pai

Forms

pai n (plural paie)^[1] The plural is paie, regionally paiuri; a regional singular paie also exists.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin palea (“chaff, straw”).^{[4][3][2][1][5]} The Latin feminine was taken as a neuter plural, giving Romanian paie “straw”, and the singular “a straw” was formed back from it.^[4][6][1][7] The Latin word may be related to Sanskrit and Balto-Slavic words for chaff.^[8]

It survives in Aromanian palj and Megleno-Romanian pal'u.^[4][9][10] Its Romance cognates include Italian paglia, French paille, Occitan palha, Catalan palla, Spanish paja and Portuguese palha.^[4]

Giuglea derived the word from pallium (“cloak”);^[4] Ciorănescu thinks this needless.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Palia de la Orăștie of 1581, „Luă bozii și-i puse supt paiele cămilelor” “she took the idols and put them under the camels' straw”.^[2][3] Tiktin cites the same text for Exodus 15:7.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The plural paie is the heap of straw left after threshing; the singular is one stalk, a thin stick such as a matchstick, and today a drinking straw.^{[11][2][6][1]} Regionally paiele țiganului “the Gypsy's straws” or drumul paielor “the straw road” is the Milky Way, and Aromanian has calea a palilor for it.^[2][7] Om de paie is a man of straw, a figurehead.^[11]

Timeline

• 1581 – paiele in the Palia de la Orăștie.^[2][3]
• 1649 – „paie nu-ș sânt” “there is no straw” in a document.^[2]
• 1688 – paie in the Bucharest Bible.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A straw, the hollow stalk of a cereal or other grass;^[11][3][1] (plural) straw, the stalks left after threshing.^[11][3][1]
2. A drinking straw.^[11][1]

Word family

• păios
• păiș
• păiuș
• păiște
• păiuț
• împăia

Related words

• Aromanian palj
• Latin palea

Usage notes

MDA2 and the DLR have a separate regional word pai for the new short wool that grows on sheep in spring before shearing, recorded from 1920.^[3][2] Common expressions are om de paie “a man of straw”, foc de paie “a short-lived passion” and văduvă de paie “grass widow”.^[11]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. pai
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, 246
4. ^ a b c d e f 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. pai
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6161
6. ^ 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. pai
7. ^ a b Pascu, Giorge (1925), Dictionnaire étymologique macédoroumain, 2 vols. (I: Les éléments latins et romans; II: Les éléments grecs, turcs, slaves, albanais, germaniques, magyars, néologismes, créations immédiates, obscurs), Iași: Cultura Națională, p. 1, 137
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 781
10. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 212
11. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 762