cutie

Forms

cutie f (plural cutii)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ottoman Turkish قوطی (kutu), according to Ciorănescu, Wiktionary, Scriban and Șăineanu.^[2][1][3][4] DELR and DEX add Modern Greek κουτί (koutí) as a source, and DELR also names Bulgarian кутия (kutija) and Serbo-Croatian kutija, with the authors who hold each view.^[5][6] MDA2 gives the Turkish and the Greek words.^[5][6][7] Wiktionary takes the Ottoman word from the Greek one.^[1]

The Greek noun is from Ancient Greek κυτίον (kutíon), a late diminutive of κύτος (kútos, “hollow, vessel”).^[5][8] DPEWA derives Albanian kuti from Turkish kutu and notes that a Greek origin of that word has been proposed but is not generally accepted.^[9] Cihac compared Old Church Slavonic кѹтиꙗ (kutija), which, however, meant boiled wheat with honey.^[10]

The word is shared with the sister branches: Aromanian cutie and Megleno-Romanian cutiiă.^[2][11][12] Capidan takes the Megleno-Romanian word from Middle Bulgarian.^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin and DELR date the first record to 1652, in a text cited by Tiktin, in the sense of a small chest or box.^[13][5] MDA2's first record is later, before 1799, quoted by Șăineanu.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The word named a box of any size, and in the old language also a cash box or casket.^[6][5] Cutia milelor was the alms box, and in Wallachia the name of a charitable fund that Ciorănescu dates to 1775 under Alexandru Ipsilanti, run from 1793 by a vornic de cutie.^[2] Tiktin ascribes that office to Prince Alexander Moruzi.^[2][13] A copil de cutie was a foundling, and cutie de prunci a foundling home.^[2][3] In folk tales a box often holds a hero's or a monster's strength.^[4]

Technical language extended it to boxlike parts and cavities: cutie de viteze “gearbox”, cutie de rezonanță “sound box”, cutie craniană “cranium”.^[6] Regional speech uses it for a drawer, a vessel for draining cheese (Muntenia), a beehive and a window frame (Moldova).^[6][14][15] In Aromanian cutie can also mean a coffin.^[11][16]

The diminutives cutioară (1691–1697, in Teodor Corbea's dictionary) and cutiuță (1869) and cutier “cashier, tax collector” (1857) were formed in Romanian.^[5]

Timeline

• 1652 – first record, in a text cited by Tiktin.^[13][5]
• 1691–1697 – the diminutive cutioară in Teodor Corbea's dictionary.^[5]
• 1775 – the charitable fund cutia milelor, according to Ciorănescu.^[2]
• before 1799 – a record quoted by Șăineanu, MDA2's first.^[7]
• 1857 – cutier “cashier, tax collector”.^[5]
• 1869 – the diminutive cutiuță.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A box: a container of wood, metal, cardboard etc., usually shaped like a cube or a rectangular block, for keeping or protecting things: cutie de scrisori is a mailbox or letter box.^[6][7][1]
2. A device or part shaped like a box: cutie de viteze “gearbox”, cutie de rezonanță “sound box”, and cutie neagră “black box” of an aircraft.^[6][17]
3. (anatomy) A bony cavity: cutie craniană “cranium”, cutie toracică “rib cage”.^[6][18]
4. (regional) A drawer.^[6][3]
5. (dated) A cash box, a casket.^[6]

Word family

• cutier
• cutioară
• cutiuță

Related words

• Aromanian cutie
• Albanian kuti
• Modern Greek κουτί (koutí)

Usage notes

(Scos) ca din cutie means “dressed to the nines”, and in the game of leapfrog capul la cutie! means “tuck your head in”, figuratively “be careful!”.^[6][7] MDA2 also records a regional cutie “funeral wheat, colivă”, of unknown origin.^[7]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f 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. cutie
3. ^ a b c Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1, 384
4. ^ a b Șăineanu, Lazăr (1900), Influența orientală asupra limbei și culturei române, vol. I: Introducerea; vol. II.1: Vorbele populare; vol. II.2: Vorbele istorice, literare, Indice, București: Socec, p. II.1, 151
5. ^ 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. cutie
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 265
7. ^ 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, 586
8. ^ Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας, p. 725
9. ^ Demiraj, Bardhyl (ed.), Digitales philologisch-etymologisches Wörterbuch des Albanischen, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, p. s.v. kuti
10. ^ Cihac, A. de (1879), Dictionnaire d'étymologie daco-romane II: Éléments slaves, magyars, turcs, grecs-moderne et albanais, Frankfurt am Main, p. 570
11. ^ a b Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 345
12. ^ a b Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 91
13. ^ a b c Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. cutie
14. ^ Marin, Maria; Mărgărit, Iulia, Glosar dialectal. Muntenia, București: Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti”, p. 115
15. ^ Stati, Vasile (2003), Dicționar moldovenesc-românesc, Chișinău, p. 88
16. ^ 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. 2, 31
17. ^ Dimitrescu, Florica (1997), Dicționar de cuvinte recente, 2nd ed., București: Logos (with the 3rd ed., 2013, in CLRE), p. s.v. cutie
18. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. cutie