țâță

Forms

țâță f (plural țâțe)^[1] The old form is țiță: the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki has „upovăința mea de la țița mumei meale” “my hope from my mother's breast”.^[2][3] MDA2 records the old and regional variant țiță and a regional neuter țâț (plural țâțuri), which DLR explains as a singular made from the plural.^[4][2]

Etymology

Its origin is disputed: for DEX, MDA2 and DLR it is inherited from Vulgar Latin *titia, a form of Latin titta (“teat”), as it is for Pușcariu and the REW.^{[5][4][2][6][1]} The word is found in all four branches: Aromanian tsãtsã, Megleno-Romanian țǫță and Istro-Romanian țițe.^[6][1] Its Romance cognates include Italian tetta, French tette and Spanish teta.^[6][1]

Ciorănescu sees in it an expressive creation of Romanian, perhaps older than the language, which coincides with similar words of nursery speech across Indo-European: Ancient Greek τιτθός (titthós, “breast”), Albanian sisë and German Zitze.^[6] He finds a loan from Slavic, proposed by Miklosich, less likely.^[6] Wiktionary gives three possibilities: an expressive creation, an old pre-Roman word, or the Late Latin form.^[1] For the French word the DHLF prefers a West Germanic source, while DELI finds a Germanic origin of the Italian one very doubtful and takes it from a Latin nursery word.^[7][8][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki (early 16th century), as țița in Psalm 21: “my hope from my mother's breast”.^[4][2][3] Coresi's Psalter of 1570 has the plural țițele in the same psalm.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The word means the breast of a woman or the teat of an animal, and by extension the nipple and the milk.^[4][2] Most of its phrases are about nursing: a da țâță “to suckle”, copil de țâță “a suckling baby”, la țâță “at the breast”.^[5][4] Its shape gave the spout of a water jug and the cell in which the queen bee grows.^[5] Scriban records a rounded hillock as țâță.^[10]

Many plant names are compounds of the word: țâța-caprei (goat's beard), țâța-oii (foxglove), țâța-vacii (a long-berried grape and the oxlip).^[5][10] DEX labels the word popular and gives sân as its synonym.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 1500–1520 – țița in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki, Psalm 21.^[3][4]
• 1570 – țițele in Coresi's Psalter.^[3]
• 1688 – țâță and țâțele many times in the Bucharest Bible.^[11]
• 1746 – „Mielul s-au gonit de la țițe” “the lamb was weaned from the teats”, a dated record.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (popular) a breast or mammary gland; the teat or nipple;^[5][4][1] a da țâță “to suckle”, copil de țâță “a suckling”.^[5][4][1]
2. (popular) each of the teats of an udder.^[4][1]
3. The spout of a jug through which one drinks.^[5]
4. (popular) the cell in which the queen bee develops.^[5][6]
5. In plant names: țâța-caprei, țâța-oii, țâța-vacii, țâța-oilor (arnică).^[5]

Word family

• țâțos

Related words

• Aromanian tsãtsã

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. țîță
3. ^ a b c d e Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Ungureanu, Mădălina; Moruz, Alexandru et al., roPsalt: Re-evaluating the Sixteenth Century Romanian Psalters (aligned corpus), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. Ps 21:9
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 1325
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1160
6. ^ a b c d e f Ciorănescu, Alexandru (1958–1966), Diccionario etimológico rumano, La Laguna: Universidad de La Laguna (Romanian ed.: Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române, București: Saeculum, 2001), p. s.v. țîță
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
9. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
10. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1369
11. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Ieș 2:7