scufunda

Forms

scufunda (third-person singular present scufundă, past participle scufundat, third-person subjunctive scufunde) 1st conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian s- + cufunda (“to plunge, sink”), with a prefix that strengthens the verb.^[2][3][4][1] Ciorănescu lists it as a Moldavian variant of the older verb, and DELR as a member of its family.^[5][6] The older verb is probably *cōnfundāre, from Latin cōnfundō (“to pour together, mix”), influenced in form and sense by *affundāre (“to sink”), the derivative of fundus (“bottom”) that gave afunda.^[6][5]

Wiktionary also allows a Vulgar Latin *excōnfundāre, comparing Sicilian scuffundare;^[1] Ciorănescu and DELR cite a Calabrian verb of the same shape for the older one.^[1][5][6] Ungureanu compares a Salentine form.^[7] Graur groups both Romanian verbs under the same Latin verb.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR and MDA2 date the verb from the Lexicon of Buda of 1825, in the sense “to put or go wholly into water or another liquid”.^[6][9] The base cufunda is much older, from Coresi's prints of 1566.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The verb competes with cufunda and shares its senses: to sink into water, to go to the bottom (of ships), to drown.^[9][2] Figuratively the heavenly bodies se scufundă when they set, the eyes sink into their sockets, the ground caves in, and a person sinks into an activity.^[3][9] In slang it is used jokingly for confunda “to confuse”.^[10]

Romanian formed nouns from it: scufundare “sinking, immersion”, scufundător “diver” and the bird names scufundar and scufundaci.^[9][6]

Timeline

• 1825 – scufunda in the Lexicon of Buda, the first record.^[6][9]
• 1893 – scufundare in Damé's dictionary.^[9]
• 1896 – scufundător in Șăineanu's dictionary.^[9]
• 1924 – scufundar, a diving bird, in Murnu's Odyssey.^[6]
• 1931 – scufundaci in CADE.^[6]
• 1940 – de-a scufunda “wholly” in the linguistic atlas.^[6]

Meanings

Verb

1. (reflexive and transitive) To go or put wholly into water or another liquid; to immerse, plunge.^[3][9][1]
2. To sink, go or send to the bottom, of a ship after damage;^[2] (figurative) of heavenly bodies, to set.^[3][9]
3. (reflexive) To sink deep into something soft; of eyes, to sink into their sockets; of the ground, to cave in;^[2] n-are să se scufunde pământul: no great harm will come of it.^[3]
4. (figurative, rare) To absorb or be absorbed in an activity or a concern.^[3]

Word family

• scufundare
• scufundat

Related words

• cufunda
• afunda
• fund

Usage notes

MDA2 and DELR record the old variant scofunda and the regional scufânda and scofânda.^[9][6] In Banat and Oltenia the noun scufunda survives in de-a scufunda or de-a scufundele “wholly, entirely”.^[2][9][11]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. scufunda
3. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 995
4. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. scufunda
5. ^ 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. cufunda
6. ^ 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. cufunda
7. ^ Ungureanu, Dan (2024), Istoria limbii române, Chișinău: Cartier, p. 358
8. ^ Graur, Alexandru (1980), Cuvinte înrudite, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică, p. 48
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 829
10. ^ Volceanov, George (2007), Dicționar de argou al limbii române, București: Niculescu, p. s.v. scufunda
11. ^ Bulgăr, Gheorghe; Constantinescu-Dobridor, Gheorghe (2002), Dicționar de arhaisme și regionalisme, 2 vols., București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. scufunda