foale

Forms

foale n (plural foale)^[1] Besides the neuter plural foale there is an old masculine with the plural foi, from which a new singular foi was formed in Moldavia, the Banat and Oaș: „Să sfârși foiul de la foc” “the bellows are burned” (Bible of 1688, Jeremiah 6:29).^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin follis (“bellows; leather bag”).^{[5][6][7][2][1]} The word survives in all four branches: Aromanian foaie, Megleno-Romanian foale and Istro-Romanian foie.^[5][3] Its Romance cognates include Italian folle, Portuguese folle, Occitan fol, Old French fol and Spanish fuelle.^[5][4] The Latin word is traced to Proto-Indo-European *bʰolǵʰnis, a derivative of *bʰelǵʰ- (“to swell”).^[1]

For the sense “belly”, Candrea and Densusianu and the DA point to the phrase Latin follis ventris (“belly”).^[3][8] Reichenkron had linked this sense with a Bulgarian word for both “skin bag” and “belly”, but Ciorănescu finds the hypothesis unnecessary.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is a personal name, Foale, in a Slavo-Romanian document of 1507.^[2] In Romanian texts it appears first in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki, of the early 16th century, in Psalm 32:7, where God gathers the waters of the sea „ca foale” “as in a skin bag”.^[9][8] Coresi's Psalter of 1577, MDA2's first record, has the same verse.^[6][8]

Semantic evolution

The oldest sense is the skin bag made from a whole animal hide, the wineskin of the Gospels: the Tetraevanghel of 1574 warns against putting new wine into old skins.^[8][2] The bellows of a forge, operated by handles or levers, gave the technical sense, later extended to the pleated bellows of the accordion and the harmonium.^[7][10] The sense “belly, stomach”, of animals and familiarly of people, is old and regional: the DLRLV records it in Banat and Transylvanian texts of 1640–1780.^[11][8] Old phrases include a beli foale “to flay someone”, and in Muntenia the word has also meant the curved side of a barrel.^[6][12] In slang it can mean the lungs and, jokingly, large breasts.^[13]

Timeline

• 1507 – Foale as a personal name in the Slavo-Romanian documents.^[2]
• c. 1500–1520 – foale in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki (Psalm 32:7).^[9]
• 1570 – foalele in Coresi's Psalter.^[9]
• 1574 – the wineskins of the Gospel in the Tetraevanghel.^[8]
• 1682–1686 – the diminutive folcel in Dosoftei's Lives of the Saints.^[2][14]
• 1688 – foiul “the bellows” in the Bucharest Bible (Jeremiah 6:29).^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. bellows: a device that compresses and blows air by means of a chamber with pleated leather sides, worked by handles or levers.^[7][1]
2. The pleated bellows of some musical instruments, such as the accordion and the harmonica.^[7]
3. A primitive bag made from the skin of an animal; a burduf.^[7][6]
4. (regional, familiar) The abdomen, belly.^[7][1]

Word family

• foaleș
• folar
• folărit
• folcel
• folcuț
• folte
• folticos
• înfoltit

Related words

• înfuleca
• înfoia
• Aromanian foaie

Usage notes

The plural is foale; a masculine variant foi (plural foi) is used for the bellows.^[7][2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. foale
3. ^ a b c Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București, p. s.v. foale
4. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1, 517
5. ^ 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. foale
6. ^ 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, 922
7. ^ a b c d e f g DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1, 403
8. ^ 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. foale
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 32:7
10. ^ Academia Republicii Populare Romîne (1958), Dicționarul limbii romîne moderne, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. s.v. foale
11. ^ Costinescu, Mariana; Georgescu, Magdalena; Zgraon, Florentina (1987), Dicționarul limbii române literare vechi (1640–1780): termeni regionali, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică, p. 1, 131
12. ^ Marin, Maria; Mărgărit, Iulia, Glosar dialectal. Muntenia, București: Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti”, p. 152
13. ^ Volceanov, George (2007), Dicționar de argou al limbii române, București: Niculescu, p. s.v. foale
14. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 925