pâine

Forms

pâine f (plural pâini)^[1] The Moldavian and regional form is pâne: „Avea pîne de sațiu” “he had bread enough” (Moxa, 1620).^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin pānis (“bread”), continued in its accusative pānem.^{[4][5][3][1][6]} The Latin word may come from *peh₂- (“to feed, to graze”).^[1] De Vaan notes the usual link, through an older stem, with the root of pāscō but doubts it.^[7]

The word survives in all four branches: Aromanian pãni, Megleno-Romanian pǫini and Istro-Romanian păre.^[4][8][1][9] The Istro-Romanian /r/ is the old rhotacism of intervocalic /n/, which the 16th-century psalters also show in ⟨pîre⟩ and ⟨păre⟩.^[9][10] Its Romance cognates include Dalmatian pun, Italian pane, Sardinian pane, French pain, Occitan pan, Catalan pa, Spanish pan and Portuguese pão.^[4][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

MDA2's first record is the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century.^[3] The Psaltirea Voronețeană (c. 1551–1558) has the rhotacized pîrea “the bread” at Psalm 101:10 and Psalm 103:17, where Coresi's psalter of 1570 has pîinea.^[11]

Semantic evolution

Besides the food, the word names a loaf, and more widely the food one needs to live and so a living: Tiktin quotes the Lord's Prayer of the 1688 Bible, „Pâinea noastră cea de toate zilele dă-ne-o noao astăzi” “give us this day our daily bread”.^[12][5] From a living came “a job, a post”: a pune pe cineva în pâine “to find someone a position”, a scoate din pâine “to put out of a post”.^[12][4] In Moldavia it also meant grain and the standing crop.^[4][13]

Bread and salt mark hospitality and shared life in many phrases: a mânca pâine și sare cu cineva “to live with someone through good and bad”, a întâmpina cu pâine și sare “to welcome with honour”.^[5] A kind person is bun ca pâinea caldă, and goods in demand sell ca pâinea caldă.^[5][12]

Timeline

• early 16th century – first record, in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[3]
• c. 1551–1558 – pîrea in the Psaltirea Voronețeană.^[11]
• 1570 – pîine in Coresi's psalter.^[14]
• c. 1573–1578 – pîne and pîre in the Psaltirea Scheiană.^[14]
• 1688 – over two hundred times in the Bucharest Bible, at Genesis 14:18.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. bread: a staple food of dough of flour (wheat, rye) raised with yeast and baked in an oven; also a loaf.^[5][1]
2. The food needed to live; a livelihood: pâinea cea de toate zilele “one's daily bread”.^[5]
3. (figurative) A job, a post.^[16][4]
4. (regional) Grain, cereals; the standing crop.^[16][4]

Word family

• pâinar
• pâinărie

Related words

• Aromanian pãni
• Latin pānis

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. pâine
3. ^ a b c d Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 317
4. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. pâine
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. 792
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6198
7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 799
9. ^ a b Popovici, Iosif (1909), Dialectele romîne din Istria II: texte și glosar, Halle a. S., p. 134
10. ^ 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 101:5
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 101:10
12. ^ a b c Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. pâine
13. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 454
14. ^ 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 13:5
15. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Gen 14:18
16. ^ a b Breban, Vasile (1980), Dicționar al limbii române contemporane de uz curent, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică, p. 439