țeavă

Forms

țeavă f (plural țevi)^[1] The older plural țeve is in Odobescu: „o pușcă cu două țeve” “a double-barrelled gun”.^[2] Moldavia had the variants țavă (plural țăvi) in the south and țevie in the north.^[3][2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old Church Slavonic цѣвь (cěvĭ, “tube”), an Old Church Slavonic word.^[4][5][2][1] MDA2 starts from Old Church Slavonic *цева (*ceva) and compares Bulgarian цева (ceva).^[6] Ciorănescu cites Miklosich and Cihac for the Slavic origin and compares цев (cev) and Polish cewa.^[4][7][8]

The word is also in Aromanian țae, a spool of weft yarn, and Megleno-Romanian țavă.^[4][9][10] The Slavic word goes back to Proto-Slavic *cěvь or *cěva “tube, spool, shin-bone”, related to Lithuanian šeivà (“spool”).^[11][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin and the DLR date the first record to 1645, in the Romanian translation of Herodotus, where slaves were made to blow into mares so that they would give more milk „cu niște țevi de os” “with some tubes of bone”.^[2][12] MDA2 starts with Dosoftei's Lives of the Saints (1682–1686): water bursts out „ca prin țevi” “as if through pipes”.^[6][2]

Semantic evolution

Old records use it for pipes of all kinds: a still's pipe in a 1732 inventory, the pipes of a water supply, a tube to drench a horse in a calendar of 1814.^[12] From the tube came the barrel of a gun and the reed spool on which the weft is wound for the shuttle.^[2][13][5] Regionally it is also a stovepipe or a gutter.^[6] Modern technical phrases include țeavă de eșapament “exhaust pipe” and țeavă de extracție, the tubing of an oil well.^[6][5] In slang it means a pistol, and also the penis.^[14]

Timeline

• 1645 – țevi de os “tubes of bone” in the Romanian Herodotus.^[2][12]
• 1682–1686 – ca prin țevi in Dosoftei's Lives of the Saints.^[6]
• 1732 – o țavă de rachiu, the pipe of a still.^[12]
• 1825 – țeavă de pușcă “gun barrel” and țeavă de țesut “weaver's spool” in the Lexicon de la Buda.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. A pipe or tube of metal, plastic, rubber etc., used especially to carry fluids;^[5][6] țeavă de eșapament “exhaust pipe”.^[5][6]
2. The barrel of a firearm: pușcă cu două țevi “double-barrelled gun”.^[5][15]
3. A spool or bobbin on which the yarn is wound for the shuttle.^[5][6]
4. (regional) A stovepipe; a gutter.^[6]
5. (slang) A pistol, a firearm.^[14]

Word family

• țevișoară

Related words

• Old Church Slavonic цѣвь (cěvĭ)
• Aromanian țae

Usage notes

A colloquial idiom is a-i trage cuiva o țeavă de bătaie “to give someone a sound thrashing”.^[6]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. țeavă
3. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1363
4. ^ a b c 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. țeavă
5. ^ a b c d e f g 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 g h i j Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 1327
7. ^ Cihac, A. de (1879), Dictionnaire d'étymologie daco-romane II: Éléments slaves, magyars, turcs, grecs-moderne et albanais, Frankfurt am Main, p. 431
8. ^ a b Vasmer, Max (1964–1973), Ètimologičeskij slovar' russkogo jazyka, transl. and suppl. by O. N. Trubačev, 4 vols., Moskva: Progress
9. ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 1032
10. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 307
11. ^ Derksen, Rick (2008), Etymological Dictionary of the Slavic Inherited Lexicon, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 4, Leiden / Boston: Brill
12. ^ a b c d Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. țeavă
13. ^ a b Lesicon românescu-latinescu-ungurescu-nemțescu quare de mai mulți autori, în cursul a trideci și mai multor ani s-au lucrat (1825), Buda: Typographia Universității (the Lexicon of Buda, ed. Petru Maior et al.), p. 707
14. ^ a b Volceanov, George (2007), Dicționar de argou al limbii române, București: Niculescu, p. s.v. țeavă
15. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. țeavă