gușă

Forms

gușă f (plural guși)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin geusiae (“throat, jaws”), probably through a reduced form Vulgar Latin *gusia.^[2][3][4][1] The Latin word is recorded around 400 and is thought to be of Gaulish origin.^[5][1] Tiktin calls the Romance origin probable.^[6]

The word survives in all four branches: Aromanian gushi, Megleno-Romanian gușă and Istro-Romanian gușę.^[2][7][8][9] Its Romance cognates include Italian gozzo and French gosier, and Albanian gushë belongs with them.^[2][10] The Italian word has other proposed origins, from an imitative root or a form of Latin guttur.^[11]

Ciorănescu rejects the other proposals: a native pre-Roman word (Miklosich), the same Latin word (Cihac), a loan from Bulgarian гуша (guša) (Cihac) or from Albanian (Miklosich, Densusianu), and a Greek participle (Höeg).^[2] Some regional dictionaries of Maramureș still call it a native word, citing Philippide, Rosetti, Russu and Brâncuș.^[12]

The word passed from Romanian into the neighbouring languages: Ciorănescu lists Modern Greek, Bulgarian, Serbian (18th century), Ukrainian, Albanian, Hungarian and Romani forms.^[2] Wiktionary takes the Bulgarian word from Romanian and gives Orel's view that the Albanian word is a Romanian loan too.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1542.^[6] MDA2's first source is the Anonymus Caransebesiensis, a Romanian–Latin glossary of about 1650–1700.^[4] Klein's dictionary of 1801 glosses Gufha (read gușa) with Latin struma “goitre”.^[13]

Semantic evolution

The DA records “neck, throat” of a person as the usual sense among the Aromanians and Meglenites, but rare north of the Danube; the old literary language of Transylvania used it for “gullet”.^[5][14] Megleno-Romanian has gușă “neck”, and Tiktin gives Aromanian “neck” as well.^[8][6] The Lexicon de la Buda of 1825 has two senses: a swelling at the neck, “goitre”, and the crop of birds.^[15]

From the crop and the swollen neck the word was applied to a double chin, the underside of an animal's pelt, used for furs, and, in plant names, gușa-porumbului “pigeon's crop” for several herbs.^[3][5][6] The DA records a se umfla în gușă “to swell one's crop”, that is to be proud.^[5][4] Regional senses include a silkworm cocoon in Oltenia and Muntenia, a knot in the wool on a distaff, and in Maramureș the loop of yarn wound on the fingers for weaving a belt and the swellings on tree trunks.^{[16][17][2][12]}

Timeline

• 1542 – the first record, according to Tiktin.^[6]
• c. 1650–1700 – gușă in the Anonymus Caransebesiensis glossary.^[4]
• 1801 – Gufha “goitre” in Klein's dictionary.^[13]
• 1825 – “goitre” and “crop of birds” in the Lexicon de la Buda.^[15]
• 18th century – the Serbian loan guša, according to Ciorănescu.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. The crop of a bird: a widened, pouch-like part of the oesophagus where food stays before it reaches the stomach.^[3][4][1]
2. In amphibians, the skin under the lower jaw that helps breathing; in reptiles, the chin.^[3]
3. goitre: a swelling at the front of the neck caused by an enlarged thyroid gland; also the disease itself.^[3][4][1]
4. A double chin, a fold of fat under the chin.^[3][1]
5. (colloquial) The neck; the throat: a râde din gușă “to laugh in a forced way”, a vorbi din gușă “to speak in a deep or affected voice”.^[3]
6. The part of a pelt or hide from under the animal's neck.^[3][6]
7. gușă de conductă: a fold that forms when a pipe is bent.^[3]

Word family

• gușa
• gușat
• gușui
• răguși
• sugușa

Usage notes

Eastern Romanian has gușă, western gușe.^[18] The plant name gușa-porumbului or gușa-porumbelului covers Cucubalus baccifer, Silene and valerian.^[3][4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g 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. gușă
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1, 455
4. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1033
5. ^ 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. gușă
6. ^ a b c d e f Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. gușă
7. ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 524
8. ^ a b Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 148
9. ^ Popovici, Iosif (1909), Dialectele romîne din Istria II: texte și glosar, Halle a. S., p. 114
10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 3750
11. ^ Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
12. ^ a b Ștef, Dorin (2011), Dicționar de regionalisme și arhaisme din Maramureș, Baia Mare: Ethnologica, p. s.v. gușă
13. ^ a b 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. 369
14. ^ Costinescu, Mariana; Georgescu, Magdalena; Zgraon, Florentina (1987), Dicționarul limbii române literare vechi (1640–1780): termeni regionali, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică, p. 1, 139
15. ^ a b Lesicon românescu-latinescu-ungurescu-nemțescu quare de mai mulți autori, în cursul a trideci și mai multor ani s-au lucrat (1825), Buda: Typographia Universității (the Lexicon of Buda, ed. Petru Maior et al.), p. 249
16. ^ Cazacu, Boris (coord.) et al. (1967), Glosar dialectal. Oltenia, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. 46
17. ^ Marin, Maria; Mărgărit, Iulia, Glosar dialectal. Muntenia, București: Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti”, p. s.v. gușă
18. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1, 582