căuta

• căta — popular

Inherited from Latin captō, captāre. Phonetically, it may have resulted from the merger of more than one Latin word originally; the variant form căta is likely derived from the Vulgar Latin form *cattāre (compare Spanish and Portuguese catar, Venetan catar), but various other etymologies have been proposed for the standard form: it has been considered by some as originating from or being influenced by a root *cavitāre, from cavitum, popular form of cautum, or from *cautāre, as a verbal derivative of cautus, or from *cabtāre, as an incorrect pronunciation of captāre, on the basis of a similar transformation from Latin in cases such as presbyter > Romanian preot. Compare also Aromanian caftu, cãftari.

• IPA^(key): /kə.uˈta/, (commonly) /kəwˈta/

• Audio:

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• Rhymes: -a
• Hyphenation: că‧u‧ta

• Audio:

  (file)

a căuta (third-person singular present caută, past participle căutat, third-person subjunctive caute) 1st conjugation

1. (transitive) to search (for), seek
2. (transitive, informal, chiefly in the negative) to have any business

   Ce cauți aici? ― What are you doing here?

   El nu are ce căuta în această casă.

   He has no business being in this house.

• căutare

• “căuta”, in DEX online—Dicționare ale limbii române (Dictionaries of the Romanian language) (in Romanian), 2004–2025