cusur subțire

Romanian

Etymology

Literally, “thin flaw”. Cusur (“flaw”) is a misconstruction of the unfamiliar Turkish loan usul found in the widely circulated Halima, a popular romance of Oriental origins—no other attestations are known. The original usul is itself only attested in conjunction with the adjective subțire (literally “thin”), possessing a well-established connection to the notion of slyness and cunning.

Noun

cusur subțire n (plural cusururi subțiri) (obsolete)

  1. subterfuge, cunning device [until first half of 20th century]
    Synonyms: șiretlic, tertip, viclenie, vicleșug

References

  • Ioana Anghel (1994–1995) “Note lexicale și etimologice [Lexical and etymological notes]”, in Dacoromania‎[1] (in Romanian), volume 1, Bucharest: Romanian Academy, →ISSN, pages 173–175
This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.