maț

Forms

maț n (plural mațe)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin matia (“bowels, intestines”).^{[2][3][4][1][5]} The first Romanian form was the plural mațe, matching the Latin form, and the singular was remade from it later, as Candrea showed;^[2][6][7] Ciorănescu, after Byck and Graur, notes that the regular outcome would have been a singular mață, as in Megleno-Romanian.^[2][6][7] Wiktionary also mentions a back-formation from măcel as an alternative view.^[1]

The word survives south of the Danube: Aromanian mats, Megleno-Romanian maț and Istro-Romanian mǫțę.^[2][8][9] Its Romance cognates are few: Neapolitan matsse “guts” and Logudorese matza (“belly”).^[2][5][1] Wiktionary connects the Latin word with mateola and considers a Frankish source possible.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first records are names: the personal name Onică Mățăiul in 1495 and the place name Mățău in 1559.^[10] As a common noun it is in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of about 1500–1520, in the plural mațele “the bowels”, the first record MDA2 gives.^[11][3] The Psaltirea Scheiană has „De plodul mațeloru tale pure-voiu în scaunul tău” “of the fruit of your body I will set upon your throne”, rendering Slavonic črěva.^[10]

Semantic evolution

The word is used mostly in the plural, for the intestines of animals and, in popular speech, of people.^[12][4] Popular anatomy names their parts: mațul gros “the large intestine”, mațul subțire “the small intestine” and mațul orb “the appendix”.^[3][10] The guts stand for a person's character: pestriț la mațe “speckled in the guts” means wicked and treacherous, and Creangă contrasts a hard-working wife with one who was pestriță la mațe and miserly.^[10][3] Compounds name poor or stingy people: mațe-fripte “roasted guts” and mațe-goale “empty guts”.^[4][13]

From the shape of a gut the word came to mean a flexible tube or hose, as the tube of a hookah in Delavrancea.^[10][13] In the Banat a maț is a thin hose.^[2] Strings made of gut are strune de mațe.^[10]

Timeline

• 1495 – the personal name Onică Mățăiul.^[10]
• c. 1500–1520 – mațele “the bowels” in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[11][3]
• c. 1551–1558 – mațe and mațelor in the Psaltirea Voroneț.^[14]
• 1559 – the place name Mățău.^[10]
• 1660 – mațelor glosses Slavonic “of the bowels” in a Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. (mostly plural) intestine, gut: mațul gros, mațul subțire, mațul orb “appendix”.^[4][3][1]
2. (popular) A flexible tube of rubber; a hose.^[4][13]

Word family

• mățar
• măți
• mățișor

Related words

• Aromanian mats
• Latin matia

Usage notes

The expression a-i chiorăi cuiva mațele “someone's guts are rumbling” means to be very hungry.^[4] The compounds mațe-fripte and mațe-goale are familiar names for a poor or miserly person, and mațe-negre is a fish, the scobar.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f 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. maț
3. ^ 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, 1444
4. ^ a b c d e f g DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 625
5. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5412
6. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București, p. s.v. maț
7. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 782
8. ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 617
9. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 185
10. ^ 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. maț
11. ^ a b Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Ungureanu, Mădălina; Moruz, Alexandru et al., roPsalt: Re-evaluating the Sixteenth Century Romanian Psalters (aligned corpus), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. Ps 138:12
12. ^ Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. maț
13. ^ a b c Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 29
14. ^ Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Ungureanu, Mădălina; Moruz, Alexandru et al., roPsalt: Re-evaluating the Sixteenth Century Romanian Psalters (aligned corpus), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. Ps 91:3
15. ^ 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. mațelor