lapți

Forms

lapți m pl (plural only)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin lactēs, a feminine plural that meant “small intestines” and also “milt”.^{[2][3][4][5][1][6][7]} The milt was named for its milky look: the Latin word belongs with lac (“milk”), and Romanian treats the word as a specialised masculine plural of lapte.^[1][5] The REW has the Romanian word as the one direct continuation, with Piedmontese and Lombard derivatives;^[7][8] Candrea and Densusianu compare Dalmatian alajte and Italian latti.^[7][8] Ciorănescu compares French laitance, German Milchen and latti di pesce, names of the same kind.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

MDA2 and the DLR give as the first record an undated cookbook, Mâncările, which tells the cook to add “carp milt”, lapți dă crap.^[2][3] The Lexicon de la Buda of 1825 explains it as the milt of fish, with Latin lactēs.^[9]

Semantic evolution

The word has kept the sense of fish milt: Scriban describes a soft white substance in male fish that fertilises the roe, and DEX the male sexual glands of fish.^[3][10][4] Costinescu (1870), CADE and Șăineanu also give a dated culinary sense: the glands under a calf's neck, eaten as a delicacy.^[11][12][3] In slang it means sperm, and money.^[13]

Timeline

• 1825 – “the milt of fish” in the Lexicon de la Buda.^[9]
• 1870 – the culinary sense “calf's sweetbreads” in Costinescu's dictionary.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. milt: the male sexual glands of fish, a whitish jelly-like mass, and their secretion.^[4][3][1]
2. (dated) The glands under a calf's neck, cooked as a dish; sweetbreads, momițe.^[2][12]
3. (slang) sperm; money.^[13]

Related words

• lapte
• Latin lac

Usage notes

The word is plural only.^[1][4] The rare saying umbli să-ți lași lapții cu folos is said of someone who tries to profit from someone or something.^[3][2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1312
3. ^ 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. lapți
4. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 577
5. ^ a b c 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
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 4828
8. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București, p. s.v. lapți
9. ^ 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
10. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 728
11. ^ a b Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 17
12. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. lapți
13. ^ a b Volceanov, George (2007), Dicționar de argou al limbii române, București: Niculescu, p. s.v. lapți