cute

Forms

cute f (plural cute)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin cōs (“whetstone”), from its accusative cōtem.^{[2][3][4][5][1]} The word survives south of the Danube: Aromanian cuti and Megleno-Romanian cuti.^[2][3][6] Its Romance cognates include Italian cote, French queux and Occitan cot.^[3][7][8]

The vowel is irregular: Latin /oː/ under stress regularly gives /oa/, as in floare from flōrem, so Ciorănescu calls the Romanian result abnormal and puts it down to the analogy of cuțit and ascuți.^[3] Wiktionary gives the same explanation.^[1] Candrea and Densusianu found the change of the vowel unexplained, unless the verb for sharpening influenced it.^[7] DELR instead compares other words where Latin ō became /u/: curte, mură and ușă, following Philippide.^[2]

The Latin noun goes back to a Proto-Italic stem meaning “whetstone” and to Proto-Indo-European *ḱeh₃- (“to sharpen”).^[9][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word first appears as a personal name, Cute, in a document of 1268.^[2][4] As a common noun it is first recorded in Dosoftei's verse psalter of 1673, where a razor is sharpened on it: „Un brici ascuțât pre cute” “a razor sharpened on a whetstone”.^[2][4][10] MDA2 also gives Dosoftei's psalter as the first record.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The core sense has stayed the same: a stone for sharpening blades, above all the scythe.^[11][5] The DA notes that the word belongs to the west and north of Romania, and that in the south gresie has largely taken its place.^[12] Cantemir uses it in a saying: „Cuțitul pre cute se ascute” “the knife is sharpened on the whetstone”.^[10][12]

A second sense, the wet, sticky streak in bread that is not baked through, is old: Klein's dictionary of 1801 and the Lexicon de la Buda of 1825 already record it.^[13][14][5] Regional speech also uses the word for a natural channel down the side of a hill.^[5][15] In Moldavia beat cute means “dead drunk”.^[4][12]

Timeline

• 1268 – Cute as a personal name in a document, the first record.^[2][4]
• 1673 – cute “whetstone” in Dosoftei's verse psalter.^[2][10]
• 1801 – Klein's dictionary records the sense “streak of unbaked dough in bread”.^[13]
• 1825 – the Lexicon de la Buda gives both senses, with Latin cos.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. A whetstone made of sandstone, used to sharpen cutting tools, especially the scythe.^[11][5][1]
2. (regional) The wet, sticky streak in a loaf that is not properly baked.^[5][15]
3. (regional) A natural channel running down a hillside.^[5][15]

Related words

• Latin cōs

Usage notes

The plural is cute.^[11] MDA2 also gives cuți.^[5] The same spelling is the plural of cută “fold”, a separate word.^[11] DELR lists two further nouns cute of unknown origin: a part of the bagpipe made of elder wood (1907), and a Bucovinian pipe tobacco of whole leaves (1912).^[2] In Moldavia cute is also a regional form of the pronoun câte.^[12]

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 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. cute
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. cute
4. ^ 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. cute
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 586
6. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 91
7. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București, p. 467
8. ^ Cihac, A. de (1870), Dictionnaire d'étymologie daco-romane I: Éléments latins comparés avec les autres langues romanes, Frankfurt am Main, p. 72
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ a b c Costinescu, Mariana; Georgescu, Magdalena; Zgraon, Florentina (1987), Dicționarul limbii române literare vechi (1640–1780): termeni regionali, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică, p. 1, 118
11. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 265
12. ^ 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. cute
13. ^ a b Gáldi, László (ed.) (1944), Samuel Klein: Dictionarium valachico-latinum. Primul dicționar al limbii române, Budapest: Királyi Magyar Pázmány Péter Tudományegyetemi Román Intézet (Klein's dictionary of 1801, with Gáldi's etymological study), p. 346
14. ^ 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. 160
15. ^ a b c Bulgăr, Gheorghe; Constantinescu-Dobridor, Gheorghe (2002), Dicționar de arhaisme și regionalisme, 2 vols., București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. cute