muchie

Forms

muchie f (plural muchii)^[1] Older and popular texts have the form muche, plural muchi: „în patru muchi” “square, four-edged” (Bible of 1688).^[2][3]

Etymology

It is probably inherited from Vulgar Latin *mutila, a form of Latin mutulus (“corbel, rafter-head”).^[3][4][5][1] Tiktin derives it straight from the Latin noun, and the REW gives the Latin word the further sense “boundary stone”, with the Romanian and Italian mucchio (“heap”) among its descendants.^[2][6]

Ciorănescu calls the origin doubtful.^[7] He suggests Latin cumulus (“heap”) in a metathesised form *muculus, as Cipariu proposed, with the idea of a projection; it may have merged with the latter, or come from it, though he doubts that a technical word of architecture would have survived.^[7][1] Candrea, Densusianu and Pascu took it from Latin mutilus (“maimed”), an explanation Ciorănescu does not find convincing.^[7]

It has a cognate south of the Danube, Aromanian muclji.^[7][8][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the word from a document of 1424.^[2] MDA2's first record is the Romanian translation of Herodotus of 1645.^[4] The 17th-century Slavonic–Romanian lexicons use muche for the back of an axe, from about 1660.^[9]

Semantic evolution

The core sense is an edge where two surfaces meet: the edge of a solid, the edge or border of a surface, and the back of a blade as opposed to its cutting edge.^[3][2][4] From the back of an axe came the expression a aștepta ca porcul muchia toporului, said of someone who lets everything happen to him.^[2] Of a hill or mountain it means the ridge or crest, and by extension its slope.^[3][2]

Phrases include pe muchie “on the edge, at the limit”, pe muchie de cuțit “in a critical situation” and bătuți pe muchie, said of a sum of money that is complete to the last coin.^[3][4] Regional speech uses it for a ridge of earth along a ploughed field, for the ridge of a roof and even for an anvil.^[5] An old rare sense was “frontier”.^[4]

Timeline

• 1424 – a document, Tiktin's first record.^[2]
• 1645 – muchie in the Romanian Herodotus.^[4]
• c. 1660 – muche for the back of an axe in a Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[9]
• 1688 – în patru muchi “four-edged” in the Bucharest Bible.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. An edge: the line where two faces of a solid meet;^[3][4][1] pe muchie “at the limit”.^[3][4][1]
2. The edge or border of a thing or surface;^[3][4] bătuți pe muchie (of money) “in full, exact”.^[3][4]
3. The outer side of an object; the back of a knife or axe, opposite the cutting edge;^[3][2] pe muchie de cuțit “on a knife-edge, in danger”.^[3][2]
4. The ridge or crest of a mountain or hill; by extension its slope.^[3][2][1]

Related words

• Aromanian muclji

Usage notes

The pronunciation splits the final syllables, mu-chi-e; the variant muche is still used.^[3]

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 h i j k Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. muchie
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 679
4. ^ 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. 2, 69
5. ^ a b Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. muchie
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5797
7. ^ a b c d 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. muche
8. ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 675
9. ^ a b 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. muchie