cuvânt

Forms

cuvânt n (plural cuvinte)^[1] In the old Cyrillic alphabet it was written кꙋвѫ́нть.^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin conventum (“agreement”), beside conventus (“assembly, gathering”), from conveniō (“to come together”).^{[2][3][4][1][5][6][7]} The meaning moved from “gathering” through “agreement” and “conversation” to “word”.^[8][1] It survives as Aromanian cuvendã and Istro-Romanian cuvint.^[2][9][10]

The other Romance languages kept the Latin word only as “convent, monastery”: Italian convento, French couvent, Spanish convento.^[5][2] The Romanian sense has Balkan parallels: Albanian kuvend (“conversation; assembly”), also from the Latin word, and Modern Greek κουβέντα (kouvénta, “conversation”), from the Latin through Medieval Greek.^{[2][11][12][13]} In the same way Old Church Slavonic съборъ (sŭborŭ, “assembly”) stands beside Macedonian збор (zbor, “word”) and Serbo-Croatian zbor (“conversation”).^{[2][14][15][1]} Ciorănescu notes that Berneker and Sandfeld explained the shift by a common Balkan background, and Çabej linked it with the village councils of the peninsula.^[2][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word first appears in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century, mostly in the articled form cuvîntul.^[16] Tiktin's first record is the Psaltirea Scheiană (Psalm 106:20), MDA2's the Codicele Voronețean (1563–1583).^[17][4] The old texts use it for “word, speech” and also for news, an answer and a dispute, senses Ciorănescu marks as obsolete.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Besides “word”, the noun came to mean a speech or sermon, a promise (om de cuvânt “a man of his word”), a reason (cu drept cuvânt “rightly”) and the right to speak in a meeting (a cere cuvântul “to ask for the floor”).^[3][18] Church language uses it for the Word, the second person of the Trinity: Cuvântul trup s-a făcut “the Word was made flesh”.^[19] In an old text of Acts, vite fără cuvinte “beasts without speech” renders Greek ἄλογα, and necuvântător “speechless” still names dumb animals.^[17][2] The old senses “news”, “agreement, pact” have gone.^[3] Newer uses include cuvânt-cheie “keyword”, modelled on French mot-clé, and a computing sense, a unit of binary data.^[20][3]

Timeline

• early 16th century – cuvîntul in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[16]
• 1563–1583 – cuvânt in the Codicele Voronețean.^[4]
• 1570 – cuvintele “the words” in Coresi's psalter.^[21]
• 1669 – „cu cuvântul sau cu lucrul” “in word or in deed” in a book of prayers.^[17]
• 1967 – cuvânt-cheie “keyword” in the press.^[20]

Meanings

Noun

1. A word: a basic unit of vocabulary, a sound or group of sounds joined to a meaning, as in joc de cuvinte “pun”.^[3][1]
2. Something said, a thought put into words, as in purtător de cuvânt “spokesperson”.^[3]
3. A speech, address or lecture: a lua cuvântul “to take the floor”.^[3]
4. Advice, instruction; an order.^[3]
5. A promise: om de cuvânt “a man of his word”.^[3]
6. An opinion; a right to claim something.^[3]
7. (chiefly plural) An argument, a quarrel: schimb de cuvinte “an exchange of words”.^[3]
8. A reason, cause: cu drept cuvânt “rightly”.^[3]
9. (obsolete) News, a rumour; an agreement, a pact.^[3][2]
10. (rare) The faculty of speech.^[3]
11. (Christianity, capitalised) The Word, the second person of the Trinity.^[19]
12. (computing) A unit of binary digits handled as one piece of information.^[3]

Word family

• cuvânta
• cuvântare
• cuvântător
• necuvântător
• precuvântare

Related words

• binecuvânta
• Aromanian cuvendã
• Albanian kuvend
• Latin conventus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. cuvînt
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 266
4. ^ a b c Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 587
5. ^ a b Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 42
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 2194
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Gabinschi, Marcu (2001), Dicționar de dublete etimologice ale limbii române, 2nd ed., Chișinău: Litera, p. 89
9. ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 371
10. ^ Popovici, Iosif (1909), Dialectele romîne din Istria II: texte și glosar, Halle a. S., p. 104
11. ^ a b Demiraj, Bardhyl (ed.), Digitales philologisch-etymologisches Wörterbuch des Albanischen, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
12. ^ Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας, p. 718
13. ^ Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
14. ^ Kurz, Josef; Hauptová, Zoe (eds.) (1958–1997), Slovník jazyka staroslověnského / Lexicon linguae palaeoslovenicae, 4 vols. + supplements, Praha: Academia; digital ed. gorazd.org
15. ^ Georgiev, Vladimir I. et al. (eds.) (1971–), Bălgarski etimologičen rečnik, Sofija: Izdatelstvo na Bălgarskata akademija na naukite, p. 6, 530
16. ^ a b 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 32:4
17. ^ 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. cuvânt
18. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1, 385
19. ^ a b Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 188
20. ^ a b Dimitrescu, Florica (1997), Dicționar de cuvinte recente, 2nd ed., București: Logos (with the 3rd ed., 2013, in CLRE), p. s.v. cuvânt
21. ^ 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 11:7