pat

pat¹ bed

Pronunciation

• /ˈpat/^[1]

Forms

pat n (plural paturi)^[1]

Etymology

The word for the bed is borrowed from Modern Greek πάτος (pátos, “beaten path”) according to DEX, MDA2 and the DLR.^[2][3][4] Tiktin also calls this Greek source probable, noting that the later Greek word means “ground, floor”.^[5] Scriban takes it from the medieval Greek word for a pavement, itself formed on the verb πατέω (patéō, “to tread”).^[6] Babiniotis traces the Greek noun back to the ancient language and considers it probably a back-formation from that verb, with “a much-trodden path” as its first sense and “bottom, floor” as a later one.^[7]

Ciorănescu prefers Latin pactum (“fixed, fastened”), from pangō (“to fix”), comparing Italian patto (“straw litter”) and related Italian forms; the expected outcome ⟨*papt⟩ would then have lost one /p/ by dissimilation, as in botez, or by a crossing with the Greek word.^[8][1] He lists Meyer, Candrea and Densusianu, Tiktin, Philippide, Capidan and Graur among those who chose the Greek source, and rejects a Hungarian source, a Dacian one and several reconstructed Latin forms.^[8] Wiktionary gives both the Greek and the Latin explanation.^[1]

The word also exists south of the Danube: Aromanian pat and Megleno-Romanian pat.^[8][9] Capidan derived the Megleno-Romanian word from Greek as well.^[9] Bulgarian пат (pat) was in turn borrowed from Romanian.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century, in Psalm 6:6: „patul mieu udu-l” “I wet my bed”.^[4][3][10] The sense there is already the place where one lies and sleeps.^[4]

Semantic evolution

In the old texts the word is both the sleeping place and the bedding on it: the DLR's quotations run from Coresi's Gospel homilies (“thou art risen from the bed”) and the Palia of 1581 to the chroniclers.^[4] Phrases about illness and death grew up around it, such as a cădea la pat “to fall gravely ill” and pe patul de moarte “on one's deathbed”.^[3][2]

From the idea of a flat base came the technical senses: the wooden stock of a gun, the frame of a loom, a layer of material such as railway ballast, and a river bed.^[2][8][6] Ciorănescu puts the sense “layer, base, ground” first among his senses.^[8] In popular speech it also names a stretcher or bier and a seedbed.^[2]

Timeline

• early 16th century – patul “the bed” in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki, the first record.^[3][10]
• c. 1551–1558 – patului in the Psaltirea Voronețeană.^[11]
• 16th century – in the Psaltirea Scheiană.^[5]
• 1581 – paturi in the Palia.^[4]
• 1688 – the diminutive păticean in the Bucharest Bible.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A bed: a piece of furniture, usually with a mattress or springs, for sleeping on; by extension the bed with its bedding.^[2][3]
2. (popular) A stretcher or bier.^[2]
3. (popular) A seedbed.^[2]
4. A flat, roughly horizontal part of a machine or installation on which materials or other parts rest or slide.^[2]
5. The wooden stock of a rifle or pistol, holding the barrel and the mechanism.^[2][8]
6. A layer of material on which something else rests: pat de cale ferată “railway ballast bed”.^[2]
7. A river bed, a channel.^[2]

Word family

• pătuț
• pătuc
• pătul
• pătuleț
• supat
• patașcă

pat² stalemate

Pronunciation

• /ˈpat/^[1]

Forms

pat n (plural paturi)^[1]

Etymology

The word for the stalemate in chess is borrowed from French pat.^{[2][3][12][4]} The French chess term is itself probably from Italian patta (“draw”), influenced by mat (“mate”).^[13][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

MDA2 dates the first record to the Dicționarul limbii române moderne of 1958, with the chess sense.^[3]

Timeline

• 1958 – first recorded, in the Dicționarul limbii române moderne.^[3][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. (chess) stalemate: a position in which a player who is not in check has no legal move, so that the game ends in a draw.^[2][12]