gheb

Forms

gheb n (plural gheburi)^[1]

Etymology

It is probably inherited from Vulgar Latin *glibbus, a metathesised form of *gibbulus, from Latin gibbus (“hump”).^[2][3][4] Tiktin gives the same etymology after the REW and Pușcariu.^[5][6] Ciorănescu reconstructs the feminine *glibba, probably for *gibbla, from gibbula, a word used by Vegetius; he follows Battisti, Pușcariu, the DA and the REW, and compares Catalan gep, Spanish giba and chepa, and Portuguese geba.^[7] Wiktionary traces the word through the variant gheabă to the same feminine.^[1] The Latin adjective is related to gibber (“hump”).^[1][8]

Cihac and Conev proposed a borrowing of Old Church Slavonic гѫба (gǫba, “sponge”), compare Bulgarian гъба (găba, “mushroom”);^[7][9] Ciorănescu rejects it as impossible for the sounds.^[7][9] Graur questioned the Latin etymology, on grounds Ciorănescu finds insufficient.^[7] Scriban thought it perhaps a variant of ghem.^[10]

Ciorănescu, after Edelspacher and Candrea, takes Hungarian göb (“hump”) as a loan from this word, and Șăineanu took the opposite direction.^[7][11] The Hungarian historical dictionary TESz considers the Hungarian word probably expressive and native, related to gömb and gomb, with the sense of a hump recorded from 1790.^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1703, and MDA2 to Dimitrie Cantemir's Istoria ieroglifică of 1704.^[5][3] There it means a hump on the back: „Cu mult mai grozavă iaste o răutate între obiceaiuri decât patru gheburi a avea în dos” “a vice among one's habits is far more frightful than having four humps on one's back”.^[4] Cantemir also wrote it ghib.^[4][5]

Semantic evolution

The first sense is a hump on a person's back, and the word was long felt as Moldavian;^[13][10][11] Scriban notes that the west says cocoașă instead.^[13][10][11] It was used of a camel's humps as well: a text of 1878 quoted by Tiktin says the camel has two of them on its back.^[5] By extension it came to mean a rise in the ground: Hogaș stopped at a crossroads on a hump of the mountain, and Vlahuță wrote of mountains rounding their humps.^[13][14] As a feminine noun, plural ghebe, and in the form gheabă, it names an edible mushroom, the honey fungus (Armillaria mellea); Tiktin also records an identification with the chanterelle.^[2][3][5] The derivative ghebos “hunchbacked” is recorded before the noun, in Dosoftei.^[3]

Timeline

• 1682–1686 – the derivative ghebos in Dosoftei's lives of the saints.^[3]
• 1703 – the first record of gheb cited by Tiktin.^[5]
• 1704 – gheb and ghib “hump” in Cantemir's Istoria ieroglifică.^[3][4]
• 1878 – the humps of a camel.^[5]
• 1886 – Barcianu glosses it with German Buckel and Höcker.^[15]
• 1893 – Damé glosses it with French bosse.^[16]

Meanings

Noun

1. A hump on a person's back; cocoașă.^[2][3][1]
2. A rise in the ground shaped like a hump, a knoll or hillock.^[2][3][1]
3. (feminine, plural ghebe) the honey fungus, an edible mushroom with a ring on its yellowish or brown stem (Armillaria mellea).^[2][3]

Word family

• ghebos
• gheboși

Usage notes

The neuter plural gheburi goes with the senses hump and knoll, the feminine ghebe and the variant gheabă with the mushroom.^[2][3] Regional names of other edible mushrooms are formed with it: gheabă-de-brad (Lepiota clypeolaria) and gheabă-de-pădure (Collybia longipes).^[2][3] DEX 2009 also has a second gheb, only a variant of ghebă “a long peasant cloak”, a word of Turkish origin.^[2][17]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 436
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 988
4. ^ a b c d Costinescu, Mariana; Georgescu, Magdalena; Zgraon, Florentina (1987), Dicționarul limbii române literare vechi (1640–1780): termeni regionali, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică, p. 1, 135
5. ^ a b c d e f g Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. gheb
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 3754
7. ^ 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. gheb
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Kurz, Josef; Hauptová, Zoe (eds.) (1958–1997), Slovník jazyka staroslověnského / Lexicon linguae palaeoslovenicae, 4 vols. + supplements, Praha: Academia; digital ed. gorazd.org
10. ^ a b c Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 551
11. ^ a b c Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 273
12. ^ Benkő, Loránd (ed.) (1967–1976), A magyar nyelv történeti-etimológiai szótára, 3 vols., Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, p. 1, 1080
13. ^ a b c Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 2, 375
14. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. gheb
15. ^ Barcianu, Sava Popovici (1886), Dicționar român-germân și germân-român, revised by D. P. Barcianu, part I: român-germân, Sibiu: Institut tipografic, p. 250
16. ^ Damé, Frédéric (1893–1895), Nouveau dictionnaire roumain-français, 4 vols., Bucarest: Imprimerie de l'État
17. ^ 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. ghebă