piez

piez¹ unit of pressure

Forms

piez m (plural piezi)^[1]

Etymology

The word for the unit of pressure is borrowed from French pièze.^[2][3][4][1] The French word was made in 1920 from piézo- or from Ancient Greek πιέζω (piézō, “to press”), and named the unit of pressure of the metre–tonne–second system.^[5] Marcu and Maneca also compare the Greek verb.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

MDA2's first record is the third edition of Marcu and Maneca's dictionary of neologisms, of 1978.^[3]

Timeline

• 1920 – the French pièze is coined.^[5]
• 1978 – the first Romanian record, in a dictionary of neologisms.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A unit of pressure, that of a force of one sten spread over a square metre; a submultiple of the atmosphere.^[2][3][6]

piez² foot

Forms

piez m (plural piezi)^[1]

Etymology

The old word for the foot is inherited from Latin pĕdem (“foot”), the accusative of pēs.^[7][1][8] Ciorănescu names Pușchilă, Pușcariu, Scriban and Drăganu for this view.^[7] Scriban explains the form: an older singular ⟨*pied⟩ gave the plural ⟨piezi⟩, from which the new singular was made.^[8] Tiktin notes that the word has been tied to Sardinian biasciu and French biais (“slant”), which is hard on the sounds, and refers it to the Latin noun and REW 6439.^[9] Cihac had taken that path in 1870, deriving it with the French word from Latin bifax.^[10]

Ciorănescu compares Aromanian pezã (“jest, mockery”).^[7] Papahagi records a view that takes the Aromanian word from Ancient Greek παίζω (paízō, “to play”), and Wiktionary gives the Latin noun as a possible source.^[11][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is the law code Îndreptarea legii of 1652, where to speak with scorn is to speak „peste piezi”, which Ciorănescu reads as “over the foot”, like today's peste picior.^[9][7] Ciorănescu criticises Tiktin's gloss of the phrase as ambiguous, double-meaning talk.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The sense “foot”, shared by all the Romance words, survived only in old texts.^[7][1] The later senses come, Ciorănescu and Scriban argue, from the belief that a person's day goes well or badly by the foot he steps out of the house with: în piezi buni “under good omens”, în piezi răi “in an ill hour”.^[7][8] A new feminine singular piază “omen, luck” was made from the plural piezi.^[7][8]

The phrase în piez came to mean “crosswise, aslant”, and Tiktin quotes trei semne în piez “three ill signs”.^[9][12] In 1870 Costinescu gives piezŭ as the slope of a wall or bank, with a tăia un lucru în piezŭ “to cut something on the slant”.^[13] Moldavian has chezi or cheji “mood, spirits”.^[7] In Maramureș a umbla în piez meant children going from house to house at Easter or Christmas for gifts without singing.^[14]

Timeline

• 1652 – „peste piezi” in the Îndreptarea legii, Tiktin's first record.^[9]
• 1870 – piezŭ “slope” in Costinescu's dictionary.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. (obsolete) foot.^[7][1]
2. (popular, in the phrase în piez) crosswise, slantwise, aslant.^[12][9][15]
3. (old, in the plural) An omen: piezi răi “bad omens”.^[8][7]

Word family

• pieziș
• piază