curge

Forms

curge (third-person singular present curge, past participle curs, third-person subjunctive curgă) 3rd conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin currō (“to run”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱers- (“to run”).^[2][3][4][1] The regular outcome was cure (old ⟨curre⟩), with the present ⟨cur⟩ and the participle curs.^[2][5] Towards the end of the 17th century the form with ⟨g⟩ replaced it, on the model of merge with its participle mers.^[2][6] DELR and the DA add that the new form avoided an awkward homonymy in the present.^[2][7] Ciorănescu and Pușcariu point to the whole group of verbs whose participle ends in ⟨-s⟩, such as șterge and unge.^[8]

South of the Danube the forms are Aromanian curare, Megleno-Romanian curari and Istro-Romanian curje.^[2] DELR considers the change of conjugation in Aromanian and Megleno-Romanian and the new consonant of the Istro-Romanian form parallel innovations, later than Common Romanian.^[2] Papahagi derived the Aromanian verb from Latin cōlō (“to strain”) instead.^[2] The Romance cognates include Italian correre, French courir, Catalan córrer, Spanish correr and Portuguese correr.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the old form curre in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki (c. 1500).^[2] The Codicele Voronețean (c. 1563–1583) has the infinitive curere.^[5][3] The psalters of the 16th century use cure and the past curseră.^[9]

Semantic evolution

Latin currere could already be said of water.^[10] The old language kept the sense “to run” for people: Dosoftei writes of Pelagia that „cursă la sânta besearică” “she ran to the holy church”, and the sense survived in Transylvania and the Banat.^[5][3] The new form curge was used only for liquids and abstract things, so the sense “to run, flee” stayed with cure.^[8]

From the flow of water came the flow of crowds and vehicles, of words and of time, and the old sense “to result, follow from”, now expressed by decurge.^[4][5] In some regions the reflexive means “to lose its colour” (of yarn).^[11]

Timeline

• c. 1500 – curre in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[2]
• 1563–1583 – curere in the Codicele Voronețean.^[5][3]
• 1570 – curgător “flowing”, in the form curător, in Coresi.^[2]
• 1570 – cure in Coresi's Psalter.^[12]
• 1679 – cursoare “current, flow” in Dosoftei.^[2]
• late 17th century – the form curge appears.^[2]
• 1717 – curătoare “trough, vat”.^[2]
• 1823 – precurge “to overflow”, in Bobb.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. Of water, to flow, moving steadily down the slope; of rain, to pour.^[4][1]
2. To float, drift along with the current: Pe râu curgeau crengi rupte.^[4]
3. Of blood, to circulate.^[4]
4. Of tears, sweat or blood, to run, drip; to suppurate; of a melting substance, to run down; of a vessel, to leak.^[4]
5. To come off piece by piece; to hang, fall down: Părul îi curgea pe umeri.^[4]
6. Of people or vehicles, to come in a continuous stream.^[4]
7. (figurative) Of speech or style, to flow easily; of time or life, to pass.^[4]
8. Of terms and interest, to be counted from a date.^[4]
9. (archaic) To result, follow from something.^[4][5]
10. (archaic, regional, in the form cure) To run.^[3][5]

Word family

• curgător
• curs
• cursoare
• precurge
• curătoare

Related words

• scurge
• decurge
• curent
• curând

Usage notes

Idioms include a curge gârlă “to come in plenty”, va curge multă apă pe Dunăre “much time will pass” and dacă nu curge, pică “even if the gain is small, there is some”.^[4] The old form cure still lives in Oltenia, the Banat and Transylvania.^[4][10]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n 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. curge
3. ^ a b c d e Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 580
4. ^ 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. 263
5. ^ 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. curge
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 2415
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. curge
8. ^ 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. curge
9. ^ 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 104:40
10. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București, p. s.v. curge
11. ^ Cazacu, Boris (coord.) et al. (1967), Glosar dialectal. Oltenia, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. 52
12. ^ 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 68:33