ceapă

Forms

ceapă f (plural cepe)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin cēpa (“onion”) (also spelled caepa).^{[2][3][4][5][1]} The Latin word is probably a loan from an unknown language; a Greek gloss Ancient Greek κάπια (kápia, “onions”) may reflect the same word.^[6]

It survives south of the Danube as Aromanian țeapă and Megleno-Romanian țępă.^[2][3][7] Its Romance cognates include Occitan ceba, French cive and Catalan ceba.^[2][3] Ciorănescu compares Albanian qepë, and Wiktionary takes the Albanian word as probably borrowed from Latin.^[2][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is of 1492, from the Slavonic–Romanian documents.^[8] In Romanian texts DELR dates it to about 1650 and MDA2 to the Bucharest Bible of 1688.^[3][4] The 17th-century Slavonic–Romanian lexicons gloss Slavonic words for the onion with it.^[9]

Semantic evolution

The word names both the plant and its bulb, and by extension any plant bulb.^[5][4] The onion was a cheap staple, so a frostbitten onion became the measure of worthlessness: nu face nici cât o ceapă degerată “it isn't worth a frozen onion”.^[8][5] Folk humour called it slănină-de-post “fasting bacon”, and it was much used in folk medicine.^[10]

Compounds name other bulbous plants: ceapa-ciorii for the star-of-Bethlehem and the grape hyacinth, ceapa-câinelui for the sea squill.^[5][8] In slang the word means a pocket watch.^[2] Romanian formed cepar “onion seller”, first as the place name Ceparii in 1519;^[3] Pușcariu and the REW take it from Latin cēpārius, Ciorănescu prefers a Romanian derivative.^[3][2]

Timeline

• 1492 – the first record, in the Slavonic–Romanian documents.^[8]
• 1519 – the place name Ceparii, from cepar “onion seller”.^[3]
• c. 1650 – the first record in a Romanian text, with the augmentative cepoi.^[3]
• 1660 – ceapă in a Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[9]
• 1688 – ceapă in the Bucharest Bible.^[4]
• 1806 – the adjective cepos “full of onion”.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. An onion: a biennial plant of the lily family with a strong smell, a hollow stem and an underground bulb (Allium cepa).^[5][4]
2. The bulb of this plant, used as food; by extension any plant bulb.^[5][1]
3. In compounds, names of other plants: ceapa-ciorii “yellow star-of-Bethlehem; grape hyacinth”.^[5]
4. (slang) A pocket watch.^[2]

Word family

• cepar
• cepăreasă
• cepărie
• cepesc
• cepișoară
• cepoi
• cepos
• cepșoară
• cepușoară

Related words

• Aromanian țeapă
• Latin cēpa

Usage notes

The plural is cepe.^[1] Ceapă de sămânță is the onion set, also called arpagic.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. ceapă
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. ceapă
4. ^ a b c d e Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 350
5. ^ a b c d e f g h DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 166
6. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
7. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1068
8. ^ 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. ceápă
9. ^ 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. ceapă
10. ^ 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. ceapă