plic

Forms

plic n (plural plicuri)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Modern Greek πλίκος (plíkos), which comes from Italian plico (“packet of letters”).^[2][3][1][4] MDA2 and DEX name the Italian word as a second source of the Romanian.^[5][6] The Italian noun, recorded from before 1503, was made from Latin plicō (“to fold”);^[7][1] Wiktionary says it arose in the chanceries of the 15th century.^[7][1]

Aromanian plic (“envelope”) has the same source;^[8][9] Papahagi takes it straight from Italian, Pascu from Italian through Greek.^[8][9] Cihac compared Polish plik and Spanish plica.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is from before 1694, in the plural, for packets of letters sent in haste: „Cu multă pripă mergu ceale plicuri de cărți” “with great haste those packets of letters go”.^[5][3] In Enache Kogălniceanu's chronicle someone „îndată au deschis plicul de au citit acele cărți” “at once opened the packet and read those letters”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The older sense was a packet of letters or dispatches, which is how Cihac and Șăineanu gloss it.^[10][4] The 19th-century dictionaries move to the wrapper itself: Costinescu glosses it “envelope”, and Barcianu gives both “packet” and “envelope”.^[11][12] The modern senses are the envelope, the envelope with what it contains, and a small sealed sachet.^[5]

Tiktin records the diminutives pliculeț and plicușor, and DER the obsolete verb plicui “to put a letter in an envelope”.^[3][2] Slang uses it for a bribe, especially money given to a doctor in an envelope, and in prisons for a pack of cigarettes.^[13]

Timeline

• before 1694 – plicuri “packets of letters”, the first record.^[5][3]
• 1870 – Costinescu glosses it “envelope”.^[11]
• 1879 – Cihac relates it to plico.^[10]
• 1886 – Barcianu gives “packet” and “envelope”.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. An envelope: folded paper glued on three sides, in which letters or documents are put, usually for posting.^[6][1]
2. The envelope together with the letter or documents inside it.^[6][5]
3. A small sachet that is closed by gluing or sealing.^[5]
4. (slang) A bribe, especially money given to a doctor in an envelope.^[13]

Word family

• plicui
• pliculeț

Related words

• Aromanian plic
• Italian plico

Usage notes

A regional plic is a variant of pleu “tin, sheet metal”, from Hungarian and Serbian, a word of a different origin.^[5][14][15]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b 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. plic
3. ^ a b c d e Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. plic
4. ^ a b Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 488
5. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 420
6. ^ a b c DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 833
7. ^ a b Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli, p. plìco
8. ^ a b Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne
9. ^ a b 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, 216
10. ^ a b c Cihac, A. de (1879), Dictionnaire d'étymologie daco-romane II: Éléments slaves, magyars, turcs, grecs-moderne et albanais, Frankfurt am Main, p. 688
11. ^ a b Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 307
12. ^ a b Barcianu, Sava Popovici (1886), Dicționar român-germân și germân-român, revised by D. P. Barcianu, part I: român-germân, Sibiu: Institut tipografic, p. 483
13. ^ a b Volceanov, George (2007), Dicționar de argou al limbii române, București: Niculescu, p. s.v. plic
14. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 419
15. ^ Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. plic