beregată

Forms

beregată f (plural beregate)^[1] The plural is beregate in the west and beregăți in the east, in Moldavia.^[2][3] Regional variants include belegată (southern Moldavia, north-eastern Muntenia), beregadă (northern Moldavia), beregheată (Banat), beregheață (Oltenia), berigată (northern Transylvania, Maramureș), gherebată (southern Muntenia) and verigată (south-western Transylvania, Arad).^[4]

Etymology

Its origin is uncertain, and the dictionaries weigh several proposals.^[4] For Pușcariu, followed by Ciorănescu and Tiktin, it is inherited from Vulgar Latin *verrūcāta (“having bumps”), formed on Latin verrūca (“wart, hillock”).^[4][5][6] The name would refer to the knobbly look of the Adam's apple, as with Spanish nuez “nut, Adam's apple”,^[5] or to the look of the windpipe taken from a slaughtered animal.^[4] The /e/ of the second syllable is put down to assimilation, and the forms with /v-/ such as verigată to the influence of verigă.^[4] The Latin noun goes back to Proto-Indo-European *wers- (“to rise”).^[1]

Skok and later Boerescu proposed instead *bilicāta, a shortening of umbilicāta (“shaped like the navel cord”), from umbilīcus (“navel”).^[4] The REW starts from the Romance sound-imitating base *garg- of Italian gargatta (Old Italian), Occitan gargata, Spanish garganta and Portuguese garganta, with /g…g/ dissimilated to /b…g/;^[7] DELR finds this hard to square with the vowel of the second syllable.^[4][7] Diculescu reconstructed a form related to Ancient Greek φάρυγξ (phárunx, “throat”), which Ciorănescu rejects, and Russu counted the word among the substrate words;^[8] Rohr compared Hungarian beragad (“to draw in, to stick”).^[4][5]

Several dictionaries compare Serbo-Croatian berikat,^[8][9][10] but Skok and Ciorănescu hold that the Serbo-Croatian word was taken from Romanian.^[5][4] The word has a cognate in Istro-Romanian bericåtę.^[4][5] DEXI calls it probably a native word, and Tiktin leaves it unexplained.^[11][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is berigată in the Latin–Romanian glossary known as Anonymus Caransebesiensis, from about 1650, where bărigate renders Latin gula “throat”.^[4][3][9] Tiktin dates the same glossary to about 1670.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The word names the larynx and, by extension, the part of the neck around it and the throat as a whole.^[4][9] It is a popular word, used of animals and of people;^[12] Ciorănescu, after the linguistic atlas, places it in Banat, Oltenia and Muntenia.^[5] Odobescu has a lynx sinking its teeth into the roe deer's beregată.^[6][3]

Several phrases grew around it: a lua pe cineva de beregată “to take someone by the throat” means to call someone to account,^[12][13] and in Vâlcea a avea beregata curcanului “to have the turkey's throat” is said of someone who gulps food down unchewed.^[3][9] Romanian formed the verbs beregătui and beregăți “to strangle”.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 1650 – berigată in the Anonymus Caransebesiensis glossary, the first record.^[4][9]
• 1931 – beregătui “to strangle” in the CADE dictionary.^[4]
• 1936–1938 – bereguș, a regional synonym with a different suffix, recorded by Pușcariu.^[4]
• 1939 – beregăți “to strangle” in Scriban's dictionary.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. (popular) The larynx.^[8][9][1]
2. By extension, the part of the neck where the larynx lies; the throat, gullet.^[8][9][11]
3. (regional) The Adam's apple.^[5][1]

Word family

• beregătui
• beregăți
• bereguș

Usage notes

A tăia beregata cuiva “to cut someone's throat” means to kill someone in that way;^[11] a-și spăla beregata “to wash one's throat” means to drink.^[11][3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1, 165
3. ^ a b c d e Academia Română (1913–1949), Dicționarul limbii române (DA), ed. Sextil Pușcariu, tom I (A–B, C, D–De) and tom II (F–I, J–Lojniță), București: Socec / Universul / Monitorul Oficial și Imprimeriile Statului; page scans at cflr-scans.solirom.ro, p. s.v. beregată
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2011–), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române (DELR), vol. I: A–B (2011), vol. II: C (2015–2018), București: Editura Academiei Române; continued online at delr.lingv.ro, p. s.v. beregată
5. ^ a b c d e f g 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. beregată
6. ^ a b c d Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. beregată
7. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 3685
8. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 100
9. ^ 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. 1, 198
10. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. beregată
11. ^ a b c d Dima, Eugenia (coord.) (2007), Dicționar explicativ ilustrat al limbii române, Chișinău: Arc / Gunivas, p. s.v. beregată
12. ^ a b Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1, 229
13. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. beregată