părâng

Forms

părâng m (uncountable)^[1] The word has many regional variants, among them părinc, păring, parinc, paring, parânc and perunc.^[2][3] Neculce's chronicle has părinc: „de pogonul de păpușoiu și de părincu” “for each pogon of maize and of millet”.^[4] A feminine părângă and parincă is also recorded.^[5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin pānicum (“Italian millet”), the Latin name of foxtail millet.^{[3][2][6][5][4][1][7]} Ciorănescu follows Philippide, Pușcariu, Candrea and Densusianu and the REW in this etymology.^[3][8] The Latin word is itself of uncertain origin: it is probably formed on pānis (“bread”) or on pānus (“ear of millet”) with a suffix.^[1][7]

Its Romance cognates include Italian panico and French panic.^[3][8] In the Jura and Saône-et-Loire the French dialect word names millet in general, and in places maize.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to about 1600, in a glossary that has the form pâinichiu.^[5] MDA2's first record is Ion Neculce's chronicle of Moldavia (c. 1743), where peasants grow maize and millet with the hoe so as not to starve.^[2][4] In both the word means millet (Panicum miliaceum).^[5][4]

Semantic evolution

Regional speech uses the name for several grasses: common millet (Panicum miliaceum), wood millet (Milium effusum), green foxtail (Setaria viridis) and foxtail millet (Setaria italica).^[4][2] By extension it also means a millet porridge, hay and a hayfield.^[4][2] Cantemir used it figuratively in his Hronic for a weed sown among the grain, beside zizanie “tares”.^[4]

DEX 2009 keeps two senses, foxtail millet and millet, both labelled regional.^[6] Vlahuță's păring draws tall, thin stalks from the damp soil.^[5][4]

Timeline

• c. 1600 – pâinichiu in a glossary, the first record.^[5]
• c. 1650–1700 – paninc in the Latin–Romanian dictionary of the Anonymus Caransebesiensis.^[4][2]
• c. 1743 – părinc “millet” in Neculce's chronicle.^[2][4]
• 1825 – in the Lexicon de la Buda.^[4]
• 1857 – the variant parinc in Polizu's dictionary.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. (regional) foxtail millet (Setaria italica); compare dughie.^[6][2][1]
2. (regional) millet (Panicum miliaceum); compare mei.^[6][2][1]
3. (regional) Wood millet (Milium effusum) or green foxtail (Setaria viridis).^[2][4]
4. (regional, by extension) A porridge of millet; also hay, or a hayfield.^[2][4]

Related words

• părângă
• Latin pānicum

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 304
3. ^ 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. părinc
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. părîng
5. ^ a b c d e f Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. părâng
6. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 789
7. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6196