”, popularly “well-off, wealthy”.^[3] DELR dates the sense “well-off” to 1691–1697, and MDA2's first record of the adjective is in a text of before 1650–1675, with older senses such as “sensible” and “covered, enveloped (by fire, mist)”.^[5][4] Creangă wrote of a man so wealthy that the mountains filled with his flocks, „atât era de cuprins”.^[2] The noun's plural is cuprinsuri.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. cupríns
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 261
4. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 575
5. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. cuprinde
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. cuprinde
7. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 379
8. ^ Lesicon românescu-latinescu-ungurescu-nemțescu quare de mai mulți autori, în cursul a trideci și mai multor ani s-au lucrat (1825), Buda: Typographia Universității (the Lexicon of Buda, ed. Petru Maior et al.), p. 156
9. ^ a b c Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. cuprins