cum

Forms

cum^[1]

• Also cumu, with the old final -u, which Papahagi says survives in folk poetry for the metre and in speech before clitics that cannot make a syllable of their own (cúmu l-vidzú “as he saw him”).^[2] Wiktionary gives cumu as an alternative form.^[1]
• Other spellings: CUM in Papahagi's dictionary;^[3] cum in Dalametra's and Mihăileanu's Romanian-based spelling;^[4][5] cumu in DIARO;^[6] kum[u] in Weigand's glossary;^[7] kumu, the editor's reading of the Greek-script entry in Kavalliotis's word list;^[8] kum in Daniil's Tetraglosson.^[9]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *quomo (“how”),^[1][10] a shortened form of Latin quōmodo (“in what way, how”).^[3][1][10] Candrea and Densusianu explain the loss of the end of the word by its unstressed position in the sentence.^[11] The Latin adverb was often still written in two parts, the ablative of quī (“who, which”) and modus (“manner”),^[12] and the forms without -d- are attested securely from the middle of the 1st century AD.^[1]

The word is common to the four Eastern Romance languages: Romanian cum, Megleno-Romanian cum and Istro-Romanian cum.^[13][14][15] Further west the same Latin word gave Italian come, French comme, Spanish como and Portuguese como.^[16][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Kavalliotis's Greek–Aromanian–Albanian word list of 1770, where the word, read kumu by its editor, translates Greek πῶς “how?”.^[8]

Semantic evolution

The Latin sense “how, in what way” was kept, and Aromanian also uses the word for “how much, at what price”, for “as, like”, and as a conjunction of time, “while” and “as soon as”.^[3][17] Papahagi quotes cum vín'iră, acșí s' dúsiră (“as they came, so they went”) and cum u vidzúră, cum u-arăkíră (“as soon as they saw her, they carried her off”).^[3] Doubled, cum di cum means “by any means”,^[3][10][18] and the exclamation am, cum! answers a question or a threat with “no way!”.^[3][18]

Timeline

• 1770 – kumu (the editor's reading) for Greek πῶς “how?” in Kavalliotis's word list.^[8]
• 1814 – kum éste for Greek πῶς εἶναι “how is it” in Daniil's Tetraglosson, as printed by Leake.^[9]
• 1894 – kum[u] “how” in Weigand's glossary.^[7]
• 1901 – cum “how”, with cum esci? “how are you?”, in Mihăileanu's dictionary.^[5]
• 1925 – Pascu derives it from Latin *quomo, a form of quōmodo.^[10]

Meanings

Adverb

1. How?, in what way?; also why?, how can it be that?^[3][17][1]
2. How much?, at what price?^[3][17]
3. As, like; the way in which.^[3][17][5]

Conjunction

1. while, when.^[3][17][18]
2. As soon as.^[3][19]

Interjection

1. (in am, cum!) No way!, not a chance!^[3][18]

Related words

• Romanian cum

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1974), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, 2nd augmented ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. 406
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Papahagi, Tache (1974), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, 2nd augmented ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. 402
4. ^ Dalametra, I. (1906), Dicționar macedo-român, București: Academia Română, p. 1
5. ^ a b c Mihăileanu, Ștefan (1901), Dicționar macedo-român, București, p. 132
6. ^ Caragiu Marioțeanu, Matilda et al. (1997), Dicționar aromân (macedo-vlah) DIARO, A–D, București, p. 101
7. ^ a b Weigand, Gustav (1894), Die Aromunen: ethnographisch-philologisch-historische Untersuchungen, vol. II: Volksliteratur der Aromunen (with a glossary), Leipzig: J. A. Barth, p. 312
8. ^ a b c 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. 101
9. ^ a b Leake, William Martin (1814), Researches in Greece, London (prints Daniil of Moscopole's Tetraglosson), p. 398
10. ^ 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. 1, 72
11. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București
12. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 38
14. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 85
15. ^ Kovačec, August (1998), Istrorumunjsko-hrvatski rječnik (s gramatikom i tekstovima), Pula
16. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
17. ^ 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)
18. ^ a b c d Papahagi, Pericle (1905), Basme aromâne și glosar, București: Academia Română, p. 570
19. ^ Vrabie, Emil (2000), An English-Aromanian (Macedo-Romanian) Dictionary, University, Mississippi: Romance Monographs, p. 123