pântece

Forms

pântece n (plural pântece)^[1] The variant pântec, plural pântece, is the popular form, and DEX 2009 lists the word under it.^[2][1] Tiktin records pântice in Moldavia and colloquial pântec and pântic, and MDA2 lists many more, such as pântăce, pântici and puncite.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin pantex (“belly, paunch, guts”), from its accusative ⟨panticem⟩.^{[5][3][6][4][1]} Diez, Pușcariu, Candrea and Densusianu and the REW give the same etymon.^[5][7] The Latin noun was a colloquial word, found since Plautus and mostly in the plural.^[8][9] Its formation is uncertain; it may be related to pānus.^[8][1] Candrea and Densusianu explain the forms in ⟨-ec⟩ and ⟨-ic⟩ as remade from the plural.^[10]

The noun survives south of the Danube as Aromanian pãntic; in Megleno-Romanian it is kept only in a place name.^{[11][1][12][10]} Its Romance cognates include Italian pancia, Occitan pansa, French panse, Catalan panxa, Spanish panza and Portuguese pança.^[5][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is the personal name Oană Pântece in a Slavonic charter of 1448.^[3] As a common noun it is first found in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century, where pântecele renders the belly and the womb.^[4][13]

Semantic evolution

The word meant the belly from the first texts, and also the womb: the Bible of 1688 has Jonah „în pântecele chitului” “in the belly of the whale” and Job's „Eu gol am ieșit den pântecele maicii meale” “naked I came out of my mother's womb”.^[3] From the womb sense came a lua în pântece “to become pregnant”.^[3][2]

It also meant the stomach and appetite, as in a se închina pântecelui “to worship one's belly”, said of a glutton.^[3][2] Figuratively it names the inside or depths of something, such as the bowels of the earth or the bulge of a vessel.^[14][2] Ciorănescu notes that the word is general, but rare in Muntenia.^[5] The adjective pântecos “big-bellied” may come directly from Latin panticōsus, like Aromanian pînticos.^[5][11]

Timeline

• 1448 – the personal name Oană Pântece in a Slavonic charter, the first record.^[3]
• c. 1500–1520 – pântece and pântecele in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[4][13]
• 1649 – pântecelui in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[15]
• 1688 – the Bucharest Bible uses it for belly and womb.^[3]
• 1801 – pântece, glossed Latin venter, in Klein's dictionary.^[16]

Meanings

Noun

1. The belly, abdomen: the part of the body between the chest and the pelvis, holding the stomach and the bowels.^[2][4][1]
2. The stomach: cu pântecele lipit de coaste “starving, very thin”.^[2][4]
3. (popular) The womb: a purta în pântece “to be pregnant”.^[2][1]
4. (figurative) The inside, the depths of something.^[2][4]

Word family

• pântecos

Related words

• spinteca
• Aromanian pãntic
• Latin pantex

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. 1, 792
3. ^ 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. pântece
4. ^ 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. 2, 320
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. pîntece
6. ^ Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. pîntece
7. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6207
8. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București, p. 227
11. ^ a b Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 858
12. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 228
13. ^ 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 21:15
14. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 987
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. pîntecelui
16. ^ Gáldi, László (ed.) (1944), Samuel Klein: Dictionarium valachico-latinum. Primul dicționar al limbii române, Budapest: Királyi Magyar Pázmány Péter Tudományegyetemi Román Intézet (Klein's dictionary of 1801, with Gáldi's etymological study), p. 413