piedică

Forms

piedică f (plural piedici)^[1] Older and regional variants are piedecă, pedecă and piadecă; an old plural was piedice.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin pedica (“fetter, snare”).^{[3][4][2][5][6]} The Latin noun is the feminine of an adjective formed from pēs (“foot”).^[1]

It survives south of the Danube: Aromanian cheadicã (Ciorănescu writes it ⟨k'adică⟩) and Megleno-Romanian pędică.^[3][1] The Romance cognates include Sardinian peiga, French piège and Portuguese pega.^[6][3] Since G. Meyer Albanian pengë (“hobble”) has been taken as a loan from the same Latin word, with sound changes explained in several ways.^[7] The verb împiedica continues impedicō (“to entangle”).^[8][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki (early 16th century), in the old sense of fetters: „a lega împăratul lor cu piadeci” “to bind their king with fetters”.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

The oldest record has the sense “fetters” for prisoners; the word also names the rope or chain that hobbles a grazing horse's forelegs.^[5][2] From these the word passed to any device that stops a movement: a brake shoe on a cart wheel, a stop on the loom, the safety catch of a gun, and the cobbler's knee strap.^[10][3] The figurative sense “obstacle, difficulty” is old as well: Dosoftei uses it.^[5] A pune cuiva piedică is to trip someone up, and also to put obstacles in their way.^[4][10]

Timeline

• c. 1500-1520 – piadeci “fetters” in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki, the first record.^[2][5]
• 1688 – piadeci “fetters” in the Bucharest Bible.^[5]
• 1705 – piiedecele “the fetters” on the feet in Cantemir's Istoria ieroglifică.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. An obstacle or hindrance; a difficulty;^[4][1] a pune piedică (or piedici) “to hinder”.^[4][1]
2. A trip: a way of making someone fall by catching them with one's foot.^[4]
3. A device that stops or slows the movement of a mechanism: a brake, a catch, a lock.^[4]
4. A hobble: a rope or chain tying a grazing horse's forelegs.^[4][2]
5. piedica-vântului A plant of the pea family, Lathyrus hirsutus.^[4]

Word family

• piedicuță

Related words

• împiedica

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 372
3. ^ a b c d e 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. piedică
4. ^ 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. 815
5. ^ 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. piédică
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6347
7. ^ Çabej, Eqrem (2002), Studime etimologjike në fushë të shqipes VI (N–Rr), Tiranë
8. ^ Graur, Alexandru (1980), Cuvinte înrudite, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică
9. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București, p. s.v. piedică
10. ^ a b c Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. piédică