pivniță

Forms

pivniță f (plural pivnițe)^[1] MDA2 lists many regional variants, among them pimniță, pemniță, pignită, pihniță and pizmiță.^[2] Pimniță is the Muntenian form and is also used by Delavrancea.^[3][4] Besides the plural pivnițe there are a popular pivniți and a regional pivnițuri.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old Church Slavonic пивьница (pivĭnica), formed on пиво (pivo, “drink”).^{[3][5][2][6][1]} The Slavonic noun comes from Proto-Slavic *pivo (“drink, beer”), itself from the verb *piti (“to drink”).^[7][1] In Old Church Slavonic the base noun still meant any beverage.^[8]

The word is shared with the neighbouring languages: Serbo-Croatian pivnica, Polish piwnica and Slovak pivnica, and Bulgarian пѝвница (pívnica) “tavern”.^[3][9] Hungarian pince “cellar”, recorded from 1255, is a Slavic loan of the same word.^[10][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the word to 1412 in the Slavonic documents of the Romanian lands.^[6] In Romanian texts MDA2 records it first in Coresi's book of sermons of 1581.^[2] A manuscript of 1654 has the sense “wine cellar”: „Deca văzu pre nedreptul domn că întră în pivniță” “when he saw the unjust lord going into the cellar”, he hid in an empty barrel.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The main sense has always been an underground room, usually under a house, where wine, food and fuel are kept, a synonym of beci.^[5][6] A hollow voice is said to come ca dintr-o pivniță, “as from a cellar”.^[5] Regional speech applied the word to other places for storing or sheltering: an ice house, a storehouse, a barn, a hut in the field or the vineyard used during work, and an apiary.^[2] In Maramureș it names a cave, as in Pivnița lui Pintea on the Pietrosul peak.^[12]

Timeline

• 1412 – in a Slavonic charter of the Romanian lands.^[6]
• 1581 – in Coresi's book of sermons.^[2]
• 1654 – “cellar” in a manuscript printed in Gaster's chrestomathy.^[6]
• 1825 – pivniță and the derivative pivnicer in the Lexicon de la Buda.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. A cellar: an underground room or rooms, usually under a building, for storing fuel, food or wine.^[5][2][1]
2. (regional) An ice house, a storehouse or a barn.^[2]
3. (regional) A hut put up in the field, the vineyard or the mountains, used as shelter or for guarding during work.^[2]
4. (Maramureș) A cave.^[12]

Word family

• pivnicer
• pivnicerit
• pivnicioară

Related words

• beci

Usage notes

A vorbi ca din pivniță means to speak in a low, deep voice.^[5][2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 400
3. ^ 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. pivniță
4. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 435
5. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 825
6. ^ a b c d e f Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. pivniță
7. ^ Georgiev, Vladimir I. et al. (eds.) (1971–), Bălgarski etimologičen rečnik, Sofija: Izdatelstvo na Bălgarskata akademija na naukite, p. 5, 228
8. ^ Kurz, Josef; Hauptová, Zoe (eds.) (1958–1997), Slovník jazyka staroslověnského / Lexicon linguae palaeoslovenicae, 4 vols. + supplements, Praha: Academia; digital ed. gorazd.org
9. ^ Georgiev, Vladimir I. et al. (eds.) (1971–), Bălgarski etimologičen rečnik, Sofija: Izdatelstvo na Bălgarskata akademija na naukite, p. 5, 227
10. ^ Benkő, Loránd (ed.) (1967–1976), A magyar nyelv történeti-etimológiai szótára, 3 vols., Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó
11. ^ Gerstner, Károly (ed.) (2006–), Új magyar etimológiai szótár, Budapest: Nyelvtudományi Kutatóközpont; online at uesz.nytud.hu
12. ^ a b Ștef, Dorin (2011), Dicționar de regionalisme și arhaisme din Maramureș, Baia Mare: Ethnologica
13. ^ 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. 509