cur

Forms

cur n (plural cururi)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin cūlus (“backside, anus”).^{[2][3][4][5][6][7][1]} Intervocalic /l/ became /r/, as the authors of the Lexicon de la Buda already noted.^[8] The word survives in all four branches: Aromanian cur, Megleno-Romanian cur and Istro-Romanian cur.^{[2][3][9][10]} DELR calls it panromance;^[3] its cognates include Italian culo, French cul, Occitan cul, Catalan cul, Spanish culo and Portuguese cu.^[2]

The origin of the Latin word is uncertain.^[11] De Vaan traces it to Proto-Italic *kūlo- (“back”) and compares Old Irish cúl (“back”);^[11][1] Pokorny's root Proto-Indo-European *(s)kewH- (“to cover”) has been given up, and de Vaan suggests *kuH-lo- (“backside, rear”) instead.^[11][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first records are personal names: Tiktin cites Cur-Sec and Cur-Gios from a document of 1437.^[5] A charter of 1517 has curul pământului in the sense “the end, the edge (of the land)”.^[3] As an ordinary noun for the backside it is first found in the Anonymus Caransebesiensis, a Romanian–Latin glossary of the second half of the 17th century, as Kur glossed with Latin cullus.^[3][4][7]

Semantic evolution

The DA notes that in the old language the word was not coarse, and that among ordinary speakers it still was not.^[7] It is now labelled popular.^[12] From the body it passed to the back or bottom end of things: the bottom of a glass, the back of a cart.^[2][13] In Moldavia it is also the base of a haystack.^[5]

Some phrases name plants and diseases: curul boului is the dog rose,^[5] and cur de găină “hen's backside” is a skin rash.^[13][14][8] Romanian formed several derivatives from it: cureș and curos “broad-bottomed”, curiman “man with a large backside” and curar “breeching strap of a harness”.^[3][2]

Timeline

• 1437 – the personal names Cur-Sec and Cur-Gios in a document.^[5]
• 1517 – curul pământului “the end of the land” in a charter.^[3]
• c. 1650 – Kur in the Anonymus Caransebesiensis.^[3][4]
• 1870 – cureș “broad-bottomed”.^[3]
• 1886 – curar “breeching strap”.^[3]
• 1893 – curos “broad-bottomed”.^[3]
• 1895 – curiman “man with a large backside”.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. (popular) The buttocks, the backside; the bottom one sits on.^[12][4][2]
2. (vulgar) The anus.^[2][1]
3. (popular) The back or bottom end of an object.^[2][13]

Word family

• curar
• cureș
• curi
• curiman
• curișor
• curos

Related words

• Aromanian cur
• Latin cūlus

Usage notes

The plural is cururi; older texts also have a masculine plural curi.^[4] Expressions include cu curul în două luntre “undecided, playing both sides”, literally “with one's backside in two boats”,^[4][5] and a rămâne cu curul pe gheață “to end up ruined”.^[4][7] An old verb cur “to run”, from Latin currō, is now replaced by curge.^[6][13]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. cur
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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. cur
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, 576
5. ^ a b c d e f Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. cur
6. ^ a b Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 40
7. ^ a b c d 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. cur
8. ^ a b 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. 159
9. ^ Popovici, Iosif (1909), Dialectele romîne din Istria II: texte și glosar, Halle a. S., p. 104
10. ^ Kovačec, August (1998), Istrorumunjsko-hrvatski rječnik (s gramatikom i tekstovima), Pula
11. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. cūlus
12. ^ a b DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 261
13. ^ a b c d Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 379
14. ^ Cihac, A. de (1870), Dictionnaire d'étymologie daco-romane I: Éléments latins comparés avec les autres langues romanes, Frankfurt am Main, p. 70