cioc

Forms

cioc n (plural ciocuri)^[1]

Etymology

The origin of the word for the beak is uncertain, and the dictionaries give several explanations.^[2] Most derive it from the interjection of the same form that imitates repeated knocking: Tiktin (as a possibility), the DA, DEX and Ciorănescu.^[2][3][4][5] Ciorănescu explains the sense by the noise a beak makes, above all when poultry peck for food.^[6] The DA holds that the Albanian word with the same sense is an onomatopoeia too.^[4] DELR thinks the first sense was a pointed tool or a hammer, since the word Romanian kept from Latin for the beak was rost, from rōstrum.^[2]

Wiktionary calls it probably a substrate word, akin to Albanian çukë.^[1] Brâncuș saw in it a substrate element shared with Bulgarian words for a peak and a hammer and with çok (“hammer; beak”), which Çabej considered onomatopoeic.^[2] MDA2 takes it from the Albanian word, as Densusianu and Pușcariu did, while DEX only compares it.^[7][2][5] Philippide and Pascu derived it from Vulgar Latin *tiucus, a Danubian Latin form, from Ancient Greek τύκος (túkos, “mason's hammer”).^[2][8] Cihac took it from a form ⟨*ciop⟩ of Slavic origin, comparing Polish dziób (“beak”).^[9][6]

It survives south of the Danube: Aromanian cioc “hammer; beak” and Megleno-Romanian cioc “hammer”.^[2][10][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR dates the first record to 1691–1697, with the sense of a bird's beak, a projecting point and a hooked tool.^[2] Klein's dictionary glosses it with Latin rostrum and Hungarian “bird's nose”, and the Lexicon of Buda (1825) has it with the plural ciocuri.^[11][12]

Semantic evolution

From the bird's beak the word spread to many pointed things: the end or tip of an object, the beak of a ship, the jaws of tongs, a hook, a tuft of feathers, the stylus used to paint Easter eggs and a rocky crag.^[4][6] Colloquially it means a person's mouth, and it also names a small pointed beard, a goatee.^[5][4] Compounds name birds and plants: cioc-gros “hawfinch” (1868), ciocul-berzei for meadow cranesbill.^[2][5]

Its own derivatives are the diminutives ciocuță (1893) and cioculeț (1895) and the compound cioclonț (1922), with clonț.^[2] The verb ciocăni belongs with the interjection rather than with the noun.^[2]

Timeline

• 1691–1697 – the first record.^[2]
• 1806 – in Klein's dictionary, Tiktin's first record.^[3]
• 1825 – in the Lexicon of Buda.^[12]
• 1868 – the bird name cioc-gros “hawfinch”.^[2]
• 1893 – the diminutive ciocuță.^[2]
• 1895 – the diminutive cioculeț.^[2]
• 1922 – cioclonț “beak”.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A beak, the horny front part of a bird's head; also as much as a beak holds;^[5][7][1] (figurative) a person's mouth; synonyms plisc, clonț.^[5][7][1]
2. A pointed part or extension of an object; a tip or end.^[5][7]
3. A goatee, a small pointed beard; synonym barbișon.^[5][3]
4. In compounds: ciocul-berzei meadow cranesbill (Geranium pratense), ciocul-cucoarei common stork's-bill (Erodium cicutarium), cioc-întors the avocet, cioc-de-papagal a beak-shaped bony growth on a vertebra.^[5][13]

Word family

• cioculeț
• ciocuță
• cioclonț

Related words

• Aromanian cioc
• plisc
• clonț

Usage notes

In slang, a pune ciocuri means to lie or twist the facts.^[5]

A homonymous interjection cioc, usually repeated (cioc, cioc, cioc-boc, cioc-poc), imitates the sound of blows on something hard; it is an expressive creation like boc, toc and poc, recorded from 1869, and the verb ciocăni (1703) is formed on it.^[5][2][6] DELR lists three more regional words cioc: an invariable adjective “big”, found only in a folk poem of 1910 and taken from the Turkish word for “much”; an adverb “nothing” in Bihor (1928), which the DA explains from Hungarian csak (“only”); and a plural cioci “shelled maize” in Sălaj (1928).^[2][4][7]

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 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. cioc
3. ^ a b c Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. cioc
4. ^ a b c d e f 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. cioc
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 186
6. ^ a b c d 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. cioc
7. ^ 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, 402
8. ^ Pascu, Giorge (1925), Dictionnaire étymologique macédoroumain, 2 vols. (I: Les éléments latins et romans; II: Les éléments grecs, turcs, slaves, albanais, germaniques, magyars, néologismes, créations immédiates, obscurs), Iași: Cultura Națională, p. 1, 192
9. ^ Cihac, A. de (1879), Dictionnaire d'étymologie daco-romane II: Éléments slaves, magyars, turcs, grecs-moderne et albanais, Frankfurt am Main, p. 53
10. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 358
11. ^ Gáldi, László (ed.) (1944), Samuel Klein: Dictionarium valachico-latinum. Primul dicționar al limbii române, Budapest: Királyi Magyar Pázmány Péter Tudományegyetemi Román Intézet (Klein's dictionary of 1801, with Gáldi's etymological study), p. 334
12. ^ a b 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. 122
13. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1, 427