cursă

cursă¹ race; run of a vehicle

Forms

cursă f (plural curse)^[1]

Etymology

The word for a race or a regular run is borrowed from French course.^[2][3][4][1] DELR explains the French noun as an old feminine participle of Old French corre (“to run”), from Latin currō.^[2] Wiktionary takes it from the Old French noun cours, from cursus, with the influence of Italian corsa.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is of 1820, and DELR's of 1844.^[5][2] The first sense the DA quotes is a trip, a ride: Negruzzi asks whether someone might agree “to make a cursă” on a donkey.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The DA's senses are a trip by carriage or on horseback, the fare for it, an errand in town, and the horse races.^[6] The regular run of a vehicle on a timetable, and the vehicle itself, came later: in Moldova a cursă is a bus on a route.^[3][7] Technical and sporting senses followed: the stroke of a machine part, races of every kind, and cursa înarmărilor “the arms race”.^[3][4] In prison slang a cursă is a group of prisoners moved from one jail to another.^[8]

Timeline

• 1820 – the first record.^[5]
• 1844 – cursă in a text of Stoica.^[2]
• 1872 – a ride, a trip, in Negruzzi.^[4][6]
• 1930 – curse în oraș “errands in town” in an advertisement in Universul.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A regular run of a vehicle on the same route and to a timetable; the vehicle itself: Ultima cursă pleacă la zece. “The last bus leaves at ten.”^[3][4][1]
2. The stroke of a machine part between its two end positions.^[3]
3. (colloquial) A trip, an errand.^[3][6]
4. A race: a contest in covering a set distance on foot, on horseback or in a vehicle; in the plural, the horse races.^[3][1] In cursa înarmărilor, the arms race.^[3][4][1]

cursă² trap, snare

Forms

cursă f (plural curse)^[1]

Etymology

The origin of the word for a trap is disputed.^[2][9] DELR puts first the view that it is a substrate word, akin to Albanian kurth or kurthë (“trap”); the DA took it from Albanian or from the same source, and Rosetti, Russu, Brâncuș and Mihăilă, with DEX, compare the Albanian word.^[2][10][3] MDA2 calls it of unknown origin and compares the Albanian word too.^[4] Wiktionary gives the Albanian noun as a diminutive of a word for “clematis”, originally “loop”.^[1]

The other view makes it a noun from cure (“to run”), the verb continuing Latin currō, and compares Medieval Latin cursa (“raid, plundering expedition”): so Candrea–Densusianu, Laurian and Massim, Tiktin and Ciorănescu.^[2][11] Ciorănescu traces the sense from “to run” through “to run after, to corner” to “to hunt, to catch”, as in French chasser, and concludes that the Albanian word would then come from Romanian.^[9] G. Meyer connected the Albanian word with Ottoman Turkish قرص (kurs, “disc”), and Șăineanu derived the Romanian one from it indirectly;^[11][9] Ciorănescu finds this unlikely.^[11][9] Diculescu proposed Ancient Greek κυρτία (kurtía, “lattice”), and Scriban compared κύρτη (kúrtē, “fish trap”).^[2][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century, which has cursele in Psalm 17:6, the “snares of death”.^[2][13][10] The Psaltirea Scheiană has the literal snare: „În cursa aceasta ce ascunseră legă-se piciorul lor” “in the snare that they hid their own foot is caught” (Psalm 9).^[10][4]

Semantic evolution

From the start the word had both the literal trap and the figurative snare of the psalms, a danger that lies in wait.^[10][11] Ciorănescu notes that it appears in the 16th century with the sense “ambush”.^[9] The 17th-century Slavonic–Romanian lexicons gloss it with the Slavonic words for a net.^[14] A fable in a manuscript of about 1705 tells how a monkey snatched the meat and was caught in the trap.^[11] The modern figurative sense is a cunning plan to catch or harm someone, in a întinde cuiva o cursă “to lay a trap for someone” and a cădea în cursă “to fall into the trap”.^[3][4]

Timeline

• c. 1500-1520 – cursă in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki, the first record.^[2][15]
• c. 1573-1578 – the literal snare in the Psaltirea Scheiană.^[4][10]
• 1660 – cursă glossing the Slavonic word for “net” in a Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[14]
• 1688 – cursă in the Bucharest Bible.^[16]
• c. 1705 – s-au prins în cursă “was caught in the trap” in a fable.^[11]
• 1801 – cursa “snare” in Klein's dictionary.^[17]
• 1871 – cursar “trap maker”.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A trap or snare for catching wild animals; ground prepared so that an animal stepping on it is caught: o cursă de șoareci “a mousetrap”.^[3][4][1]
2. (figurative) A cunning means of catching, exposing or harming someone; a plot, an ambush: a întinde cuiva o cursă “to set a trap for someone”, a cădea în cursă “to fall into the trap”, a atrage în cursă “to lure”.^[3][4]
3. (dated) Danger.^[4][10]

Word family

• cursar