papuc

Forms

papuc m (plural papuci)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ottoman Turkish پاپوش (pâpûş), also written پابوج (pâbuc), from Persian پاپوش (pâpuš).^[2][1][3] According to MDA2, DEX and DLR it is also borrowed from Hungarian papucs, itself a Turkish loan recorded from 1559.^{[4][5][6][7][8]} The Persian word is a compound meaning literally “foot covering”.^[9][10][11]

The Turkish final consonant would have given ⟨papuci⟩ in the singular; that form was taken for a plural, and a new singular was made from it.^[2][12][9] Ciorănescu cites Byck and Graur for this.^[2]

South of the Danube the word is Aromanian păpuță and Megleno-Romanian păputsă (“boots”).^[2][13] The same Turkish word gave Modern Greek παπούτσι (papoútsi) and French babouche.^[10][11][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is from 1509, in the Slavonic-Romanian documents.^[12] The first Romanian text is the translation of Herodotus of 1645, which says of Perseus that he „arată și un papuc a lui, de vro doi coți” “also shows one of his slippers, some two cubits long”.^[4][6] The Slavonic–Romanian lexicons of the 1660s gloss Slavonic words for sandals and shoes with papuci.^[14]

Semantic evolution

At first the word meant a shoe in general; the house slipper without a heel is the later sense.^[9][6] Customs lists of the 18th century count papuci cu meștii, slippers worn with soft leather socks.^[6][3] Șăineanu notes that by the old etiquette visitors left their slippers at the stairs and went in wearing only these socks.^[3] In Transylvania and the Banat it also means a boot, and an army boot.^[4][1]

Many phrases grew up around it: a o lua la papuc “to take to one's heels”, a da cuiva papucii “to send someone packing”.^[5][9] Tiktin regards a ține sub papuc “to keep under one's thumb”, said of a henpecked husband, as a Germanism.^[12] Technical senses followed: a base piece for a post or a pile, and a cable terminal.^[5] From the 1990s papuc or Dacia papuc is also a small pickup truck.^[15]

The derivative papugiu “swindler, rogue” comes from Turkish papuççu, the servant who looked after the shoes left at the door; the figurative sense is Romanian.^[2][3]

Timeline

• 1509 – first record, in a Slavonic-Romanian document.^[12]
• 1645 – papuc in the Romanian translation of Herodotus.^[4][6]
• c. 1660 – papuci in a Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[14]
• 1761 – papuci cu meștii in a customs tariff.^[3]
• 1792 – papuci cu meștii, bărbătești in a document printed in the Uricariul.^[6]
• 1999 – papuc for a pickup truck in the press.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. A light heelless shoe worn indoors, a slipper; more broadly, a light summer shoe.^[5][4]
2. (regional, Transylvania, Banat) A boot; an army boot.^[4][1]
3. (technical) A wooden piece set at the base of a post to widen its support; a steel shoe on the lower end of a pile; a piece for connecting a wire to a terminal, a cable lug.^[5]
4. (colloquial) A small pickup truck.^[15]
5. Papucul-doamnei: the lady's slipper orchid (Cypripedium calceolus).^[5][16]

Word family

• papucar
• papucărie
• papucaș
• papucel

Related words

• papugiu
• papucă
• Modern Greek παπούτσι (papoútsi)

Usage notes

Common phrases: a o lua la papuc “to run off”, a fi sub papuc “to be under someone's thumb”, a da cuiva papucii “to dismiss someone”, a lăsa pe cineva la papuci “to ruin someone”.^[5][4] DEX's papuc² is only a variant of papucă.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. papuc
3. ^ a b c d e Șăineanu, Lazăr (1900), Influența orientală asupra limbei și culturei române, vol. I: Introducerea; vol. II.1: Vorbele populare; vol. II.2: Vorbele istorice, literare, Indice, București: Socec, p. 2, 282
4. ^ 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, 261
5. ^ a b c d e f g h DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 770
6. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. papuc
7. ^ Benkő, Loránd (ed.) (1967–1976), A magyar nyelv történeti-etimológiai szótára, 3 vols., Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó
8. ^ Zaicz, Gábor (ed.) (2006), Etimológiai szótár: magyar szavak és toldalékok eredete, Budapest: Tinta Könyvkiadó
9. ^ a b c d Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 930
10. ^ a b Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας, p. 1093
11. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
12. ^ 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. papuc
13. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 214
14. ^ a b Ungureanu, Mădălina; Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Moruz, Alexandru (eds.), eRomLex: The First Romanian Bilingual Dictionaries (17th century), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. s.v. papuci
15. ^ a b c Dimitrescu, Florica (1997), Dicționar de cuvinte recente, 2nd ed., București: Logos (with the 3rd ed., 2013, in CLRE), p. s.v. papuc
16. ^ Panțu, Zach. C. (1929), Plantele cunoscute de poporul român. Vocabular botanic cuprinzând numirile române, franceze, germane și științifice, 2nd ed., București: Editura Casei Școalelor, p. 210