curat

Forms

curat m or n (feminine singular curată, masculine plural curați, feminine/neuter plural curate)^[1]

Etymology

It is from Romanian cura (“to clean”), the past participle of that old verb used as an adjective.^[2][3] The verb is from Latin cūrō (“to take care of”), from cūra (“care”).^[2][3][1] Other sources take it straight from Latin cūrātus (“looked after”).^[4][5][1] The sense “to clean” has parallels in French curer and Venetian curare.^[3][2]

Pușcariu derived the verb from Latin cōlō (“to strain, filter”) alone, and the REW gives cōlātus (“clean”) as the source of the Romanian adjective.^[2][6] DELR finds this unlikely, since no forms with stressed ⟨o⟩ exist.^[2] The Academy dictionary and Ciorănescu think the two Latin verbs merged in Romanian.^[7][3]

The word survives in all four branches: Aromanian curat, Megleno-Romanian curat and Istro-Romanian curåt.^[2][8][9] The sense “precious” of stones copies Old Church Slavonic usage, Old Church Slavonic чьстьнъ (čĭstĭnŭ, “precious, honoured”), used of precious stones.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR dates the first record to about 1500, in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[2] That psalter has the feminine curată in Psalms 18:10–11 and 50:11.^[10] Tiktin's first record is the Psaltirea Scheiană, Psalm 11:7.^[11]

Semantic evolution

Old texts still use it as a participle: “husked” of maize, “cleansed” of sins, “forgiven, released” from an oath, „Curat vei fi de jurământul acesta” “you shall be free from this oath” (Bible of 1688).^[7][12] From these grew the adjective “without dirt or stains”, which became the main sense.^[7][13] Moral senses are old too: “chaste, innocent, honest”, as in Preacurata for the Virgin Mary and the saying mai bine sărac și curat “better poor and honest”.^[11][5] Folk belief gave nu e lucru curat “something uncanny is going on”, and necuratul “the unclean one” names the Devil.^[11][13] The adverb “truly, simply” is common in Creangă and Caragiale.^[14][11] Recent press uses it for a person free of drugs or of collaboration with the Securitate.^[15]

Timeline

• c. 1500–1520 – curată in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki, the first record.^[2][10]
• c. 1563–1583 – curat in the Codicele Voronețean.^[12]
• 1573–1578 – the verb cura “to clean” in the Psaltirea Scheiană.^[2]
• 1649 – Mardarie's lexicon glosses Slavonic чистый “clean, pure” with curat.^[16]
• 1688 – curat “free” of an oath in the Bucharest Bible.^[7]
• 1825 – the Lexicon de la Buda gives “pure, clean; chaste; unmixed”.^[17]

Meanings

Adjective

1. clean: free of dirt, dust or stains; of air, fresh and pure; of a room or house, well kept.^[13][12][1]
2. a trece pe curat: to make a fair copy of a text.^[13]
3. (figurative) blameless, decent.^[13]
4. (figurative) honest, sincere; pure, innocent, chaste.^[13]
5. Of the sky, clear; of water or gems, transparent.^[13]
6. Pure, unmixed: grâu curat “clean wheat”.^[13][12]
7. (figurative) of a voice, clear and ringing.^[13]
8. (figurative) plain, clear;^[14] vorbă curată: a blunt, straight word.^[13]
9. Genuine, real.^[13][12]
10. (superstition) free of a curse or spell;^[14] nu-i lucru curat: something is wrong here.^[13]

Adverb

1. Clearly, plainly; truly, simply: e curat nebunie “it is sheer madness”.^[13][14]

Word family

• curăța
• curățenie
• curățel
• curăție
• necurat

Related words

• cura
• Aromanian curat
• Latin cūrō

Usage notes

Lunea curată is the Monday after the Sunday before Lent.^[11] A separate noun curat, a loan from French curé, means a Catholic parish priest.^[12]

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. curat
3. ^ a b c d 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. cura
4. ^ Cihac, A. de (1870), Dictionnaire d'étymologie daco-romane I: Éléments latins comparés avec les autres langues romanes, Frankfurt am Main, p. 70
5. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 379
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
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. curat
8. ^ Pascu, Giorge (1925), Dictionnaire étymologique macédoroumain, 2 vols. (I: Les éléments latins et romans; II: Les éléments grecs, turcs, slaves, albanais, germaniques, magyars, néologismes, créations immédiates, obscurs), Iași: Cultura Națională, p. 1, 73
9. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 88
10. ^ 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 18:10
11. ^ 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. curat
12. ^ 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, 577
13. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 262
14. ^ a b c d Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1, 610
15. ^ Dimitrescu, Florica (1997), Dicționar de cuvinte recente, 2nd ed., București: Logos (with the 3rd ed., 2013, in CLRE), p. s.v. curat
16. ^ Ungureanu, Mădălina; Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Moruz, Alexandru (eds.), eRomLex: The First Romanian Bilingual Dictionaries (17th century), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. s.v. curat
17. ^ 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. 157