ciocan

Forms

ciocan n (plural ciocane)^[1]

Etymology

It is probably borrowed from Old Church Slavonic чеканъ (čekanŭ, “pickaxe, hammer”), the view of Cihac, Densusianu, the DA, CADE, DEX, MDA2 and DELR.^[2][3][4] DELR calls the word Turkic in origin, comparing Turkish çakmak (“to strike, to drive in a nail”), and lets it enter Romanian through Old Church Slavonic, or perhaps through Cuman.^[2] The change of ⟨če-⟩ or ⟨ča-⟩ to ⟨cio-⟩ may be due to cioc, either the interjection or the noun, which also meant “hammer”, as Brâncuș suggests.^[2] Wiktionary also takes the word back to Ottoman Turkish چكیچ (çekiç, “hammer”), possibly through Proto-Slavic *čekanъ.^[1]

The word has close relatives all over the Balkans and Central Europe: Bulgarian чукан (čukan), Serbo-Croatian čekanj, Polish czekan, Russian чекан (čekan), Hungarian csákány, Albanian çekan and Modern Greek τσοκάνα (tsokána).^[5][1] Ciorănescu found their links impossible to establish: Miklosich and Cihac derived the Romanian word from Slavic, Conev from Bulgarian, Skok from Serbo-Croatian, Roesler from Turkish and Philippide from Greek or Albanian.^[5] Ciorănescu himself took them to be expressive formations made in each language on a root ⟨čok-⟩ with the suffix ⟨-an⟩, comparing the same root.^[5] Vasmer, for the Russian word, gives Old Russian Church Slavonic records of the 12th century with the sense “pickaxe, axe”.^[6] TESz calls the origin of the Hungarian word, recorded from about 1395, disputed, and gives a Turkic loan as its first explanation.^[7] Megleno-Romanian has cioc and cecan.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's date of 1489, from the Slavo-Romanian charters, heads his article on the masculine ciocan “maize stalk”, not the hammer.^[8] The tool is first recorded in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century, where the plural ciocane appears at Psalm 73:7; later psalters have ciocanul.^[9][2] MDA2 cites Coresi's psalter of 1577.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The tool for driving nails gave its name to many objects of a similar shape: the beater of a gate, a pickaxe, the arms of a reel, the sticks of the cimbalom, the hammer thrown in athletics and one of the bones of the middle ear.^[2][3][5] The masculine plural ciocani is used where the word overlaps with cocean: maize stalks and cobs, cabbage stalks, the core of a fruit, a pine cone and the stem of a mushroom.^[5][8] In slang it also names the penis.^[5][1]

Romanian built a large family on the word: ciocănel “small hammer” is recorded from 1649, ciocănar “salt-mine worker” from 1621 as a place name, and the verb ciocăni “to hammer, to knock” from 1678–1689.^[2] Ciorănescu notes that ciocăni merged with ciocni.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 1500–1520 – ciocane in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki, the first record.^[9][2]
• 1570 – ciocanul in Coresi's psalter.^[9]
• 1621 – Ciocănari, a place name from ciocănar.^[2]
• 1649 – ciocanul and ciocănel in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[10][2]
• 1678–1689 – the verb ciocăni “to hammer”.^[2]
• 1691–1697 – ciocănaș “small hammer” and ciocănitor “hammering”.^[2]
• 1870 – ciocăneală “hammering”.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A hammer: a hand tool for striking, with a head of metal, wood or hard rubber on a handle.^[3][4][1]
2. Any of various objects shaped like a hammer: a soldering iron; the hammer thrown in athletics, and the event itself; each of the two sticks of the cimbalom or the xylophone; each of the arms of a reel.^[3]
3. (anatomy) The malleus, one of the three small bones of the middle ear.^[3]
4. (military) ciocan de foc: a short, heavy artillery barrage.^[3]
5. (regional; masculine plural ciocani) A stripped maize cob or stalk; the stalk of a cabbage; the core of a fruit.^[5][8]
6. (slang) The penis.^[5][1]

Word family

• ciocănar
• ciocănaș
• ciocăneală
• ciocănel
• ciocăni
• ciocănitor
• ciocănitură
• ciocănitoare

Related words

• cioc
• cocean
• Old Church Slavonic чеканъ (čekanŭ)

Usage notes

Common phrases are a fi între ciocan și nicovală “to be between the hammer and the anvil”, that is, in a hopeless position, and a sta ciocan pe capul cuiva “to keep pestering someone”.^[3][4]

DEX has two further words spelled ciocan.^[3] Ciocan² “small long-necked glass for brandy”, recorded from 1851, is taken from Serbo-Croatian čokanj or čokan, and DEX and CADE add a Bulgarian source.^[3][11] Ciorănescu instead derives this sense from the hammer word, from the custom of clinking glasses before drinking.^[5] Ciocan³ “maize cob”, regional and recorded from 1870, DEX takes from the same Serbo-Croatian word;^[3][12] DELR also names Bulgarian and Serbo-Croatian forms made from the word for “cob” by metathesis, while Tiktin, Pușcariu and the DA see a metathesis of cocean.^[3][12]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. ciocan
3. ^ 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
4. ^ 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, 402
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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. ciocan
6. ^ Vasmer, Max (1964–1973), Ètimologičeskij slovar' russkogo jazyka, transl. and suppl. by O. N. Trubačev, 4 vols., Moskva: Progress
7. ^ Benkő, Loránd (ed.) (1967–1976), A magyar nyelv történeti-etimológiai szótára, 3 vols., Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, p. 1, 469
8. ^ 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. ciocan
9. ^ a b c 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, p. Ps 73:7
10. ^ 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. ciocanul
11. ^ 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. ciocan³
12. ^ a b 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. ciocan²