leșie

Forms

leșie f (uncountable)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin lixīva (“lye”), the noun use of the adjective lixīvus (“made into lye”) used with aqua (“water”), from lixa (“water mixed with ashes”).^{[2][3][4][5][6][1][7]} The word survives in Istro-Romanian leșie.^[8][9][10] South of the Danube, Aromanian alsivã is not inherited: like Albanian aljsivë it comes from Modern Greek αλισίβα (alisíva), which is in turn from Italian.^{[2][8][11][12]} Its Romance cognates include Italian lisciva, French lessive, Spanish lejía and Portuguese lixívia.^[2][1][13] Romanian lent the word to Bulgarian лешия (lešija) and to Serbo-Croatian lušija.^[2][14]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1631, in a charter of the Wallachian series of the Documenta Romaniae Historica.^[6] MDA2 takes it from the Anonymus Caransebesiensis, a Romanian–Latin glossary of about 1650–1700, which renders it with Latin lixivium.^[5][15]

Semantic evolution

The old sense is the lye of the countryside: wood ash, or ash of maize cobs, steeped in hot water and used to wash laundry and hair, to scrub floors and to prepare wool and cloth for dyeing.^[15] Leșie crudă or leșie moartă is lye made with cold water.^[15][5] An 1818 record mentions lye made for a glassworks, and modern dictionaries add the solutions of soda or potassium hydroxide used in industry.^[3][4]

The colour of lye gave figurative uses: a writer's „Cerul e ca leșia” “the sky is grey as lye”, and the derivative leșietic “ash-grey; pale”.^[6][2] A-i turna cuiva leșie pe inimă means “to grieve or upset someone”.^[5][6]

Timeline

• 1631 – a charter, the first record.^[6]
• c. 1650–1700 – leșie glossed with Latin lixivium in the Anonymus Caransebesiensis.^[5][15]
• 1814 – lye for boiling tobacco leaves in a calendar.^[3][15]
• 1818 – lye made for a glassworks in an economic document.^[3]
• 1825 – leșie, with Latin lixivium, Hungarian lúg and German Lauge, in the Lexicon of Buda.^[16]

Meanings

Noun

1. lye: an alkaline solution of soda or potassium hydroxide in water, used for washing laundry and in industry.^[4][1]
2. Lye made by boiling wood ash in water, with which laundry was washed in the countryside.^[5][17]

Word family

• leșia
• leșier
• leșietic

Related words

• Latin lixīva
• Aromanian alsivã

Usage notes

A rare regional leșie “faintness, weakness of the heart” is a separate word that DLR records from one 19th-century text.^[18][3]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e 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. leșie
3. ^ a b c d e Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. leșie
4. ^ a b c DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 587
5. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1351
6. ^ 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. leșie
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5084
8. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București, p. s.v. leșie
9. ^ Popovici, Iosif (1909), Dialectele romîne din Istria II: texte și glosar, Halle a. S., p. 120
10. ^ Kovačec, August (1998), Istrorumunjsko-hrvatski rječnik (s gramatikom i tekstovima), Pula
11. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 85
12. ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 49
13. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
14. ^ Georgiev, Vladimir I. et al. (eds.) (1971–), Bălgarski etimologičen rečnik, Sofija: Izdatelstvo na Bălgarskata akademija na naukite, p. 3, 381
15. ^ a b c d e 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. leșie
16. ^ 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. 351
17. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. leșie
18. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 2, 750