cu

See also: Appendix:Variations of "cu"

Languages (30)

Ahtna • Allentiac • Aromanian • Asturian • Catalan • Central Mazahua • Chinese • French • Galician • Italian • Kayan • Lower Sorbian • Mandarin • Middle English • Middle Irish • Millcayac • Occitan • Old English • Portuguese • Romagnol • Romanian • Romansh • Sicilian • Spanish • Tagalog • Tarantino • Turkish • Vietnamese • Welsh

Page categories

Translingual

Symbol

cu

(international standards) ISO 639-1 language code for Old Church Slavonic.

Ahtna

Adverb

cu

Usage notes

Appears with a final glottal stop (cuʼ) in some derivatives.

Derived terms

coxe (“again, more”)
cu ntsʼe (“what else?”)
cughat (“elsewhere”)
cuyaenʼ (“changing”)
cuʼden (“another time”)
cuʼdoxe (“a different area”)
cuʼtsʼendzeʼ (“changing”)

References

Kari, James (1990), Ahtna Athabaskan Dictionary, Fairbanks, Alaska: Alaska Native Language Center, →ISBN, page 120

Allentiac

Pronoun

cu

I, first-person singular

References

Discovery of a Fragment of the Printed Copy of the Work on the Language of the Millcayac Indians (1913)
Willem F. H. Adelaar, The Languages of the Andes (2004), citing Luis de Valdiva's work

Aromanian

Etymology

From Latin cum. Compare Romanian cu.

Preposition

cu

with

Asturian

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ˈku/ [ˈku]
Rhymes: -u
Syllabification: cu

Preposition

cu

(Cabrales) alternative form of con

Interjection

cu

Interjection used repeatly to call those hiding in hide and seek

Pronoun

cu

(Somiedo, Armellada de Órbigo) alternative form of que

Catalan

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): (Northern, Balearic, Central, Valencia, Northwestern) [ˈku]
Rhymes: -u

Noun

cu f (plural cus)

The name of the Latin script letter Q/q.

Central Mazahua

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /kʷ/

Letter

cu (upper case Cu)

A letter of the Mazahua alphabet.

Chinese

Noun

cu

(Hong Kong Cantonese, billiards, snooker, pool) cushion (lip around the table)
撞cu [Hong Kong Cantonese] ― zong⁶ ku¹ [Jyutping] ― (please add an English translation of this usage example)

French

Noun

cu m (plural cus)

alternative spelling of ku

Galician

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ˈku/ [ˈku]
Rhymes: -u
Hyphenation: cu

Etymology 1

From Old Galician-Portuguese cuu, from Latin cūlum (“ass”). Cognate with Portuguese cu and Spanish culo.

Noun

cu m (plural cus)

(vulgar, anatomy) ass, arse, booty, rear, behind, butt, buttocks
Synonyms: nádegas, pandeiro, traseiro
(vulgar, anatomy) anus
bottom of a vessel or bottle

Derived terms

Etymology 2

Borrowed from Spanish cu.

Noun

cu m (plural cus)

(proscribed) The name of the Latin script letter Q/q.
Synonym: que

References

“cu”, in Dicionario da Real Academia Galega (in Galician), A Coruña: Royal Galician Academy, 2012–2026
“cu”, in Dicionário Estraviz de galego (in Galician), 2014–2026
Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, editor (2006–2013), “cu”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios da lingua galega [Dictionary of Dictionaries of the Galician language] (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, Ernesto Xosé González Seoane, María Álvarez de la Granja, editors (2003–2018), “cu”, in Tesouro informatizado da lingua galega (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
Rosario Álvarez Blanco, editor (2014–2024), “cu”, in Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega, →ISSN

Italian

Etymology

From Latin kū (the name of the letter Q).

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ˈku/
Rhymes: -u
Hyphenation: cù

Noun

cu m or f (invariable)

The name of the Latin script letter Q/q.; cue

Kayan

Etymology

Cognate with S'gaw Karen စု (su), Eastern Pwo စူး (cɯ́), Western Pwo စူၪ, Pa'o Karen စူ, Bwe Karen cū, Geba Karen cuhlè.

Noun

cu

hand

Lower Sorbian

Alternative forms

com

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): [t͡su]

Verb

cu

first-person singular present of kśěś

Mandarin

Romanization

cu

nonstandard spelling of cū
nonstandard spelling of cú
nonstandard spelling of cǔ
nonstandard spelling of cù

Usage notes

Transcriptions of Mandarin into the Latin script often do not distinguish between the critical tonal differences employed in the Mandarin language, using words such as this one without indication of tone.

Middle English

Noun

cu

alternative form of cow

Middle Irish

Noun

cu m

alternative spelling of cú

Millcayac

Pronoun

cu

I, first-person singular

References

Discovery of a Fragment of the Printed Copy of the Work on the Language of the Millcayac Indians (1913)

Occitan

Noun

cu f (plural cus)

cue (the letter q, Q)

Old English

Etymology

Inherited from Proto-West Germanic *kō (“cow”).

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /kuː/
Rhymes: -uː

Noun

cū f (nominative plural cȳ)

cow
- c. 992, Ælfric, "Of Saint James the Apostle"
  Ān cū wearþ ġebrōht tō þām temple þæt man hīe ġeoffrode.
  A cow was brought to the temple to be sacrificed.

Declension

	singular	plural
nominative	cū	cȳ
accusative	cū	cȳ
genitive	cūe, cūs, cȳ	cūa, cūna
dative	cȳ	cūm, cūum

Derived terms

Descendants

Middle English: cow, cou, cowe, cu, kow, kowe, ku
- English: cow (see there for further descendants)
  Geordie: coo
  Ottawa Valley: cou, ceu, kew
  West Riding: caa, cah
- Scots: coo, coe, cou
- Yola: keow, keouw, keowe

Portuguese

Alternative forms

cú (misspelling)

Etymology

Inherited from Old Galician-Portuguese cuu (“ass”), from Latin cūlum. Compare Galician cu, Spanish and Italian culo, French cul, and Romanian cur.

Pronunciation

(Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈku/

(Portugal) IPA^(key): /ˈku/

Audio (Portugal (Porto)): (file)
Rhymes: -u

Noun

cu m (plural cus) (vulgar)

buttocks; arse, ass, butt, bum
Synonyms: see Thesaurus:nádegas
anus; butthole
Synonyms: see Thesaurus:ânus
(Brazil) anything or anyone annoying, boring or somewhat bad
Synonym: cuzão

Essa música é um cu ― This song is ass

Usage notes

In Brazil, the term refers generally to the anus, only sometimes being used to mean the buttocks.

Derived terms

Related terms

Romagnol

Noun

cu m or f (invariable)

The name of the Latin script letter Q/q.

Romanian

Alternative forms

ку (cu) — post-1930s Cyrillic spelling

Etymology

Inherited from Latin cum, from Proto-Italic *kom, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱóm (“next to, at, with, along”). Cognate with Sicilian cu.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ku/
Audio: (file)
Rhymes: -u

Preposition

cu (+accusative)

with
Vreau să vin cu tine.
I want to come with you.
with (in the instrumental sense)
Vin cu bicicleta.
I come by bicycle.

Lovesc o oglindă cu ciocanul.
I hit a mirror with the hammer.

Usage notes

Cu is the only preposition (other than very specific uses of pe and la) that can be followed by an articulated noun without any modifier (an adjective or a possessive or demonstrative pronoun, primarily).

References

“cu”, in DEX online—Dicționare ale limbii române (Dictionaries of the Romanian language) (in Romanian), 2004–2026

Romansh

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Latin quod.

Conjunction

cu

(Puter) than

Sicilian

Etymology 1

From Latin cum. Compare Italian con, Romanian cu.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ku/ (stressed)
IPA^(key): [kʊ] (unstressed, triggers gemination)
Rhymes: -u
Hyphenation: cu

Preposition

cu

with

Usage notes

When followed by a definite article, cu combines with the article to produce the following combined forms:

cu + article	Combined form
cu + u	cû
cu + lu	cu lu
cu + a	câ
cu + la	cu la
cu + i	chî
cu + li	cu li
cu + l'	cu l'

Related terms

Etymology 2

Pronoun

cu

(misspelling, eye dialect) alternative form of cu'; (apocope of) cui

Spanish

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ˈku/ [ˈku]
Audio (Spain): (file)
Rhymes: -u
Syllabification: cu

Noun

cu f (plural cus or cúes)

Name of the letter q

Tagalog

Etymology

Borrowed from Spanish cu, the Spanish name of the letter Q / q.

Pronunciation

(Standard Tagalog) IPA^(key): /ˈku/ [ˈkʊ]
Rhymes: -u
Syllabification: cu
Homophones: Coo, Cu, Khoo

Noun

cu (Baybayin spelling ᜃᜓ) (historical)

the name of the Latin script letter Q/q, in the Abecedario
Synonym: (in the Filipino alphabet) kyu

Tarantino

Etymology

From Latin cum.

Preposition

cu

with

Turkish

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ˈd͡ʒu/

Interjection

cu

(chiefly Internet, humorous) An interjection designed to rhyme with "ananın amcuğu" (especially used to trick a person into asking the meaning).
"Cu'da bomba patlamış, duydun mu?" "Cu neresi?" "ANANIN AMCUĞUUUUU"

Vietnamese

Vietnamese Wikipedia has an article on:

cu

Wikipedia ^vi

Pronunciation

(Hà Nội) IPA^(key): [ku˧˧]
(Huế) IPA^(key): [kʊw˧˧]
(Saigon) IPA^(key): [kʊw˧˧]

Etymology 1

From Proto-Vietic *t-kuː (“dove”); ultimately onomatopoeic. Cognate with Kha Phong təkuː¹. Compare Thai เขา (kǎo), Chinese 鳩 (OC *[k](r)u) (B-S), Burmese ခို (hkui), English coo.

This is the form without both diphthongization and lenition. Also in common use are câu, bồ câu, both with diphthongization. The form gâu (in chim gâu) with both diphthongization and lenition is also attested.

Noun

(classifier con) cu • (鴝) (phonemic reduplicative cu cu)

dove; pigeon (especially the wild ones)

Interjection

cu • (鴝)

(onomatopoeia) coo

Etymology 2

From etymology 1. For semantic relationship, compare English cock, Chinese 屌 (diǎo), 鳥 / 鸟 (“bird”), Cantonese 㞗, 鳩 / 鸠 (“pigeon”), Thai นกเขา (nók-kǎo, “pigeon”). Also see cò, chim.

Noun

(classifier con) cu

(anatomy, informal) penis; cock; prick

Noun

cu • (俱)

(colloquial) boy
Thằng cu đó quậy thật.
He's one mischievous boy.

Cu Tí ơi!
Hey, Ti-boy!

Ê cu! Lại đây biểu!
Hey boy! Come here!

Welsh

Etymology

From Middle Welsh ku, from Proto-Brythonic *kʉβ̃ (compare Breton kuñv), from Proto-Celtic *koimos (“dear, nice”) (compare Old Irish cóem), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱóymos (“of the home, belonging to the family”) (compare English home, Lithuanian káimas (“village, countryside”), Sanskrit क्षेम (kṣéma, “basis, foundation”)).

Pronunciation

(North Wales) IPA^(key): /kɨː/
(South Wales) IPA^(key): /kiː/
Homophone: ci (South Wales only)

Adjective

cu (feminine singular cu, plural cu, equative cued, comparative cuach, superlative cuaf)

dear, beloved
Synonyms: annwyl, hoff

Derived terms

Mutation

Mutated forms of cu
radical	soft	nasal	aspirate
cu	gu	nghu	chu

Note: Certain mutated forms of some words can never occur in standard Welsh.
All possible mutated forms are displayed for convenience.

	singular		plural
	masculine	feminine	plural
	u / lu	a / la	i / li
a	ô (older also: a lu)	â (older also: a la)	ê (older also: a li)
di	dû (older also: di lu)	dâ (older also: di la)	dî (older also: di li)
cu	cû (older also: cu lu)	câ (older also: cu la)	chî (older also: cu li)
pi	pû (older also: pi lu)	pâ (older also: pi la)	pî (older also: pi li)
*nna*	nnô (older also: nna lu)	nnâ (older also: nna la)	nnê (older also: nna li)
*nni*	nnû (older also: nni lu)	nnâ (older also: nni la)	nnî (older also: nni li)

Translingual

Symbol

Ahtna

Adverb

Usage notes

Derived terms

References

Allentiac

Pronoun

References

Aromanian

Etymology

Preposition

Asturian

Pronunciation

Preposition

Interjection

Pronoun

Further reading

Catalan

Pronunciation

Noun

Central Mazahua

Pronunciation

Letter

See also

Chinese

Alternative forms

Etymology

Pronunciation

Noun

French

Noun

Galician

Pronunciation

Etymology 1

Noun

Derived terms

Etymology 2

Noun

See also

References

Italian

Etymology

Pronunciation

Noun

See also

Kayan

Etymology

Noun

Lower Sorbian

Alternative forms

Pronunciation

Verb

Mandarin

Romanization

Usage notes

Middle English

Noun

Middle Irish

Noun

Millcayac

Pronoun

References

Occitan

Noun

Old English

Etymology

Pronunciation

Noun

Declension

Derived terms

Descendants

Portuguese

Alternative forms

Etymology

Pronunciation

Noun

Usage notes

Derived terms