boace

Forms

boace f (plural boci)^[1] Marian's charms of 1886 have the form boci in the sense “voice”: „Cu boci mare pân' la ceriu” “with a loud voice up to the sky”.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin vōx (“voice”), from its accusative vōcem, a word that survives across the Romance languages.^{[3][4][5][2][6]} Candrea and Densusianu start from a spoken Latin form with /b-/, *bōcem.^[7] The Latin word comes from Proto-Indo-European *wṓkʷs (“speech, voice”).^[1][8]

It survives south of the Danube as Aromanian boatsi.^[3][5][9] Its Romance cognates include Dalmatian baud, Italian voce, Sardinian boge, French voix, Spanish voz and Portuguese voz.^[6][7] The modern word voce is its doublet.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR dates the first record to 1844, in a text quoted by Gheorghe Bulgăr.^[3] MDA2 and Tiktin give Marian's collection of folk charms of 1886, where it means “voice”.^[4][5]

Semantic evolution

Besides “voice”, the word meant “word, utterance”: a Banat song has două boci să-ți tăinuiesc “to whisper two words to you”.^[2][10] In Muscel, Weigand recorded îți astup eu boacea “I will stop your mouth”.^[2] By the time of the DA the word was dying out: a charm has the mistaken form bociu for it.^[2] Wiktionary notes that it gave way first to glas, a Slavonic word, and then to voce.^[1] The verb boci “to lament” is usually derived from it.^[3]

Timeline

• 1844 – first record, in a text cited by Gheorghe Bulgăr.^[3]
• 1886 – boci “voice” in Marian's folk charms.^[4][5][2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (archaic, regional) voice.^[4][2][1]
2. (archaic, regional) A word, what is said.^[4][2]

Word family

• boceală
• bocet
• boci
• bocit
• bocitor

Related words

• voce
• Aromanian boatsi

Usage notes

It survived in northern Muntenia (Muscel) and Banat.^[3][2] The plural boci is spelled like the verb boci “to lament”.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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. boace
3. ^ a b c d e f 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. boace
4. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 219
5. ^ 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. boace
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 9459
7. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București, p. s.v. boace
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 203
10. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. boace