корчма/cr âşmă

[Hugh Olmsted]

Dear Seelangers,
A couple of things remain to  be  said about  the Slavic origins of  
the term '*kъrčьma' (k, [back jer], r, [c-hachek], [front jer], ma)  
and its derivatives.
Judging both by morphological-lexical-semantic criteria and by  
incidence in the Slavic languages, it seems clear that it is indeed  
firmly Slavic in origin, and early (by the Common Slavic period,  
anyway).  It is found throughout Slavic territories in the sense  
'wine-shop, drinking establishment, tavern', with derivative meanings  
ranging from 'feast' to ''hosting' to 'strong drink' itself.
Trubachev (Etim.  slovar' sl. jazykov, 13:210-211)  derives it from  
the verb *kъrčiti 'contort, twist, root out'  (cf. Rus. korchit' --  
twist, writhe), in the derived expressive sense 'pop a cork', with  
the nominal suffix -ьma (as also in ved'ma).  Many other attempts  
have been made to reconstruct a plausible origin (cited for instance  
ibid. and in Vasmer), prompting Vasmer's conclusion of difficulty in  
hitting on a solution, but for my money Trubachev's seems most  
convincing.
At least it seems clear that the Romanian is  a Slavic borrowing.
Za Vashe zdorovie!
Hugh Olmsted


On Aug 11, 2009, at 6:33 PM, Kathryn Cassidy wrote:

> Dear All,
>
> I was hoping that someone would be able to confirm for me whether  
> the Ukrainian word корчма and Romanian word crâşmă have the  
> same root. Obviously, they have the same meaning and sound like  
> they may come from the same origin, but I am a little unsure. If  
> anyone has an references I could check on this, I'd appreciate it.
>
> Thank you.
>
> Kathryn Cassidy
>
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