pescui

Forms

pescui (present pescuiesc, third-person singular pescuiește, past participle pescuit), 4th conjugation^[1] The variant păscui is old and regional: a document of 1821 forbids anyone „să păscuiască” “to fish”.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian pește + -ui.^[1][5][2] DEX and Tiktin say it was made on the model of pescar “fisherman”, which has the same stem.^[6][4] DLR gives the derivation with a question mark.^[3] Ciorănescu notes that the stem shared by these words and pescos points to an unattested singular ⟨*pescu⟩, the form Aromanian has as pescu beside peaște.^[5] A matching verb exists south of the Danube, Aromanian piscuescu, formed on that noun.^[1]

The noun is inherited from Latin piscis (“fish”).^[5][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is Coresi's Cazania of 1564, in the sense “to fish”.^[4] MDA2 dates it from the Anonymus Caransebesiensis, a Romanian–Latin glossary of about 1650–1700.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The core sense, to catch fish or other water animals, is the only one in the old records.^[3][4] From it came the sense “to pull something or someone out of the water”: Ghica writes of fishing the men who fell into the sea out of the water.^[4][8] The figurative a pescui în apă tulbure “to fish in troubled waters”, to profit from a confused situation, is rendered by Tiktin with German im Trüben fischen.^[6][4] In familiar speech the verb means to get hold of something hard to come by, and in slang to steal, to pick up a woman, or to copy at school.^[6][9]

Timeline

• 1564 – in Coresi's Cazania, the first record.^[4]
• c. 1650-1700 – in the Anonymus Caransebesiensis glossary.^[2]
• 1821 – the variant păscui in a document.^[3]
• 1875 – pescui “to fish” glossed with French pêcher in Antonescu's dictionary.^[10]

Meanings

Verb

1. To fish: to catch fish or other water animals, usually with special tackle; to work as a fisherman.^[6][2][1]
2. To pull someone or something out of the water, to rescue or recover them.^[6][11]
3. (figurative, colloquial) To get hold of something hard to obtain.^[6][2]
4. (slang) To accost or pick up someone, especially a woman.^[6][2][9]

Word family

• pescuit
• pescuitor

Related words

• pește
• pescar
• pescos
• Aromanian piscuescu

Usage notes

A pescui în apă tulbure means “to fish in troubled waters”, to take advantage of a confused situation;^[6][2] a tulbura apa ca să pescuiască is to stir up trouble for one's own gain.^[6][2]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 357
3. ^ a b c d Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. pescui
4. ^ a b c d e f g Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. pescui
5. ^ a b c 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. pește
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 809
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6532
8. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 395
9. ^ a b Volceanov, George (2007), Dicționar de argou al limbii române, București: Niculescu, p. s.v. pescui
10. ^ Antonescu, G. M. (1875), Dictionariu romanu-francesu, Bucuresci: Typografia Curții (Lucrători Associați), p. 228
11. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. pescui