Etymologically
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casã

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Forms

casã f (plural casi or case or cãsuri)[1]

  • Plural casi, case or cãsuri.[1][2]
  • Other spellings: CÁSĂ, plural căsi, cáse and rarely că'suri, in Papahagi's dictionary;[3] cásă in Mihăileanu's Romanian-based spelling;[4] casâ in DIARO;[5] κάσα in Nikolaidis, who gives kášā, plural kắši, kắš and kašuri, for the northern varieties;[6] kasä, Meyer's reading of the word in Kavalliotis's list.[7]
  • Pascu gives the plurals case, căsi, căs and căsuri.[8]
  • Regional forms: cásă, plural cắsi, in the dialect of Metsovo;[9] 'kasă in Ohrid–Struga.[10]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin casa (“cottage, hut”).[3][8][1][6] The word is common to the four Eastern Romance languages: Romanian casă, Megleno-Romanian casă and Istro-Romanian cǫse.[11][12] Further west it gave Vegliote kuosa, Italian casa, Spanish casa and Portuguese casa, and the preposition French chez.[13][14] In Latin, casa was a small, humble dwelling, a hut.[15] Its origin is uncertain: de Vaan reports Walde–Hofmann's derivation from a root meaning “to plait”, and also allows a link with European words for a hut, such as Avestan kata- (“chamber”).[16]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Kavalliotis's Greek–Aromanian–Albanian word list of 1770, where kasä (Meyer's reading) translates Modern Greek σπίτι (spíti, “house”).[7]

Semantic evolution

From the Latin “hut, cottage” the word came to mean any house, as in the other Romance languages.[15][13][3] By extension it means the people of a house, the family, and the goods of a household, “fortune, property”.[3][17] Mihăileanu and DIARO also record the shell of a snail or a tortoise as its casă.[4][18] Cunia quotes nu mi ncapi casa “I am overjoyed”, literally “the house cannot hold me”.[2]

Timeline

  • 1770 – kasä “house” in Kavalliotis's word list.[7]
  • 1901 – cásă “house; shell” in Mihăileanu's dictionary.[4]
  • 1909 – Nikolaidis derives it from Latin casa.[6]
  • 1925 – Pascu derives it from Latin casa.[8]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A house.[17][3][1][7]
  2. (figurative) A family, a household.[2][3][1][9]
  3. (figurative) Fortune, property.[2][3][1]
  4. The shell of a snail or a tortoise.[4][18]

Word family

  • cãsicã
  • Romanian casă

Usage notes

Papahagi has a separate casă “box, chest”, which he derives from Italian cassa.[3] Cunia's second casã only refers the reader to caselã.[2]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 237
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Papahagi, Tache (1974), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, 2nd augmented ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. 318
  4. ^ a b c d Mihăileanu, Ștefan (1901), Dicționar macedo-român, București, p. 98
  5. ^ Caragiu Marioțeanu, Matilda et al. (1997), Dicționar aromân (macedo-vlah) DIARO, A–D, București, p. 183
  6. ^ a b c Νικολαΐδης, Κωνσταντίνος (1909), Ετυμολογικόν λεξικόν της κουτσοβλαχικής γλώσσης, Αθήνα, p. 205
  7. ^ a b c d Meyer, Gustav (1895), Albanesische Studien IV: Das griechisch-südrumänisch-albanesische Wörterverzeichnis des Kavalliotis, Sitzungsberichte der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften in Wien, phil.-hist. Classe 132, p. 108
  8. ^ a b c 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, 58
  9. ^ a b Δασούλας, Φώτης (2013), Το βλαχικό ιδίωμα του Μετσόβου, 2nd ed.
  10. ^ Марковиќ, Марјан (2007), Ароманскиот и македонскиот говор од охридско-струшкиот регион (во балкански контекст), Скопје, p. 56
  11. ^ Ciorănescu, Alexandru (1958–1966), Diccionario etimológico rumano, La Laguna: Universidad de La Laguna (Romanian ed.: Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române, București: Saeculum, 2001)
  12. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 63
  13. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  14. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București
  15. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  16. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  17. ^ a b Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net)
  18. ^ a b Caragiu Marioțeanu, Matilda et al. (1997), Dicționar aromân (macedo-vlah) DIARO, A–D, București, p. 179