camã

Forms

camã f (plural cami or came)^[1]

• Other spellings: CÁMĂ, plural cáme, in Papahagi's dictionary, which notes the variant acámă;^[2] acamã in Cunia;^[1] cáma in Mihăileanu's Romanian-based spelling;^[3] CAMA, plural came, in Pascu;^[4] CÁMǍ in Polenaković;^[5] κάμα, read kama, in Nikolaidis's Greek script.^[6]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Turkish kama (“two-edged dagger”),^[4][5] a word that spread through the Balkans: Papahagi compares Modern Greek κάμα (káma) and Albanian kamë, both from Turkish,^[2] and Polenaković adds Serbo-Croatian kama and the Bulgarian word.^[5] Pascu notes that the Turkish word means both "peg" and "two-edged dagger".^[4] Nikolaidis gives the Greek word as its source.^[6] Greek κάμα "kind of two-edged knife" is itself taken from Turkish.^[7][8]

Nişanyan derives it from kakma (“nail, peg”), perhaps from kak- (“to drive in”); he notes that the "dagger" sense is widespread in the Caucasus, possibly through Georgian or Armenian, but takes the word to be Turkish in the end.^[9] Eren compares a Turkmen word for "dagger" and notes that the Persian word was taken from Turkish; he also reports Menges's view that it came from the North-West Caucasian languages.^[10] Babiniotis mentions a possible Armenian source meaning "nail".^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The oldest dictionary to record it, Mihăileanu's of 1901, glosses it as a two-edged stiletto.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The Turkish word meant a peg and a two-edged dagger;^[4] Cunia defines it as a short, pointed hand weapon and also as a knife;^[1] Papahagi glosses it "large dagger; knife".^[2]

Timeline

• 1901 – cáma “two-edged stiletto” in Mihăileanu's dictionary.^[3]
• 1906 – the word for a two-edged dagger in Dalametra's dictionary.^[11]
• 1909 – κάμα “two-edged dagger” in Nikolaidis's dictionary.^[6]
• 1925 – Pascu derives it from Turkish kama.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A dagger, a short two-edged stiletto.^[1][2][11]
2. A knife.^[1][2]

Usage notes

Cunia's second camã, for which he gives no plural, only refers to gamã;^[1] Papahagi's dictionary has the same cross-reference.^[2] Geagea's Câmă "party, faction", a word of Epirus from Greek κόμμα, is another word.^[12]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 231
2. ^ a b c d e f Papahagi, Tache (1974), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, 2nd augmented ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. 310
3. ^ a b c Mihăileanu, Ștefan (1901), Dicționar macedo-român, București, p. 88
4. ^ a b c d e 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, 117
5. ^ a b c Поленаковиќ, Харалампие (2007), Турски елементи во ароманскиот јазик, Скопје, p. 92
6. ^ a b c Νικολαΐδης, Κωνσταντίνος (1909), Ετυμολογικόν λεξικόν της κουτσοβλαχικής γλώσσης, Αθήνα, p. 190
7. ^ Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
8. ^ a b Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας, p. 621
9. ^ Nişanyan, Sevan, Nişanyan Sözlük: Çağdaş Türkçenin Etimolojisi (online edition)
10. ^ Eren, Hasan (1999), Türk Dilinin Etimolojik Sözlüğü, Ankara: Bizim Büro
11. ^ a b Dalametra, I. (1906), Dicționar macedo-român, București: Academia Română, p. 47
12. ^ Geagea, Christea (1932), Elementul grec în dialectul aromân, Cernăuți: Institutul de Arte Grafice și Editură Glasul Bucovinei (offprint from Codrul Cosminului VII, pp. 205–431), p. 332