caftu

Forms

caftu (third-person singular caftã, participle cãftatã)^[1]

• Third person singular caftã, participle cãftatã.^[1] Cunia puts it in the first conjugation, with the aorist cãftai, the imperfect cãftam, the participle cãftatã and the long infinitive cãftari.^[2] Katsanis and Dinas give the participle cáftatu.^[3]
• Other spellings: caft in Wiktionary;^[1] CÁFTU in Papahagi's dictionary, with căftái, -tát, -táre;^[4] cáftu in Mihăileanu's Romanian-based spelling;^[5] caftu, infinitive câftari, in DIARO;^[6] κάφτου in Nikolaidis's Greek script, transcribed káftu, -tai, -tată, -tare.^[7] Pascu heads it căftare, with the variant cavtare (Dalametra, Obedenaru).^[8]
• Regional forms: kaftu in Weigand's texts;^[9] cáftu, infinitive căftáre, in the dialect of Metsovo;^[10] caftŭ in the dialect atlas, in a phrase for “to grope” (literally “to search with the fingers”).^[11]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin, but which Latin verb it continues is disputed.^[12] According to Papahagi, Pascu, and Katsanis and Dinas, it is inherited from Vulgar Latin *cautō (“to take care, to look out”);^[4][8][3] Pascu derives it from cautum, the participle of caveō (“to take care, to beware”).^[8] Candrea and Densusianu give the same etymon for Romanian căuta, and explain the senses through the stages "take care", "watch closely", "look for".^[13] Capidan derives the Megleno-Romanian verb from *cavitō,^[14] as Densusianu and Pușcariu did;^[12] Wiktionary derives it from captō (“to try to seize”),^[1] and Nikolaidis hesitated between captō and *cautō.^[7] Ciorănescu finds that captō explains the Romanian variant căta well but not căuta, that *cavitō is possible but not convincing, and that the two Latin verbs may have merged.^[12] De Vaan traces caveō to Proto-Italic *kawē- and Proto-Indo-European *kouh₁-éie- (“to perceive”).^[15]

The verb is common to the four Eastern Romance languages: Romanian căuta, Megleno-Romanian caft and Istro-Romanian cǫwtu.^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

Pascu lists Boiagi's grammar of 1813 among his sources for the verb, in the sense "to ask for".^[8]

Semantic evolution

The main senses are to look for, to ask for, and to look after: Mihăileanu has caftă pâne "he asks for bread" and mi căftă múltu "he looked after me well".^[5][4][16] Asking leads to asking for a girl in marriage (u caftu feata)^[8][16] and, in DIARO, to begging;^[17] looking after leads to the reflexive mi caftu la yeatru "I have a doctor see to me".^[16][5] Searching gives lj-caftu mintea "I sound out his mind"^[16] and, with a following verb, "to try to": cafta s' lu 'nsoară "he was trying to marry him off".^[5] Weigand also gives "to intend".^[9]

Timeline

• 1813 – the verb in Boiagi's grammar, as cited by Pascu.^[8]
• 1894 – kaftu “I seek, I demand, I intend” in Weigand's glossary.^[9]
• 1901 – cáftu “to seek, to look after, to ask for” in Mihăileanu's dictionary.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To search for, to seek, to look for.^[4][16][1]
2. To ask for, to demand; to ask for a girl in marriage.^[4][16][8]
3. To beg.^[17]
4. To look after, to care for;^[4][16][5] (reflexive) to have oneself treated by a doctor.^[4][16][5]
5. To examine, to sound out.^[16][18]
6. To try to; to intend.^[5][9]

Related words

• cãftari
• cãftat
• Romanian căuta

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 225
3. ^ a b Κατσάνης, Νικόλαος; Ντίνας, Κωνσταντίνος (1990), Γραμματική της κοινής κουτσοβλαχικής, Θεσσαλονίκη: Αρχείο Κουτσοβλαχικών Μελετών, p. 137
4. ^ a b c d e f g Papahagi, Tache (1974), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, 2nd augmented ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. 304
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Mihăileanu, Ștefan (1901), Dicționar macedo-român, București, p. 82
6. ^ Caragiu Marioțeanu, Matilda et al. (1997), Dicționar aromân (macedo-vlah) DIARO, A–D, București, p. 208
7. ^ a b Νικολαΐδης, Κωνσταντίνος (1909), Ετυμολογικόν λεξικόν της κουτσοβλαχικής γλώσσης, Αθήνα, p. 212
8. ^ a b c d e f g 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. 1, 59
9. ^ a b c d Weigand, Gustav (1894), Die Aromunen: ethnographisch-philologisch-historische Untersuchungen, vol. II: Volksliteratur der Aromunen (with a glossary), Leipzig: J. A. Barth, p. 309
10. ^ Δασούλας, Φώτης (2013), Το βλαχικό ιδίωμα του Μετσόβου, 2nd ed.
11. ^ Saramandu, Nicolae (2023), Glosar aromân, Fonetică și dialectologie XLII: 103–176, p. 118
12. ^ 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)
13. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București
14. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română
15. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
16. ^ a b c d e f g h i Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net)
17. ^ a b Caragiu Marioțeanu, Matilda et al. (1997), Dicționar aromân (macedo-vlah) DIARO, A–D, București, p. 228
18. ^ Caragiu Marioțeanu, Matilda et al. (1997), Dicționar aromân (macedo-vlah) DIARO, A–D, București, p. 227