cusătură

Forms

cusătură f (plural cusături)^[1] Old and regional forms include cosătură, cosutură, cusetură, custură and cusutură;^[2][3] DEX lists cusutură as regional.^[2][3]

Etymology

Its origin is disputed.^[2][4] In DELR's first explanation it is inherited from Vulgar Latin *cōnsutūra (“seam”), from cōnsuō (“to sew together”), as Pușcariu, CADE and the Academy dictionary did for some of its forms; the other view, held by Tiktin and DEX, makes it a Romanian derivative of coase (“to sew”).^[2][1] DEX and MDA2 form it from Romanian cusut + -ură.^[3][5] Ciorănescu lists it among the derivatives of the verb but grants that it could continue the Latin word directly.^[4] The Academy dictionary claimed the Latin source for some variants, such as cusutură, and took the standard form from the verb.^[2]

The Latin word lives on in Aromanian cusutură.^[4][2] Romance cognates are Italian costura, French couture, Catalan costura, Spanish costura and Portuguese costura.^[6][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR's first record is Coresi's Tetraevanghel of 1560–1561;^[2][7] Tiktin points to Matthew 9:16, the patch of new cloth on an old garment.^[2][7] MDA2 starts later, with Dosoftei's lives of the saints (1682–1686).^[5]

Semantic evolution

The noun names both the act of sewing and its result, the seam.^[7][3] It also meant embroidery: the 17th-century Slavonic–Romanian lexicons use it for Slavonic words for embroidered work, and a chronicle quoted by Tiktin speaks of „cusuturile cele cu sirmă” “the embroideries with silver thread”.^[8][7]

Later senses carry the idea to metalwork, a line where plates are riveted or welded, and to surgery, the stitching of a wound and its scar.^[3] MDA2 records a regional figurative sense, a person's hidden trait of character, and an old sense “prick, stab”.^[5]

Timeline

• 1560–1561 – first record, in Coresi's Tetraevanghel.^[2][7]
• c. 1660–1670 – glosses Slavonic words for embroidery in a Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[8]
• 1682–1686 – in Dosoftei's lives of the saints.^[5]
• 1900 – the derivative cusătorea “seam”.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. sewing, stitching; in medicine, the suture of a wound.^[3]
2. A seam, where two pieces of cloth are joined by sewing; the thread of a seam; in metalwork, a riveted or welded joint; the place of a surgical stitch: I s-a desfăcut cusătura de la mânecă.^[3]
3. The way something is sewn, the stitch or pattern; by extension, sewn ornaments, embroidery.^[3][5]
4. The piece of work someone is sewing.^[3]

Related words

• coase
• cusut
• descoase

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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. coase
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 264
4. ^ a b c 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. coase
5. ^ 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, 583
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 2179
7. ^ 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. cusătură
8. ^ a b 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. cusătură