cuviință

Forms

cuviință f (plural cuviințe)^[1]

Etymology

It is probably inherited from Latin convenientia (“agreement, harmony, fitness”), with its sense shaped by the verb cuveni “to be fitting”.^{[2][3][4][5][1]} DELR names this view, held by Pușcariu, Tiktin, CADE, the DA and DEX, beside the alternative that the noun was formed in Romanian on that verb.^[6] Ciorănescu prefers the Romanian formation, with the suffix -ință on the same stem as cuvios.^[7] The verb itself is conveniō (“to come together; to be fitting”).^[6][7]

The neologism conveniență is its doublet.^[7][2][1] DELR explains the old sense “glory, majesty” by a Slavonic model and the sense “convenience” by French convenance.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR dates the first record to Coresi's Tetraevanghel of 1560–1561.^[6] MDA2 has a first record of 1574 in a Tetraevanghel, and Tiktin and roPsalt cite it from the Psaltirea Scheiană of the 1570s.^[3][8][9]

Semantic evolution

Old Romanian used the noun for what is due to someone or fitting, for likeness and for majesty or splendour.^[6][3] The 17th-century Slavonic–Romanian lexicons use it to render Slavonic words for “beauty, splendour” and “seemliness”.^[10] The sense of seemly behaviour, “propriety, decency”, became the main one: Dosoftei has bună cuviință “good manners”, and DELR dates the compound bună-cuviință from 1683.^[8][6]

The noun took part in several phrases: a fi de cuviință “to be fitting”, a găsi de cuviință “to see fit” and cele de cuviință “what is needed”.^[8][4] Its derivatives include cuviincios “decent”, from 1691–1697, and necuviință “indecency”, from 1581.^[6] Under Slavonic prěpodobije the Psaltirea Scheiană formed preacuviință “great piety”.^[6] In the 19th century Latinist writers used a learned form cuvenință.^[7][6]

Timeline

• 1560-1561 – cuviință in Coresi's Tetraevanghel, the first record.^[6]
• c. 1573-1578 – cuviință in the Psaltirea Scheiană.^[9][8]
• 1581 – the derivative necuviință in Coresi's Cazania.^[6]
• 1683 – bună-cuviință “good manners” in Dosoftei.^[6]
• 1691-1697 – cuviincios in Teodor Corbea's dictionary.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. propriety, decency, politeness; good conduct.^[4][3][1]
2. (in phrases) după cuviință “as is proper”;^[4][3] a găsi de cuviință “to see fit, to think it right”;^[4][3] cele de cuviință “what is needed”.^[4][3]
3. (obsolete) What is due to someone by right.^[3][6]
4. (obsolete) Glory, majesty, splendour.^[3][6]
5. (obsolete) likeness, resemblance.^[3][6]

Word family

• cuviincios
• necuviință
• preacuviință
• bună-cuviință

Related words

• cuveni
• cuvios
• conveniență
• Latin convenientia

Usage notes

The hiatus is kept in pronunciation: cu-vi-in-ță.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b 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. cuviință
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 588
4. ^ a b c d e f g DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 266
5. ^ Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 42
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p 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. cuveni
7. ^ 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. cuveni
8. ^ a b c d Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. cuviință
9. ^ 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 8:2
10. ^ 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. cuviință