găinaț

Forms

găinaț m (plural găinați)^[1] With metathesis, găniaț and gănieț occur regionally: „Găniaț de porumb” “pigeon droppings”.^[2][3] The plural is găinați as a masculine, găinațuri as a neuter.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin gallīnāceus (“of hens”), the adjective of gallīna (“hen”), used with stercus (“dung”) or fimus (“manure”) understood.^{[4][3][2][5][1]} Ciorănescu follows Pușcariu, Densusianu, Candrea and Densusianu and the DA.^[5] The Romance cognates are Italian gallinaccio, Occitan galinat and Spanish gallinaza.^[5][6] Candrea and Densusianu add Catalan gallinassa and derive the Spanish, Catalan and Portuguese words from the feminine gallīnācea.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates it to 1510, as a personal name.^[8] MDA2's first record is the Bible of 1688, which in a famine story prices a quarter of a cab of pigeon dung at five silver pieces.^[3][8][9]

Semantic evolution

The word meant first the droppings of hens, then those of any bird.^[3][2] A proverb says that the sea is not fouled by a crow's dropping: a trifle does not spoil a great matter.^[2][8] Scriban records a vulgar figurative use for an insignificant little man.^[10]

Timeline

• 1510 – as a personal name.^[8]
• 1688 – găinaț de porumb “pigeon dung” in the Bucharest Bible.^[3][9]
• 1801 – gainátz in Klein's dictionary.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. Bird droppings, first of hens.^[4][3][1]

Word family

• găinăța

Related words

• găină
• găinar

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d 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. găinaț
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, 969
4. ^ a b c DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1, 428
5. ^ a b c 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. găinaț
6. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier, p. s.v. gallina
7. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București, p. s.v. găinaț
8. ^ 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. găinaț
9. ^ a b Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. 2 Kgs 6:25
10. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1, 543
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. 364