pachet

Forms

pachet n (plural pachete)^[1] Older texts use the plural pacheturi, which MDA2 marks as now regional: „Dintru acești zeace bănuți trebuie să se facă pacheturi, adecă legături” “out of these ten coins packets, that is bundles, must be made” (1818).^[2][3] MDA2 also records the regional variants păchet and pochet.^[3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French paquet, with German Paket as a second source in DEX 2009, Tiktin, the DLR and Wiktionary.^[4][5][2][1] MDA2 adds borrowed from Hungarian paket, and the DLR compares the Hungarian word.^[3][2] Ciorănescu gives French alone and compares the Turkish and Russian forms.^[6] Scriban takes the French word from English packet.^[7]

The German word was taken from the French one in the 16th century.^[8] The French word is a diminutive of Middle French pacque (“bale”), which goes back to Middle Dutch pac.^[9][1] DHLF thinks the Middle French word came through pack.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1788, in Molnar's grammar, the Sprachlehre.^[5] MDA2 cites Naum Petrovici's translation of Villaume's Pedagoghia of 1818, where pacheturi is explained as legături “bundles”.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

In the 19th century the word belonged above all to the post: the DLR quotes sealed packets from 1829 and a packet of letters from 1848.^[2] Soon it named a packet of goods as well, of cigarettes, tobacco or cotton wool.^[2] DEX 2009 adds a technical sense, a set of identical pieces joined to form one.^[4] In recent decades it has also meant a set of products, services or proposals offered together,^[11][12] and the press has pachet-capcană “parcel bomb”, after French colis piégé, from 1985.^[11] MDN lists further senses: a group of trains running the same way between two stations, and a pack in sport.^[13]

Timeline

• 1788 – the first record, in Molnar's grammar.^[5]
• 1818 – pacheturi “bundles” in Petrovici's translation of Villaume.^[3][2]
• 1829 – pacheturile sighilate “the sealed packets”.^[2]
• 1848 – a packet of letters.^[2]
• 1875 – pachetu beside French paquet in Antonescu's dictionary.^[14]
• 1985 – pachet-capcană “parcel bomb” in the press.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. A package or parcel: one or more objects put together and wrapped, often tied, to be kept or carried;^[4][3] a trimite pe cineva pachet “to pack someone off”.^[4][3]
2. A packet of goods sold in its wrapping: un pachet de țigări “a packet of cigarettes”.^[2][15]
3. (technology) A set of identical pieces laid together and joined to form a single piece of a technical system.^[4]
4. A set of products, services, offers or proposals presented together.^[11][12][13]

Word family

• împacheta
• despacheta

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. pachet
3. ^ 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, 243
4. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 761
5. ^ 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. pachet
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. pachet
7. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 920
8. ^ Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter
9. ^ Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
10. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
11. ^ a b c d Dimitrescu, Florica (1997), Dicționar de cuvinte recente, 2nd ed., București: Logos (with the 3rd ed., 2013, in CLRE), p. s.v. pachet
12. ^ a b Volceanov, George (2007), Dicționar de argou al limbii române, București: Niculescu, p. s.v. pachet
13. ^ a b Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. pachet
14. ^ Antonescu, G. M. (1875), Dictionariu romanu-francesu, Bucuresci: Typografia Curții (Lucrători Associați), p. 217
15. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. pachet