pic

Forms

pic n (plural picuri)^[1] MDA2 records an old feminine picură and a regional masculine picure (plural also picure).^[2] Before a noun, chic occurs too: Alecsandri has „N-am bani nici chic” “I haven't a penny”.^[3]

Etymology

DEX, MDA2 and the DLR take it as an onomatopoeia imitating the sound of a falling drop; the DLR calls it pan-Romance.^[4][2][5] Ciorănescu treats it as an expressive creation, comparing poc, pac and plici and the Romance root ⟨picc-⟩.^[6][7] The noun “drop; a little” is in his view formed on the interjection, and pica “to drip, to fall” on the noun.^[6] Wiktionary instead derives it from Vulgar Latin picca, comparing Albanian pikë (“drop; bit”), Sicilian picca (“a little”) and Italian piccolo (“small”).^[1] Nocentini likewise explains the Italian adjective from an expressive Romance sequence ⟨pik-⟩ denoting smallness.^[8]

Ciorănescu compares the noun with Aromanian k'ic, Megleno-Romanian chică and the Albanian noun, and the verb with pikoj, Aromanian k'icu and Megleno-Romanian pic.^[6] Capidan records the Megleno-Romanian verb “to drip” and its noun pică (“drop”).^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

MDA2 dates the word to the Psaltirea Scheiană (c. 1573–1578), under its old variant picură “drop”.^[2] Tiktin's first record of pic itself is in Dosoftei, 1681: „Nice picul cel de lacrămi” “not the drop of tears”.^[3][5]

Semantic evolution

The noun first meant “drop”, of water, tears or blood;^[3] Dosoftei writes of people taking picuri of a martyr's blood.^[3] From “drop” it came to mean any tiny quantity, a moment of time, and, with the article, the adverb un pic “a little”: Ghica was sent to boarding school to learn un pic de nemțească, un pic de grecească “a little German, a little Greek”.^[3][4] With a negative it means “not at all”: nici pic.^[3][4] The Lexicon de la Buda of 1825 also gives “dot, spot” on cloth.^[10]

Regional senses include cold rain and wet weather in Transylvania and Muntenia, and the phrase a-i cădea cuiva pic “to fall for someone”.^[2][5]

Timeline

• c. 1573–1578 – the old variant picură in the Psaltirea Scheiană.^[2]
• 1681 – picul “the drop” in Dosoftei.^[3]
• 1801 – Klein's dictionary glosses it with Latin modicum “a little”.^[11]
• 1825 – the Lexicon de la Buda: “drop; a little; dot”.^[10]
• 1886 – Barcianu: un pic de pâne “a bit of bread”, nici un pic “not a bit”.^[12]

Meanings

Interjection

1. Imitates the sound of a liquid falling in drops on a hard surface; usually repeated: pic, pic.^[4][2]
2. (rare) Imitates the sound of birds' beaks pecking.^[4][2]

Noun

1. A drop; picătură, strop.^[4][2]
2. A very small amount, measure or length of time; a bit, as in (câte) un pic “a little”, nici pic “not at all”, pic cu pic “little by little” and fără pic de… “without any…”^[4][2]

Word family

• picătură
• pica
• picură
• picuș
• picoti
• picoteală
• picura

Related words

• poc
• Albanian pikë

Usage notes

Several words of other origin are spelled the same.^[4][2] DEX's pic² (plural picuri) is a pick hammer used in mining, from German Pickhammer; regionally it also means a pickaxe;^[4][5][2] MDA2's first record is the linguistic atlas of 1956.^[4][5][2] DEX's pic³ is a stain remover made of talc, oxalic acid and other substances, which the DLR compares with picătură; it is recorded from 1955.^[2][5] A nautical pic “gaff; peak compartment of a ship” is from French pic.^[13][5]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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 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. pic
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 812
5. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. pic
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. pic
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6494
8. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier, p. s.v. piccolo
9. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 220
10. ^ a b 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. 504
11. ^ 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. 417
12. ^ Barcianu, Sava Popovici (1886), Dicționar român-germân și germân-român, revised by D. P. Barcianu, part I: român-germân, Sibiu: Institut tipografic, p. 474
13. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. pic