lăptucă

Forms

lăptucă f (plural lăptuci)^[1] Popular variants are lăptiucă, lăptiugă, lăptoagă, lăptuc and lăptugă; the old plural is lăptuce.^[2] Tiktin finds lăptugă in a manuscript of 1773, and Scriban gives it as the Transylvanian form.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin lactūca (“lettuce”).^{[5][6][2][7][1]} Ciorănescu cites Pușcariu (article 941), Candrea–Densusianu (947) and the REW for this.^[5][8] The Latin plant name is formed on lac (“milk”) with the suffix -ūcus, after the white juice of the cut stems.^[1][9]

The word survives south of the Danube as Aromanian lãptucã, and Istro-Romanian has lătucă.^[10][11][5] Its Romance cognates are Italian lattuga, Occitan lachuga, French laitue, Catalan lletuga, Spanish lechuga and Portuguese leituga.^[8][12][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Palia de la Orăștie of 1581–1582, at Exodus 12:8.^[3][2] The Slavonic–Romanian lexicons of about 1660–1670 have the plural lăptuci.^[13]

Semantic evolution

Besides garden lettuce the word names other plants with a milky juice: edible mushrooms such as the Lactarius species and the chanterelle, and a spurge.^[5][7] Ciorănescu takes these senses as a sign that speakers still felt the link with lapte “milk”; the REW notes the mushroom sense in Transylvania.^[5][8] The Lexicon de la Buda of 1825 already gives both senses, the mushroom burete dulce and the salad, adding that in the second sense the word is used mostly in the plural.^[14] The word is used in Muntenia, Oltenia and Dobruja;^[3][15] Moldavia says marole instead.^[3][15] Joking slang uses it for a teenage girl.^[16]

Timeline

• 1581–1582 – in the Palia de la Orăștie, Exodus 12:8, the first record.^[3][2]
• c. 1660–1670 – the plural lăptuci in a Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[13]
• 1773 – the form lăptugă in a manuscript.^[3]
• 1778 – seeds of turnip, kohlrabi, German cabbage and lăptuci in a document.^[7]
• 1825 – the mushroom and salad senses in the Lexicon de la Buda.^[14]
• 1959 – a Muntenian lăptucă “slap” in Limba română.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. lettuce (Lactuca sativa): a garden plant whose leaves, set in a rosette or a head, are eaten raw; salată, marulă.^[6][1]
2. (regional) The name of several mushrooms with a milky juice, and of a spurge.^[5][7]
3. (slang, jocular) A teenage girl.^[16]

Related words

• lapte
• lăptos
• Aromanian lãptucã

Usage notes

MDA2 and the DLR have a second lăptucă, a Muntenian word for a slap and, by extension, a beating, first recorded in 1959;^[2][7] MDA2 calls it of unknown origin.^[2][7]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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, 1323
3. ^ 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. lăptúcă
4. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 733
5. ^ 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. lăptucă
6. ^ a b DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 580
7. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. lăptucă
8. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 4833
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 621
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. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București, p. s.v. lăptucă
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. lăptuci
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. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. lăptucă
16. ^ a b Volceanov, George (2007), Dicționar de argou al limbii române, București: Niculescu, p. s.v. lăptucă