cep

Forms

cep n (plural cepuri)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin cippus (“stake, post; boundary stone”), which DELR also cites in a vulgar form.^{[2][3][4][1][5]} The Latin word may go back to a noun Proto-Indo-European *(s)ḱeip-o- (“pole, stick”) and be related to scīpiō (“staff”), according to de Vaan.^[6]

The Romance words mostly mean “trunk, stump”, like French cep “vine stock”, and the others are Italian ceppo, Occitan cep, Catalan cep, Spanish cepo and Portuguese cepo.^[2][7] The sense “bung of a barrel” is usually put down to the influence of Bulgarian чеп (čep) and Serbo-Croatian čep “bung”, as Pușcariu proposed, although Densusianu pointed to the same sense in Abruzzese.^[2][8] Ciorănescu also takes the Romanian word to be a meeting of the Latin word with the Bulgarian one, but notes that Berneker held the Slavic words of this shape to be loans from Italian.^[7] Cihac had taken the Romanian word from Slavic.^[9] For the sense “large wooden peg” Scriban sees a variant of țep.^[2][10]

The word is found in all four branches: Aromanian cep, Megleno-Romanian čǫmp and Istro-Romanian țep.^{[7][2][11][12]} Papahagi takes the Aromanian word from Bulgarian.^[13]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is the Palia de la Orăștie of 1581–1582 (Exodus 26:19), and DELR dates the word to 1582.^[14][2] MDA2's first record is much later, from Pamfile's work on peasant crafts of 1910.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The Romanian senses grew from the Latin “stake, post” in two directions, the growing wood and the fitted peg.^[2][7] On the plant side the word names a vine stock set in the ground to root, the cane left at pruning, a fir or spruce branch and the knot it leaves in the trunk.^[2][4] Tiktin quotes Marian on funerals, where only white fir with branch knots grown in the shape of a cross was used.^[14] On the carpentry side it names the bung of a barrel and the hole it closes, a large wooden peg, the tenon that fits into another piece, and in the water mill the end of the shaft.^[2][3][4]

The phrase a da cep unei buți means “to broach a cask”.^[3][14] A drunkard is jokingly called lingecep, “bung-licker”.^[4] From the barrel sense came cepărit (1735–1736) and cepărie (about 1730), old names of a tax paid on taverns.^[2][7] In Maramureș the word names cross-pieces of the mill wheel and the top of the posts of the carved gates.^[15]

Timeline

• 1581–1582 – cep in the Palia de la Orăștie, the first record.^[14][2]
• 1682 – the adjective cepos “knotty”.^[2]
• c. 1730 – cepărie, a tax on taverns.^[2]
• 1735–1736 – cepărit, the same tax.^[2]
• 1798 – the verb cepui “to join with pegs; to lop the branches of a trunk”.^[2]
• 1871 – the diminutive cepușor.^[2]
• 1879 – cepău, a wooden or iron pin in the plough and the mill.^[2]
• 1885 – cepar “drill for boring barrels”.^[2][16]

Meanings

Noun

1. A tapering wooden bung that closes the hole of a barrel; also a tap, and the hole itself.^[3][4][1]
2. A piece of the rootstock's stem left above a graft to protect it while it grows.^[3][4]
3. A knot in the trunk of a fir or spruce, where a branch grows out.^[3][4]
4. A branch of fir or spruce.^[4]
5. In pruning vines, a cane left with two or three buds.^[4][17]
6. The spindle of the wooden shaft of a peasant water mill.^[3]
7. A tenon shaped at the end of a piece of wood, to be fitted into another piece.^[3][4]
8. The threaded outer end of a pipe, used to screw it to another.^[3][4]

Word family

• cepar
• cepărit
• cepău
• cepos
• cepui
• cepuitor
• cepurar
• cepușor

Related words

• țep
• Aromanian cep
• Latin cippus

Usage notes

A da cep (to a barrel or cask) is to open a full one by boring its hole.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r 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. cep
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 171
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 360
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 1935
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. ^ a b c d e 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. cep
8. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București
9. ^ Cihac, A. de (1879), Dictionnaire d'étymologie daco-romane II: Éléments slaves, magyars, turcs, grecs-moderne et albanais, Frankfurt am Main
10. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 258
11. ^ Saramandu, Nicolae (coord.) et al. (2010–), Dicționarul dialectului meglenoromân, general și etimologic, fascicles in Fonetică și dialectologie XXIX–
12. ^ Kovačec, August (1998), Istrorumunjsko-hrvatski rječnik (s gramatikom i tekstovima), Pula
13. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne
14. ^ 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. cep
15. ^ Ștef, Dorin (2011), Dicționar de regionalisme și arhaisme din Maramureș, Baia Mare: Ethnologica, p. s.v. cep
16. ^ Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. cepar 2
17. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. cep