cimpoi

Forms

cimpoi n (plural cimpoaie)^[1] Variants: cimpoaie (feminine), old cempoaie, and cimboi, ciumboi, ciumpoi, Banat and Hațeg cimpoń.^[2][3]

Etymology

The origin is disputed, and DEX calls it unknown.^[4][2] The usual explanation, from Giuglea and Pușcariu, is inherited from Vulgar Latin *centipollium for Latin centipellium (“third stomach of a ruminant”), because bagpipes were made from such a stomach.^[5][1] DELR starts from centipelliō (accusative ⟨-ōnem⟩), from centum (“hundred”) and pellis (“skin”), reshaped as ⟨*cempoliu⟩ or ⟨*cempolia⟩ after folium (“leaf”) because the organ looks like a book of leaves; it compares German Blättermagen (“omasum”).^[2] The same Latin word lives on in Italian centopelle “tripe”.^[1]

Others started from Latin symphōnia (“a musical instrument”), from Ancient Greek συμφωνία (sumphōnía): Cihac and Scriban, then Spitzer.^[2][5][6] Italian zampogna “bagpipe” has that origin, and Diez had derived the Romanian word from it.^[7][5] Bechet (2013) explains the variant cimpoaie from *simponia crossed with the neuter form.^[2] Cihac and the first Tiktin took the word from Hungarian csimpolya, but the Hungarian dictionaries take that word from Romanian.^[2][5][8][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR dates the noun to 1566, and MDA2 cites it from the Codicele Voronețean (c. 1563–1583), where it is one of the revels of the heathen in 1 Peter 4:3.^[2][3][10] The derived verb is a little older: Coresi's Gospel of 1561 has „cimpoiat-am voao și n-ați jucat” “we have piped unto you, and ye have not danced” (Matthew 11:17).^[10][2]

Semantic evolution

The bagpipe sense is the main one from the start, but regional speech keeps the older material senses: the stomach of a ruminant, a skin bag, and the smith's bellows.^[5][2][3] Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon of 1649 uses it for Slavonic прегудница, a musical instrument.^[11] MDA2 also records the name of a folk dance and of its tune, and a figurative “fat man”.^[3]

The word gave Hungarian csimpolya “bagpipe”, first found in Transylvanian surnames such as Czímpojas (1744); in Hungarian it also came to mean a small drum, a recorder and a barrel organ.^[8][9] A man called Toader Cimpoetoriul is recorded in 1632.^[12]

Timeline

• 1561 – the verb cimpoia “to play the bagpipe” in Coresi's Gospel.^[10][2]
• 1566 – first record of the noun.^[2]
• c. 1563–1583 – in the Codicele Voronețean.^[3][10]
• 1629 – cimpoier “bagpiper”.^[2]
• 1634 – cimpoiaș “bagpiper; maker of bagpipes”.^[2]
• 1640 – cimpoitor “bagpiper”.^[2]
• 1649 – in Mardarie's lexicon.^[11]
• 1744 – Czímpojas, a Hungarian surname taken from Romanian.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. A bagpipe: a folk wind instrument made of a leather bag and several pipes through which the air from the bag passes.^[4][1]
2. (regional) The stomach of a ruminant.^[5][1]
3. (regional) A skin bag; a smith's bellows.^[5][2][3]

Word family

• cimpoia
• cimpoiaș
• cimpoier
• cimpoitor

Related words

• burduf
• Hungarian csimpolya

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 k l m n o 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. cimpoi
3. ^ 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, 396
4. ^ a b DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 184
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. cimpoi
6. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 278
7. ^ Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
8. ^ a b Benkő, Loránd (ed.) (1967–1976), A magyar nyelv történeti-etimológiai szótára, 3 vols., Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, p. 1, 531
9. ^ a b c Gerstner, Károly (ed.) (2006–), Új magyar etimológiai szótár, Budapest: Nyelvtudományi Kutatóközpont; online at uesz.nytud.hu
10. ^ 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. cimpoi
11. ^ 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. cimpoi
12. ^ Constantinescu, N. A. (1963), Dicționar onomastic romînesc, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. s.v. cimpoi