Cursa

Cursa is a Romanian noun (written cursă with diacritics) that derives from Latin cursus, meaning a run or course. In Romanian, cursa is most often used to denote a race or running competition, and it appears in contexts such as horse racing (cursa de cai) or motor racing (cursa de mașini).

The term also extends to transportation schedules. In this sense, cursa refers to a scheduled service or flight, for example a flight or bus/train service described as a cursă aeriană or cursă feroviară. In both senses, cursa is a common element of sports reporting, travel timetables, and everyday speech.

Orthography and usage: the correct Romanian word carries the diacritic on the final vowel (cursă). In writing where diacritics are omitted, the form cursa is used, which corresponds to the same pronunciation in normal relaxed text.

Cross-linguistic notes: cursa shares a cognate base with related words in several Romance languages, such as corsa in Italian and course in French, all evolving from the Latin cursus to denote a run, path, or race. In Romanian, the related noun curs, without the final vowel, more often means “course” in the sense of a path or direction rather than a competition.

See also: cursă (disambiguation), cursă aeriană, cursă feroviară.