țest

Forms

țest n (plural țesturi)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin testum (“earthenware lid or baking pot”), a variant of testa (“piece of baked clay”).^[2][3][4][1] DEX gives the etymon with an asterisk, as a reconstructed form, and Scriban posits a form with short ⟨e⟩ beside the classical one.^[5][6] It is the neuter beside țeastă “skull”, which continues the feminine, and DER notes that the neuter has kept better in popular speech.^[2]

It survives in Aromanian țest and Megleno-Romanian țost.^[2] Scriban compares Italian testo, Portuguese testo, French têt and Spanish tiesto.^[6] The neologism test is a doublet.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is Coresi's Gospel book of 1561, in Mark 15:22: „Și duseră el la locul Golgothei ce iaste de se spune locul țăstului” “and they brought him to the place Golgotha, which is called the place of the skull”.^[7] MDA2 gives the Tetraevanghel of 1574.^[3] The first sense is “skull”, and the 17th-century Slavonic–Romanian lexicons gloss Golgotha with țestului.^[8]

Semantic evolution

In the old language țestul capului was the skull: Moxa's chronicle tells how Krum had Nicephorus's skull bound in gold and drank wine from it.^[7][9] Dosoftei uses it for the capital of a column and for the shell of a tortoise, a sense still regional today, as is “skull”.^[7][10]

The everyday modern sense is the baking cover of clay or cast iron: heated, it is placed over the dough or cornbread on the hearth.^[4][3] Klein's dictionary of 1801 and the Lexicon of Buda of 1825 already list it, the latter with both the baking cover and the tortoise shell.^[11][12] The adjective țestos “shelled” gave broască țestoasă “tortoise”.^[1][2] Regional senses include the wooden frame of a saddle and a hollow in a riverbank where fish hide.^[7][10] In slang it means “head”.^[13]

Timeline

• 1561 – țăstului “of the skull” in Coresi's Gospel book (Mark 15:22), the first record.^[7]
• 1574 – in the Tetraevanghel.^[3]
• 1649 – țestului glossing Golgotha in Mardarie's lexicon.^[8]
• 17th century – the capital of a column and the shell of a tortoise in Dosoftei.^[7]
• 1801 – listed by Klein.^[11]
• 1825 – the baking cover and the tortoise shell in the Lexicon of Buda.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. A bell-shaped cover of baked clay or cast iron, heated and set over bread or cornbread to bake it on the hot hearth.^[5][3][1]
2. (popular) The shell of a tortoise.^[5][1]
3. (regional) The skull.^[10][7]
4. (regional) The wooden frame of a saddle.^[10][7]

Word family

• țestos
• broască țestoasă

Related words

• țeastă
• test
• Aromanian țest
• Latin testum

Usage notes

The plural is țesturi, with an older țeste.^[5][7] Old and regional variants include țist, țeșt and țăst.^[3][9] MDA2 lists many phrases, among them a pune cuiva țestul în cap “to make a fool of someone” and a fi cu țestul în spate “to be hunchbacked”.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d 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. țeastă
3. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 1331
4. ^ a b Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. țest
5. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1161
6. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1, 1364
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. țest
8. ^ a b Ungureanu, Mădălina; Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Moruz, Alexandru (eds.), eRomLex: The First Romanian Bilingual Dictionaries (17th century), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. s.v. țestului
9. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. țest
10. ^ a b c d Bulgăr, Gheorghe; Constantinescu-Dobridor, Gheorghe (2002), Dicționar de arhaisme și regionalisme, 2 vols., București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. țest
11. ^ a b Gáldi, László (ed.) (1944), Samuel Klein: Dictionarium valachico-latinum. Primul dicționar al limbii române, Budapest: Királyi Magyar Pázmány Péter Tudományegyetemi Román Intézet (Klein's dictionary of 1801, with Gáldi's etymological study), p. 462
12. ^ 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. 706
13. ^ Volceanov, George (2007), Dicționar de argou al limbii române, București: Niculescu, p. s.v. țest