Le destin des mots lat. ecclés. <i>commater</i> et <i>compater</i> dans les langues de l’Europe (avec une référence spéciale au roumain)

Abstract This article deals with the continuations of the Late Latin words commater and compater which, first documented in the 6th century in the Frankish Kingdom, denoted the newly developed concept of ‘co-parents’, referring to the relationship between the godparents of a baptised child and the child’s parents. Commater and compater persisted into the Romance languages and they entered some Germanic, Slavic and other European languages at an early stage, resulting in various developments of meaning. A particularly interesting case is Rom. cumătră / cumătru , where it is debated whether they originated directly from Latin or were borrowed from Slavic. Against the background of the international spread of the words, both linguistic and ecclesiastical-historical arguments are put forward to support the assumption of an inheritance from Latin.