piept

Forms

piept n (plural piepturi)^[1] With the shirt-front sense the word is masculine, plural piepți.^[2][3] Regional speech has chiept: in a passage Tiktin quotes from Jipescu, that the chosen men „s-au pus cu chieptu să nu mai hiți clăcași” “stood up with their chests so that you would no longer be serfs”.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin pectus (“breast, chest”).^{[2][5][6][7][3]} The word survives in all four branches: Aromanian cheptu, Megleno-Romanian chiept and Istro-Romanian chiept.^[2][8][9] Candrea and Densusianu thought that the Istro-Romanian form was shaped by Slavic pronunciation.^[10] Its Romance cognates include Italian petto, French pis “udder”, Spanish pecho and Portuguese peito.^[2][6]

The origin of the Latin word is uncertain: the OLD marks it as doubtful, and Wiktionary calls it likely cognate with Old Irish ucht “breast”, with a source such as Proto-Indo-European *peg- only proposed.^[11][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is Coresi's Tetraevanghel of 1561, at Luke 18:13.^[4] MDA2 cites Coresi's Carte de învățătură of 1581, where anointing is done “at the breast”.^[12][7]

Semantic evolution

Besides the chest, the word has meant the woman's breast, the front of a garment and, by analogy, the slope of a hill.^[2][3] The chest is also the seat of feelings and of life, and in older use the organs inside it, the heart and lungs.^[7] Phrases built on it describe direct confrontation: piept la piept “hand to hand”, a ține piept “to stand up to” and a da piept cu “to face”.^[3][4]

Ciorănescu notes that it is a word of general use throughout the country, and lists among its derivatives pieptar “sleeveless jerkin”, pieptiș “head-on” and pieptos “broad-chested”.^[2] He also names a Bulgarian and a Ruthenian word for the sleeveless jerkin as loans from Romanian pieptar.^[2]

Timeline

• 1561 – in Coresi's Tetraevanghel (Luke 18:13), the first record.^[4]
• 1581 – in Coresi's Carte de învățătură.^[7][12]
• 1648 – piepturele in the New Testament.^[12]
• 1688 – pieptul and the plural piepturi in the Bucharest Bible.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. The chest, the thorax: the part of the body between the neck and the abdomen; also its front, or the organs inside it (heart, lungs).^[3][7]
2. Meat from the front of an animal's chest, or a dish made from it: piept de pui.^[3]
3. (popular) A woman's breast.^[3][2]
4. (masculine, plural piepți) The front of a garment, a shirt front.^[3][2]
5. (by analogy) The slope of a hill or mountain.^[3][2]

Word family

• pieptar
• pieptăraș
• pieptiș
• pieptos

Related words

• Aromanian cheptu

Usage notes

Slab de piept “weak in the chest” means prone to lung disease, and boală de piept is pulmonary tuberculosis.^[3] A lua pe cineva de piept is to call someone to account or to start a fight.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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. piept
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 815
4. ^ 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. piept
5. ^ Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 115
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6335
7. ^ a b c d e 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. ^ Pascu, Giorge (1925), Dictionnaire étymologique macédoroumain, 2 vols. (I: Les éléments latins et romans; II: Les éléments grecs, turcs, slaves, albanais, germaniques, magyars, néologismes, créations immédiates, obscurs), Iași: Cultura Națională, p. 1, 61
9. ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 285
10. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București
11. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b c Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. piept
13. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. s.v. piept