lăptos

Forms

lăptos m or n (feminine singular lăptoasă, masculine plural lăptoși, feminine/neuter plural lăptoase)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian lapte (“milk”) + -os.^[2][3][4][5] lapte continues Latin lac (“milk”).^[6] Candrea–Densusianu and CADE derive the adjective from Latin lactōsus (“milky”), a word recorded in a Latin–Greek glossary, and compare Italian lattoso, Catalan lletós, Spanish lechoso and Portuguese leitoso;^{[7][8][9][10]} Scriban allows either source.^{[7][8][9][10]} Wiktionary gives both.^[1]

The same adjective is Aromanian lãptos, said of cows that give milk, which Pascu derives from the Latin adjective.^[11][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

MDA2 and Tiktin date the first record to the Anonymus Caransebesiensis, a Romanian–Latin glossary of the later 17th century.^[4][5] The Slavonic–Romanian lexicons of about 1660–1670 also have it.^[13] The early sense is that of a cow or ewe that gives much milk; the Lexicon de la Buda of 1825 glosses it “having milk in it”.^[3][14]

Semantic evolution

The word first described dairy animals that give much milk, and is still used so of cows: Tiktin quotes the saying that one cannot have a cow both beautiful and milky and home early, that is, nothing is without fault.^[4][5] The colour and look of milk gave the sense “milky, white and cloudy”, said of liquids and of grain still soft before ripening.^[5][4] The phrase a le crede (pe) toate lăptoase “to believe everything one is told” is in Creangă.^[5][2] Slang uses it of a woman with large breasts, and Ciorănescu records a slang sense “advantageous”.^[4][6] Plant names include iarbă-lăptoasă, a milkwort.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 1650–1700 – in the Anonymus Caransebesiensis, the first record.^[4][5]
• c. 1660–1670 – in a Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[13]
• 1801 – laptós “milk-giving” in Klein's dictionary.^[15]
• 1825 – in the Lexicon de la Buda.^[14]
• 1892 – a le crede toate lăptoase in Creangă.^[5][8]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (popular) Of animals, especially cows: that has or gives much milk.^[2][16]
2. milky: of the colour or look of milk.^[2][1]
3. (slang) Of a woman: buxom.^[4]

Related words

• lăptar
• lăptucă
• Aromanian lãptos

Usage notes

A le crede toate lăptoase means to take everything for true, to be easily fooled.^[2][16]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 580
3. ^ a b Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. lăptos
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1323
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. lăptós
6. ^ a b 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. lapte
7. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București, p. s.v. lăptos
8. ^ a b c Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. lăptos
9. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 733
11. ^ Pascu, Giorge (1925), Dictionnaire étymologique macédoroumain, 2 vols. (I: Les éléments latins et romans; II: Les éléments grecs, turcs, slaves, albanais, germaniques, magyars, néologismes, créations immédiates, obscurs), Iași: Cultura Națională, p. 1, 105
12. ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 580
13. ^ 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. lăptos
14. ^ 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. 343
15. ^ 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. 388
16. ^ a b Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 2, 731