măruntaie

Forms

măruntaie n pl (plural only)^[1] Old and western forms with n for r are common: mănuntaie, mănuntăi, mănuntei;^[2][3][4] Dosoftei wrote „s-au vărsat toate mațele și mănuntăile gios” “all his bowels and entrails spilled down”.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin minūtālia (“small things, minced meat”), a derivative of minūtus (“small”).^{[5][6][7][3][8][9][1]} MDA2 writes the Latin as minutolia.^[2] Romance cognates include Italian minutaglia, Catalan menudall and Old French menuaille, none with the sense “entrails”;^[5][6][8] Tiktin and Candrea–Densusianu compare the Italian minugia (“chopped entrails”) and Spanish menudillos (“giblets”).^[5][6][8] The word belongs with mărunt “small”, where /n/ spread to the second syllable and the first was then dissimilated to /r/.^[5]

The Latin adjective is the participle of minuō (“to make smaller”).^[1][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is Moxa's chronicle of 1620, where the word is a euphemism for the genitals.^[6][2] The Romanian Herodotus of 1645 has mănuntăile boului “the ox's entrails”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Old texts had both the internal organs and, as in Latin, “small things, trifles”; the second sense is now regional and old.^[2][8][4] The organs are those of humans and animals, especially of the abdomen, and in cooking the edible offal: ciorbă de măruntaie.^[4][7] Figurative senses grew from the idea of the inside: măruntaiele pământului “the bowels of the earth”, and the inner being as the seat of thoughts and feelings;^[6][7] a ști toate măruntaiele cuiva means to know someone's most hidden thoughts.^[6][7] In slang it means small change.^[2][5]

Timeline

• 1620 – the first record, in Moxa's chronicle.^[6][2]
• 1645 – mănuntăile in the Romanian Herodotus.^[3]
• 1682–1686 – mănuntăile in Dosoftei's lives of the saints.^[6][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. entrails, viscera: the internal organs of animals and humans, especially those of the abdomen; the edible offal of animals: măruntaie de pui.^[7][2]
2. (figurative) The deepest part of something: măruntaiele pământului.^[7][2]
3. (figurative) The inner being, the seat of thoughts and feelings;^[7] a ști toate măruntaiele cuiva “to know someone's most hidden thoughts”.^[7]
4. (slang) Small change.^[2]

Related words

• mărunt
• mărunțiș
• Late Latin minūtālia

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1459
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. măruntaie
4. ^ a b c d Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1, 789
5. ^ 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. mărunt
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. măruntaie
7. ^ a b c d e f g h DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 629
8. ^ a b c d Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5596
10. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press