pecingine

Forms

pecingine f (plural pecingini)^[1] Regional variants include pipingine, picingine, pepingine and păgingii.^[2] Klein's dictionary of 1801 lists „Pecingine (Pipingine)”.^[3] A dialect text has „Are pipingine pe obraz” “he has a rash on his face”.^[4] Mardarie's lexicon of 1649 spells it pecigire, and Tiktin also records pecingină and pecingene.^[5][6]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin petīgō (“scab, skin eruption”), from its accusative, a popular form of impetīgō.^{[7][8][2][5][1]} The Latin noun is an old word, recorded in Lucilius, beside dēpetīgō in Cato and the prefixed form in Pliny; de Vaan lists them among the derivatives of petō.^[9][10] Ciorănescu cites Pușcariu, Candrea–Densusianu, the REW and Graur for the etymology.^[7][11][12]

Candrea and Densusianu explain the form: the expected ⟨*pețigine⟩ became ⟨pecigine⟩ by assimilation of /ts/ to the /tʃ/ before /g/, and the /n/ of the last syllable spread to the second, as in funingine.^[6] The Romance cognates are mostly dialectal: Italian dialects have similar forms, while Spanish empeine and Portuguese empigem continue the form with the prefix; Italian impetiggine is learned.^[11][6] Wiktionary compares Italian petecchia “petechia”, which DELI and Nocentini derive from a Vulgar Latin diminutive of the word.^[1][13][14]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is of 1639, in a document published in the series he abbreviates AIIN.^[5] Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon of 1649 has the spelling pecigire, and the glossary of the Anonymus Caransebesiensis (c. 1650–1700) is MDA2's and the DLR's first record; the sense is already the skin disease.^[6][2][4]

Semantic evolution

The word names several contagious skin diseases with small blisters that dry into itching scaly patches, and loosely eczema or a heat rash.^[8][2] Folk medicine collected remedies and beliefs about it: whoever eats what hens have pecked at gets pecingine on the face.^[4] Pecingine rea was a name for pellagra.^[2]

Its spreading gave the phrase a se întinde ca pecinginea “to spread like ringworm”, said of an evil that spreads unchecked: Tiktin quotes C. Negruzzi on an epidemic that spread over the towns and villages „ca o pecingene”.^[5][15] The image was transferred to bare patches in a sown field and to stains of mould or damp on a wall.^[8][2] Regionally it is also an insolent, talkative person, and in Banat pecingină is a carnation, Dianthus carthusianorum.^[2]

Timeline

• 1639 – the first record, in a document.^[5]
• 1649 – pecigire in Mardarie's lexicon.^[5][6]
• c. 1650–1700 – pecingine in the Anonymus Caransebesiensis.^[2][4]
• 1801 – Pecingine (Pipingine), glossed with Latin petigo, impetigo, in Klein's dictionary.^[3]
• 1825 – pecingine in the Lexicon de la Buda, derived there from Latin impetigo.^[16]

Meanings

Noun

1. (popular) a name for several contagious skin diseases with blisters that dry into itching scabs; by extension eczemă, ringworm: L-a umplut pecinginea pe mâini. “His hands are covered in a rash.”^[8][2][1]
2. (figurative) an evil that spreads fast and unchecked;^[8][17] a se întinde ca pecinginea “to spread like wildfire”.^[8][17]
3. (figurative) a bare patch in a sown field where the crop has died from parasites or disease.^[8][2][1]
4. (figurative) a stain of mould, damp or dirt on a wall.^[8][17]

Word family

• pecingina
• pecinginos

Related words

• eczemă
• impetigo
• Latin petīgō

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 Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 330
3. ^ a b Gáldi, László (ed.) (1944), Samuel Klein: Dictionarium valachico-latinum. Primul dicționar al limbii române, Budapest: Királyi Magyar Pázmány Péter Tudományegyetemi Román Intézet (Klein's dictionary of 1801, with Gáldi's etymological study), p. 415
4. ^ a b c d Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. pecîngine
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. pecingine
6. ^ a b c d e Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București
7. ^ a b 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. pecingine
8. ^ 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. 795
9. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ a b Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 113
12. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 4306
13. ^ Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
14. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
15. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 371
16. ^ Lesicon românescu-latinescu-ungurescu-nemțescu quare de mai mulți autori, în cursul a trideci și mai multor ani s-au lucrat (1825), Buda: Typographia Universității (the Lexicon of Buda, ed. Petru Maior et al.), p. 492
17. ^ a b c Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. pecingine