gogoașă

Forms

gogoașă f (plural gogoși)^[1] Regional gugoașă: Negruzzi wrote „Vrei să ne spui minciuni gogonate și gugoși cornorate” “you want to tell us whopping lies and horned fibs”.^[2][3] The plural is gogoși, also gogoașe.^[3][4]

Etymology

Its origin is disputed.^[5][4] Ciorănescu derives it from Romanian gogă (“nut”) + -oș, with a new singular made from the plural ⟨gogoși⟩, after Schuchardt and Spitzer; he compares the pair cocoș and cocoașă.^[5] Wiktionary also takes it, tentatively, from that expressive word for a nut.^[1] Pușcariu, the REW and Capidan start from Albanian gogëlë instead.^[5] The DA calls the origin uncertain and links it closely to the stem ⟨coc-⟩ of the word for a hump and of cocoloș, comparing Hungarian gubó (“oak gall, cocoon”) for the forms in ⟨ș⟩;^[6][4] MDA2 gives it as of unknown origin and compares the same Hungarian word.^[6][4] DEX gives no etymon and only compares the word for a hump.^[3]

The Aromanian form is gugoșu (“bullet; cocoon”), and Megleno-Romanian has gugoș (“flower bud”).^[7][8][9] Ciorănescu takes Albanian gogosh and Serbo-Croatian bobošara (“pepper”) from Romanian.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is a personal name: a stolnic called Gogoașă in 1483.^[10][2] MDA2's first record as a common noun is Piscupescu's book of remedies (1829), where it means an oak gall: „Gogoși de răstic doaozeci de dramuri” “twenty drams of oak galls”.^[4][6]

Semantic evolution

Tiktin defines the word as a name for various round things that are hollow inside.^[2] It names the galls of oak trees, used for black ink, for blackening eyebrows and as an astringent; the cocoon of the silkworm and other insects; puffball mushrooms; the winter cherry; and, in Transylvania and Moldavia, the potato.^[6][5][4] It also names the eyeball and the swim bladder of fish.^[5] The fried pastry, a doughnut, is now the first sense in DEX.^[3]

The sense “lie” comes from the galls of the tufă oak, which were useless for ink: Pann's proverb runs „Cu gogoși de tufă nu se înegresc sprâncene” “eyebrows aren't blackened with scrub-oak galls”.^[6][2] From this came a vinde gogoși “to sell galls”, that is, to tell lies.^[6][4] In old thieves' slang the word meant “house, room”.^[11]

Timeline

• 1483 – Gogoașă, the name of a stolnic, the first record.^[10][2]
• 1829 – gogoși de răstic “oak galls” in Piscupescu's book of remedies.^[4][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A doughnut: a round pastry of leavened dough fried in fat and sprinkled with sugar.^[3][1]
2. (figurative, mostly plural) A lie, a tall story: nu mai spune gogoși.^[3][4][1]
3. An oak gall: a round growth the size of a hazelnut on the branches of some oaks;^[3][4] gogoașă de ristic is the gall used for ink and medicine.^[3][4]
4. A cocoon in which an insect larva turns into a pupa;^[3] gogoașă de mătase is the cocoon of the silkworm.^[3]
5. A name for various swollen, round objects.^[3]
6. (regional) A puffball mushroom (Lycoperdon bovista).^[4][5]

Word family

• gogoșea
• gogoșar
• gogoșerie
• gogoșliu

Related words

• gogă
• cocoașă
• Aromanian gugoșu

Usage notes

A vinde gogoși (or a spune gogoși) means “to tell lies”.^[4][6] The pepper variety gogoșar and the doughnut shop gogoșerie are formed on the word.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. gogoașă
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. 443
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1008
5. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. gogoașă
6. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. gogoașă
7. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 505
8. ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 519
9. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 146
10. ^ a b Constantinescu, N. A. (1963), Dicționar onomastic romînesc, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. s.v. gogoașă
11. ^ Volceanov, George (2007), Dicționar de argou al limbii române, București: Niculescu, p. s.v. gogoașă