iapă

Forms

iapă f (plural iepe)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin equa (“mare”), the feminine of equus (“horse”), which comes from Proto-Indo-European *h₁éḱwos (“horse”).^{[2][3][4][5][1]} Pușcariu, Candrea and Densusianu and the REW give the same etymon.^[2][6]

The word survives in all four branches: Aromanian iapă, Megleno-Romanian iapă and Istro-Romanian iope.^[2][7] Its Romance cognates include Sardinian ebba, Catalan egua, Spanish yegua and Portuguese égua.^[2][6]

Ciorănescu compares the technical senses with those of cobilă; he reports Pușcariu's view that the derivative iepilă “lever” translates Old Church Slavonic кобыла (kobyla, “mare”).^[2][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is a document of 1593.^[3] Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon of 1649 glosses the word.^[9] MDA2's first record is Cantemir's Istoria ieroglifică.^[5]

Semantic evolution

Beside the animal, the word names tools and parts of devices on which something rests or presses, much as Slavic words for mare do.^[2][8] The plural iepe are the treadles of the peasant loom, which the weaver presses to work the heddles.^[4][10] Tiktin also records the connecting rod of a sawmill, and Ciorănescu the support on which a plough is dragged.^[3][2]

The animal appears in many proverbs and idioms: a bate șaua (ca) să priceapă iapa “to beat the saddle so the mare understands”, that is, to hint at something, and Când îi dai, îi fată iapa, când îi ceri, îi moare mânzul “when you give to him his mare foals, when you ask him his foal dies”, of a bad payer.^[3][4][5] In slang the word is a coarse name for a big woman or a prostitute.^[11] The derivatives include iepar “keeper of mares” and iepesc “of a mare”.^[2]

Timeline

• 1593 – the first record Tiktin gives.^[3]
• 1649 – iapă in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[9]
• 17th century – the personal name Toader Iapă.^[12]
• 1705 – iepe in Cantemir's Istoria ieroglifică.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A mare, the female of the horse.^[4][5][1]
2. (regional, usually plural) A treadle of the peasant loom.^[4][10]
3. (slang, pejorative) A big, heavy woman; a prostitute.^[11]

Word family

• iepar
• iepesc

Related words

• cal
• Latin equa

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. iapă
3. ^ 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. iapă
4. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1, 484
5. ^ a b c d e Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1098
6. ^ a b Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 65
7. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 152
8. ^ a b Georgiev, Vladimir I. et al. (eds.) (1971–), Bălgarski etimologičen rečnik, Sofija: Izdatelstvo na Bălgarskata akademija na naukite, p. 2, 501
9. ^ a b Ungureanu, Mădălina; Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Moruz, Alexandru (eds.), eRomLex: The First Romanian Bilingual Dictionaries (17th century), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. s.v. iapă
10. ^ a b Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 2, 478
11. ^ a b Volceanov, George (2007), Dicționar de argou al limbii române, București: Niculescu, p. s.v. iapă
12. ^ Constantinescu, N. A. (1963), Dicționar onomastic romînesc, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. s.v. iapă