pielcea

Forms

pielcea f (plural pielcele)^[1] It is a variant of pielicică, beside pielicea and pielcică; folk songs also have pelcea: „De-o pelcea cam brumărea, Să-și facă cușmă din ea” “a greyish lambskin to make himself a cap of it”.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

The DLR and DEX derive it from Romanian pielicică (“fine skin; lambskin”) with a change of suffix; that word is from Romanian piele + -icică.^[2][4] Wiktionary gives it as piele with -cea.^[1] Candrea and Densusianu instead reconstruct Vulgar Latin *pellicella, a diminutive formed on Latin pellicula (“small skin”), with Romance parallels in Sicilian, Old French and Spanish.^[5][1] The base piele comes from Latin pellis (“skin, hide”).^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The plural pelcele appears in a record of about 1726, „pelcele de mosc” “musk skins”, which the DLR quotes under pielicică; the plural is the same for pielcea and pielcică.^[2] The singular pelcea is recorded in Păsculescu's collection of folk literature (1910), for the lambskin of a cap.^[2][7]

Semantic evolution

The diminutive of piele “skin” settled on the small pelt of a young animal, above all a lamb, used for caps and fur coats: Creangă has a man who went about „după strîns pielcele” “gathering lambskins”.^[8][4] The sense of a small piece of leather, or a thing made of it, is rarer.^[8] In Moldova the word is listed as a regionalism for the lambskin.^[9]

Timeline

• c. 1726 – the plural pelcele in a record of prices.^[2]
• 1910 – the singular pelcea in Păsculescu's folk songs.^[2][7]

Meanings

Noun

1. the small pelt of a young animal, especially a lamb's skin; lambskin such as karakul.^[8][4][1]
2. a small piece of skin or leather; by extension, a small thing made of leather.^[8]

Related words

• pielicică
• piele

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. pielicică
3. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 372
4. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 815
5. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6377
7. ^ a b Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 373
8. ^ a b c d Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 411
9. ^ Stati, Vasile (2003), Dicționar moldovenesc-românesc, Chișinău, p. 222