Etymologically
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cu

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Forms

cu[1]

  • Before a vowel it can lose its vowel: c' in Papahagi's dictionary (di c' noapte “while it was still night”),[2] c- in his folk-tale glossary (di c- seară “from the evening on”), and co- in co-aestă “with this”.[3]
  • Other spellings: CU in Papahagi's dictionary;[2] cu in the Romanian-based spelling of Dalametra and Mihăileanu;[4][5] ku in Weigand's transcription.[6]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin cum (“with”).[7][2][1] Wiktionary traces the Latin preposition through Old Latin com to Proto-Italic *kom and Proto-Indo-European *ḱóm (“next to, at, with”);[1] the Oxford Latin Dictionary compares the Oscan prefix com- and the Old Irish prefix con-.[8]

The word is common to the four Eastern Romance languages: Romanian cu, Megleno-Romanian cu and Istro-Romanian cu.[9][10][11][12] Candrea and Densusianu explain the loss of the m: stressed, the word became cun, a form found in inscriptions and kept in Romanian in a few set phrases, while unstressed it lost the consonant, and that form spread.[10] Further west it gave Italian con, Spanish con and Portuguese com; in France and Catalonia it was replaced by descendants of Latin apud.[13]

Semantic evolution

Aromanian kept the Latin senses of company and means and widened them: the word links a person or thing to another that goes with it, that it contains or carries, or that serves as its instrument, and marks a point in time.[14][2] Papahagi quotes dzî cu gúra, nu cu mína “speak with your mouth, not with your hand”.[2] In counting it works like “and”: doi şi cu doi fácŭ patru “two and two make four”.[5][6]

Timeline

  • 1813 – the preposition in Boiagi's grammar, as cited by Pascu.[7]
  • 1894 – ku “with; and” in Weigand's glossary.[6]
  • 1901 – cu “with” in Mihăileanu's dictionary.[5]
  • 1906 – cu in Dalametra's dictionary.[4]

Meanings

Preposition

  1. with, together with.[14][1][2][4]
  2. With, by means of (the instrument).[14][2]
  3. With, carrying or containing.[14][2]
  4. At, by (a point in time): di cu noapte “while it was still night”.[14][2]
  5. And, plus, in counting.[5][6]
  • Romanian cu

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Papahagi, Tache (1974), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, 2nd augmented ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. 391
  3. ^ Papahagi, Pericle (1905), Basme aromâne și glosar, București: Academia Română, p. 569
  4. ^ a b c Dalametra, I. (1906), Dicționar macedo-român, București: Academia Română, p. 69
  5. ^ a b c d Mihăileanu, Ștefan (1901), Dicționar macedo-român, București, p. 128
  6. ^ 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. 311
  7. ^ a b 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, 71
  8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  9. ^ Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 37
  10. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București
  11. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 82
  12. ^ Kovačec, August (1998), Istrorumunjsko-hrvatski rječnik (s gramatikom i tekstovima), Pula
  13. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  14. ^ 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)