Translation
curtain
Word origin
From French courtine and Italian cortina, both from Late Latin cortina, a hanging cloth. The whole of kurten- is the root: the -en- in the middle is not a suffix, and the word has nothing to do with kurta, short.
- Origin
- French
- Root
- cortina
- English cognates
- curtain
Other proposed origins
- Most accounts take Late Latin cortina from cohors, genitive cortis, an enclosure or courtyard, the cloth being named for the space it screened off. (Late Latin, cohors)
- Others treat it as the older Latin cortina, a round vessel or circular thing, extended to a hanging that encircles a bed or a stage. (Latin, cortina)
Examples
.
She closed the curtains and switched on the lamp.
.
The curtains are too long for that window.
.
A blue curtain hung in front of the door.
covers the cloth at a window and the one at a theatre, and Esperanto uses it for both without qualification. Look out for the false seam: -- is not one of the language's suffixes, so there is nothing to strip off, and the root is not related to kurta, the rare word for short. What you can build off it is ordinary enough: kurteni is to curtain something and kurtenstango is the rail it hangs from.
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kurteno: worksheet, infographic and listicle
Free printable study downloads for the Esperanto word "kurteno" (curtain): a worksheet with the answer key built in, an infographic, and a sentence listicle. Open any one to view, print or save.
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Start your free weekThis word is part of lesson 35.