cerbice

Forms

cerbice f (plural cerbici)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin cervīx (“neck, nape”), continued in its accusative form ⟨cervīcem⟩.^{[2][3][4][5][1][6]} The Latin word has been traced to Proto-Indo-European *ḱerh₂- (“head”) and *weyk- (“to bend”), “where the head turns”, but de Vaan calls this semantically very doubtful.^[1][7]

Of the sister branches, DER cites only Istro-Romanian čerbíče.^[2][8][9] In the western Romance languages only Sardinian kervija “nape” is a popular word: Italian cervice, Spanish cerviz, Portuguese cerviz and the Old French form are learned words, and the Latin word lives on there as an inherited word only in derivatives.^[2][10][6] The neologism cervix is its doublet.^[1][11]

The Moldavian variants cerbiș and cerbișă are probably singulars remade from the plural.^[3] The Apuseni form cergiță (1888) has a new ending.^[3] The Anonymus Caransebesiensis has the Latin-like cervice, in Hungarian spelling ⟨cserbicse⟩.^[3][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR dates the first record to about 1500.^[3] The Psaltirea Scheiană (c. 1573–1578) has it at Psalm 128:3.^[13][14] Dosoftei's lives of the saints tell of St John that „L-au râdicat de cerbice... și ș-au băgat sabia în gura” “they lifted him by the nape ... and thrust the sword into his mouth”.^[14]

Semantic evolution

The word meant the neck, and more narrowly the nape, more often of animals than of people.^[12][5] The figurative senses come from the language of the Church: the Bible of 1688 uses it for the “stiff-necked” people of Exodus, and the Slavonic–Romanian lexicons of the 17th century use it to render Slavonic жестоковыйный “stiff-necked”.^[15][16] Hence a fi tare de cerbice “to be stubborn, unbending” and a frânge (a pleca) cerbicea cuiva “to subdue someone, to humble his pride”.^[5][14][4] The Lexicon de la Buda of 1825 renders tare la cerbice with Latin durae cervicis and pertinax.^[17]

The word also names the upper part of the yoke, which rests on the ox's nape, and a part of the cart axle shaped like it.^[5][12] In the Banat and in folk medicine it is a wart on the hand and a disease, perhaps of the neck.^[3][5] Ciorănescu calls it an old word, once common in writing and now used by some writers rather artificially.^[2] Two derivatives keep the figurative sense: cerbicos “stubborn, proud” (1822) and cerbicie “obstinacy” (1852).^[3][2]

Timeline

• c. 1500 – the first record.^[3]
• c. 1573–1578 – cerbice in the Psaltirea Scheiană (Psalm 128:3).^[13][14]
• c. 1660 – cerbice for “stiff-necked” in a Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[16]
• 1682 – cerbice “nape” in Dosoftei's lives of the saints.^[5]
• 1688 – the Bucharest Bible uses it eight times, first at Exodus 33:3.^[18]
• 1822 – the adjective cerbicos.^[3]
• 1852 – cerbicie “obstinacy”.^[3]
• 1888 – the variant cergiță in the Apuseni Mountains.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. (popular) The nape, the back of the neck, and the neck itself, especially of animals.^[4][5][1]
2. (popular) The fatty deposit on the upper neck of bulls and rams that forms at maturity, and the part of the neck where it lies.^[4]
3. (figurative) pride, stubbornness, resistance.^[4][1]
4. The upper part of the yoke, which rests on the ox's nape.^[5][19]
5. (regional, folk medicine) A wart on the hand.^[5][3]

Word family

• cerbicie
• cerbicos

Related words

• cervix
• Istro-Romanian čerbiče
• Latin cervīx

Usage notes

The expressions a fi tare de cerbice “to be unbending” and a frânge cerbicea cuiva “to break someone's pride” are the common uses today.^[4][20] The plural is cerbici.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. cerbice
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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. cerbice
4. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 171
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 362
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 1848
7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ Kovačec, August (1998), Istrorumunjsko-hrvatski rječnik (s gramatikom i tekstovima), Pula
9. ^ Popovici, Iosif (1909), Dialectele romîne din Istria II: texte și glosar, Halle a. S.
10. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București
11. ^ Gabinschi, Marcu (2001), Dicționar de dublete etimologice ale limbii române, 2nd ed., Chișinău: Litera, p. 77
12. ^ a b c 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. cerbice
13. ^ a b Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Ungureanu, Mădălina; Moruz, Alexandru et al., roPsalt: Re-evaluating the Sixteenth Century Romanian Psalters (aligned corpus), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro
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. cerbice
15. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition)
16. ^ 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
17. ^ 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. 110
18. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Ieșirea 33:3
19. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. cerbice
20. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. cerbice