cinci

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin cīnque (“five”), the spoken form of quīnque with the first /kʷ/ dissimilated.^{[2][3][4][5][1][6][7][8]} Pușcariu cites ⟨cinque⟩ from inscriptions and notes that the classical form itself would also have given the Romanian form.^[9] The Latin numeral goes back to Proto-Indo-European *pénkʷe (“five”).^[1][10]

It survives in all four branches: Aromanian tsintsi, Megleno-Romanian tsints and Istro-Romanian cinč.^{[2][3][11][12][1]} Pușcariu notes that the Aromanians' name Țințari comes from their form of the numeral.^[9] Its Romance cognates include Italian cinque, Sardinian chimbe, French cinq, Occitan cinc, Catalan cinc, Spanish cinco and Portuguese cinco.^[3][6][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the Codicele Voronețean (1563–1583), where cinci zile “five days” renders the five days of a journey in Acts 20:6.^{[2][5][13][14]} DELR dates the ordinal, in the old forms al cince and al cincele, to about 1500, and the compound cincizeci “fifty” to 1561.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Besides the number, the word names the figure 5, the mark five on the school scale, a card with five pips and, formerly, a coin of five centimes.^[2][4][15] DELR assumes an older form cince, still seen in the old ordinal al cincele and in the derivative cincar “five-year-old horse”, which some take back to a Latin derivative of quīnque.^[2] Cincisprezece “fifteen”, literally “five over ten”, follows a counting pattern that DELR compares with Albanian and Old Church Slavonic.^[2] Plant names use the numeral: cinci-degete “five fingers” is the creeping cinquefoil.^[4][5] In slang Ciorănescu records cinci for a coin of five centimes and, as a masculine noun, for a masturbator.^[3]

Timeline

• 1563–1583 – cinci zile “five days” in the Codicele Voronețean.^[2][13]
• 1581 – cincisprezece “fifteen”.^[2]
• 1582 – cinzecear “commander of fifty men”.^[2]
• 1652 – încinciui “to multiply by five”.^[2]
• 1847 – cincime “a fifth”.^[2]
• 1851 – cincar “horse or ox five years old”.^[2]
• 1857 – cinzeacă, a measure for drinks.^[2]

Meanings

Numeral

1. five: the number between four and six, written 5 or V: de cinci ori “five times”.^[4][1]
2. (as a noun) The figure 5; a mark of five; a card with five pips.^[4][2]
3. (obsolete, as a noun) A coin of five centimes.^[2][3]

Word family

• cincar
• cincime
• cincisprezece
• cincizeci
• cinzeacă
• încinci

Related words

• Aromanian tsintsi
• Latin quīnque

Usage notes

The ordinal is al cincilea, feminine a cincea.^[2][14] In regional speech a face numărul cinci “to do the number five” means to steal.^[5]

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 p q 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. cinci
3. ^ 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. cinci
4. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 184
5. ^ a b c d Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 398
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6964
7. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ a b Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 30
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 309
12. ^ Kovačec, August (1998), Istrorumunjsko-hrvatski rječnik (s gramatikom i tekstovima), Pula, p. s.v. činč
13. ^ a b 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. cinci
14. ^ a b Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. cinci
15. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. cinci