piață

Forms

piață f (plural piețe)^[1] Besides the plural piețe, MDA2 records a rare pieți and an old piațe; the genitive is pieței or pieții.^[2] In Transylvania and the Banat a neuter piaț (plural piațuri) is used, and in older Wallachian texts too: Pann writes of a buyer of bargains who „era-n piaț precupitor” “was a huckster in the market”.^[3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Italian piazza, the source that DN and MDN name.^[4][5][1] DER, following Iordan, has it come partly through Modern Greek πιάτσα (piátsa), and MDA2 and Tiktin name the Italian and the Greek word together.^[6][2][3] MDA2 adds Hungarian piac and German Platz, which the DLR assigns to two variants: the regional neuter piaț is from the Hungarian word, and the old pliaț goes with the German one.^[2][7] The Hungarian word is itself from northern Italian, and Serbo-Croatian pijaca, which DER and Tiktin compare, was taken from Hungarian.^[8][9][6] The word is also found south of the Danube: Aromanian piatsã.^[6][10]

The Italian word goes back through Vulgar Latin *plattia to Latin platea (“broad street, square”), which is from Ancient Greek πλατεῖα (plateîa), short for “broad way”, the feminine of πλατύς (platús, “broad, flat”).^[11][1] Its Romance cognates include French place, Spanish plaza and Portuguese praça.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Romanian–Latin glossary known as Anonymus Caransebesiensis, which MDA2 dates to about 1650–1700 and Tiktin to about 1670.^[2][3] The DLR files it under the sense of an open public space in a town where streets meet.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The first sense was a town square.^[7] Early 19th-century writers used it of the squares of Rome and Saint Petersburg, and a letter of 1827 has the German-shaped pliaț.^[7] The marketplace sense, where food and goods are sold, was current by the mid 19th century: Pisone renders it with Latin forum and has piață de pește “fish market”.^[12] Barcianu glosses it with both German Platz and Marktplatz.^[13]

From the market grew the sense of the merchants and bankers of a city and of the current price of goods: Scriban gives piața Bucureștilor “the Bucharest market”, and trăsură de piață for a cab plying for hire.^[14][2] Economics gave it the abstract sense of the whole of the relations of buying and selling, as in economie de piață “market economy”.^[15] After 1989 piață liberă “free market”, modelled on French and English, was set against the planned economy.^[16]

Timeline

• c. 1650–1700 – in the Anonymus Caransebesiensis glossary, the first record.^[2][3]
• 1827 – pliaț “square” in a letter quoted by Iorga.^[7]
• 1829 – the plural piațuri in a press report from Saint Petersburg.^[7]
• 1865 – Pisone's dictionary gives the sense “market” and piață de pește “fish market”.^[12]
• 1939 – Scriban records the commercial sense, the merchants and financiers of a city.^[14]
• 1995 – piață liberă “free market” in the press.^[16]

Meanings

Noun

1. market, marketplace: a place set up for the retail sale of goods, especially farm produce;^[15][2] a face piața “to buy the day's food”.^[15][2]
2. A square: an open space in a town where several streets meet, often laid out with greenery and statues.^[15][2]
3. (economics) The market: the whole of the relations created by buying and selling;^[15][5] piață internă “domestic market”.^[15][5]
4. (colloquial) The current price of goods.^[2]

Related words

• Aromanian piatsã
• Italian piazza
• Hungarian piac

Usage notes

Trăsură de piață or mașină de piață was a cab or car for hire, now out of use.^[15] A se certa ca la piață “to quarrel as in the market” means to quarrel loudly and coarsely.^[15][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 j k Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 366
3. ^ 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. piață
4. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. piață
5. ^ a b c Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. piață
6. ^ 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. piață
7. ^ 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. piață
8. ^ Benkő, Loránd (ed.) (1967–1976), A magyar nyelv történeti-etimológiai szótára, 3 vols., Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, p. 3, 180
9. ^ Zaicz, Gábor (ed.) (2006), Etimológiai szótár: magyar szavak és toldalékok eredete, Budapest: Tinta Könyvkiadó
10. ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 817
11. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
12. ^ a b Pisone, Domițian (1865), Dictionariu românescu, latinescu, germanescu și francescu, lucrat după sistemul Lexiconului de Buda, București: Typografia Ioann Weiss, p. 292
13. ^ Barcianu, Sava Popovici (1886), Dicționar român-germân și germân-român, revised by D. P. Barcianu, part I: român-germân, Sibiu: Institut tipografic, p. 474
14. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 975
15. ^ 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. 812
16. ^ a b Dimitrescu, Florica (1997), Dicționar de cuvinte recente, 2nd ed., București: Logos (with the 3rd ed., 2013, in CLRE), p. s.v. piață