păpușă

Forms

păpușă f (plural păpuși)^[1]

Etymology

Its origin is disputed: Ciorănescu takes it as an expressive formation from Romanian papă¹ + -ușă, compare pup, with the diminutive suffix; its first sense would be “a person or thing of no definite shape”, as in papaciufă, papalete and paparudă.^[2] Tiktin calls it of unknown origin, and DEX and MDA2 only compare Latin pūpa (“girl, doll”).^[3][4][5]

Wiktionary makes it a diminutive of the Latin word, and Scriban derives it from a popular Vulgar Latin *puppa through ⟨pupă⟩ and ⟨popă⟩.^[1][6] Pușcariu took it from pappus (“old man”), the miser of Roman comedy, and the REW lists it under pappa.^[2][7] Ciorănescu rejects these and a Russian source proposed by Candrea.^[2] The Aromanian word is pãpushi “doll”.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1578, in the Slavonic–Romanian documents.^[3] In Dosoftei's lives of the saints (1682–1686) the word is used of idols: „câți să-nșelară a să-nchina a păpuș ca aceastea” “how many were deceived into bowing down to such puppets”.^[3][5]

Semantic evolution

The doll and the puppet are the central senses; the jocul păpușilor, a puppet play once performed around Christmas after the nativity play, gave păpușar “puppeteer”.^[3][9] Figuratively it is a pretty girl, and a person without will who is led by others: a fi păpușa cuiva.^[4][5]

A second group of senses names things tied in a bundle: a bundle of tobacco leaves, a skein of yarn, a counted set of threads for the loom.^[3][4][10] Ciorănescu compares French poupée for the sense of a plait.^[2] It also names a young ear of maize, whence the Moldavian păpușoi “maize”, the pupa of insects, and tools: the cooper's hoop-driver and a part of machine tools.^[2][4]

The tobacco sense passed into the neighbouring languages: Ciorănescu lists Bulgarian, Ukrainian and Polish words for a bundle of tobacco leaves taken from Romanian, among them Polish papusza.^[2][1]

Timeline

• 1578 – first record, in the Slavonic–Romanian documents.^[3]
• 1682–1686 – păpuș “idols, puppets” in Dosoftei's lives of the saints.^[3][5]
• 1688 – the Bucharest Bible uses it in four verses.^[11]
• 1749 – the surname Păpușoiu, from păpușoi, in a document.^[12]
• 1825 – the Lexicon of Buda gives “doll” and “bundle (of tobacco, of yarn)”.^[13]
• 1870 – Costinescu records the marionette sense and păpușă de tutun “bundle of tobacco”.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. A doll, a toy usually representing a child; by extension a figurine in human form; also a term of endearment for a pretty girl.^[4][1]
2. A puppet worn on the hand in a puppet theatre (teatru de păpuși); (figurative) a person without will, a puppet: a fi păpușa cuiva “to be someone's puppet”.^[4][5]
3. A bundle of threads, leaves and the like, tied in a particular way: păpușă de tutun “a bundle of tobacco leaves”.^[4][3]
4. A piece of cheese pressed in a mould.^[4]
5. The young ear of maize before the silk and grains form.^[4][15]
6. The pupa of insects.^[4][1]
7. The part of a machine tool that holds or supports the workpiece or the cutting tool.^[4]
8. A cooper's tool for driving hoops onto a cask.^[4][2]

Word family

• păpușar
• păpușică
• păpușoi
• împăpușa
• păpuși

Related words

• papă¹
• Aromanian pãpushi

Usage notes

MDA2 records the variants popușă and pupușă and a rare plural păpușe;^[5][3] Tiktin gives păpușe for Oltenia and Muntenia.^[5][3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g 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. păpușă
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. păpușă
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 788
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, 302
6. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 950
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6213
8. ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 801
9. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 460
10. ^ Marin, Maria; Mărgărit, Iulia, Glosar dialectal. Muntenia, București: Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti”, p. s.v. păpușă
11. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. 1 Împărății 30:12
12. ^ Constantinescu, N. A. (1963), Dicționar onomastic romînesc, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. s.v. păpușă
13. ^ 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. 481
14. ^ Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 241
15. ^ Breban, Vasile (1980), Dicționar al limbii române contemporane de uz curent, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică, p. 422