păduchea

Forms

păduchea (third-person singular present păduchează, past participle păducheat), 1st conjugation^[1] A 4th-conjugation variant păduchi (present păduchesc or păduchi) is also used: Pamfile records „să le faci a-l păduchi” “make them delouse him”.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian păduche + -a, from the word for the louse.^[3][5][2][4] Pușcariu traced it to Latin *peduculāre, but Ciorănescu thinks it a Romanian derivative.^[6] Wiktionary gives the Latin view too, through Vulgar Latin *peduclō from pēdīculō (“to delouse”).^[1][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the Bucharest Bible of 1688, in Jeremiah 43:12: „În ce chip păduche păstoriul haina lui” “as a shepherd delouses his cloak”.^[4][2][8]

Semantic evolution

The verb means to pick the lice off someone's head, body or clothes, and reflexively to delouse oneself.^[3][5] Colloquially it also means to go through something minutely, like purica.^[5]

Timeline

• 1688 – păduche “delouses” in the Bucharest Bible.^[4][8]

Meanings

Verb

1. (popular, transitive and reflexive) To delouse: to remove the lice from the hair, the body or clothes; synonym despăduchea.^[3][5][1]
2. (figurative, colloquial) To scrutinize something in every detail.^[5]

Related words

• păduche

Usage notes

A separate noun păduchea “female louse”, also formed on păduche, is obsolete and rare;^[5][2] Anton Pann's proverbs of 1852 have „Banul face banii și păduchea, păduchii” “money makes money, and the female louse lice”.^[5][2]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. păduchea
3. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 786
4. ^ 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. păduche
5. ^ 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, 291
6. ^ 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. păduche
7. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Jer 43:12