mesteacăn

Forms

mesteacăn m (plural mesteceni)^[1] MDA2 lists the regional variants măstac, măstacăn, măsteac, mesteac and mesteacă, and the regional plurals meșteceni, mestecăni and mestecini.^[2] Cantemir has măstacăn: „Are atâția măstacăni crescuți, cât să pare că iaste o grădină pe un munte de piatră” “it has so many birches grown that it looks like a garden on a stone mountain”.^[3]

Etymology

It is probably inherited from Late Latin mastichinus (“of mastic”), from Ancient Greek μαστίχινος (mastíkhinos, “prepared with mastic”), from μαστίχη (mastíkhē, “mastic”).^{[4][2][5][6][1][7][8]} The tree was named after its sweetish sap, which was compared to mastic, the resin of the mastic tree;^[4][9] Tiktin adds that cuts in the trunk yield a sweet juice as the mastic tree yields its resin.^[4][9] Candrea and Densusianu compare the Slavic words for “birch” and “birch sap”.^[6] The REW lists the Romanian word under the same Latin adjective, after Diculescu.^[10]

The form is hard to derive, since Latin ⟨-ci-⟩ should not give ⟨-că-⟩.^[4] Earlier scholars explained the ending by analogy with cearcăn and leagăn;^[4][6][1] Ciorănescu and Candrea–Densusianu start instead from an older *mestecen, whose plural mesteceni gave the present singular, as the plural ⟨semeni⟩ goes with seamăn.^[4][6][1] Albanian mështekër “birch” is traced to the same Late Latin word.^[1][11]

Ciorănescu rejects the other proposals.^[4] Cihac derived the name from Old Church Slavonic мъстъ (mŭstŭ, “must, grape juice”), and Domaschke and Șăineanu from mesteca “to chew”, since peasants chew the sweet buds of the tree;^[4][12][13] Ciorănescu considers neither possible.^[4][13]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is a Slavonic–Romanian document of 1455.^[9] In a Romanian text it first appears in the Palia de la Orăștie (1581), where Jacob takes „nuiale verzi de mesteacăn, de alun și de castan” “green rods of birch, hazel and chestnut”.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

The word names the birch, a tree with white bark and pliant branches that grows in the hills and mountains, and by restriction its wood.^[5][2] Phrases name the species: mesteacăn alb (Betula alba), mesteacăn negru (Betula carpatica), mesteacăn mic, mesteacăn pitic and mesteacăn pufos.^[2][5] Many villages and hamlets are called Mesteacăn; in Transylvania the records of such names run from 1733 (Mestyaka) and 1750 (Mesztekan).^[14][1]

Timeline

• 1455 – the word in a Slavonic–Romanian document.^[9]
• 1581 – mesteacăn in the Palia de la Orăștie, MDA2's first record.^[2][3]
• c. 1660 – mesteacăn, glossing Slavonic береза “birch”, in a Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[15]
• 1733 – Mestyaka, a Transylvanian village later called Mesteacăn.^[14]
• 1825 – mestécănu “birch”, glossed Betula alba, in the Lexicon de la Buda.^[16]

Meanings

Noun

1. birch (Betula verrucosa): a tree with white bark, pliant branches, grey-green leaves and flowers in catkins.^[5][2][1]
2. The wood of this tree: un scaun de mesteacăn “a birch chair”.^[5][17]

Word family

• mestecănaș
• mestecăniș

Related words

• Albanian mështekër
• Ancient Greek μαστίχη (mastíkhē)

Usage notes

The plural is mesteceni.^[5][4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g 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, 1493
3. ^ a b c Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. mesteacăn
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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. mesteacăn
5. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 643
6. ^ a b c d Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București
7. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b c d Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. mesteacăn
10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
11. ^ Ungureanu, Dan (2024), Istoria limbii române, Chișinău: Cartier, p. 341
12. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 395
13. ^ a b Kurz, Josef; Hauptová, Zoe (eds.) (1958–1997), Slovník jazyka staroslověnského / Lexicon linguae palaeoslovenicae, 4 vols. + supplements, Praha: Academia; digital ed. gorazd.org
14. ^ a b Suciu, Coriolan (1966–1968), Dicționar istoric al localităților din Transilvania, I–II, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. I
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. mesteacăn
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. 387
17. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 62