pocni

Forms

pocni (third-person singular present pocnește, past participle pocnit) 4th conjugation^[1] Older and regional variants are pogni and pomni, and pocăni is a variant with the longer suffix: Sadoveanu writes of a donkey coming „pocănind din copite” “clattering its hooves”.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian poc + -ni, from the interjection that imitates a blow or a crack, with an expressive verbal suffix.^[3][4][2][1] Ciorănescu puts it beside other verbs made the same way, bocăni, ciocăni and tocăni, and treats the interjection itself as an expressive creation.^[5] He gives Megleno-Romanian pucănés as the Megleno-Romanian form.^[5]

Miklosich, Cihac, Byhan and Tiktin instead derived the verb from Slavonic Old Church Slavonic пѫкнѫти (pǫknǫti, “to burst”), comparing Slovene pokniti, Russian пукнуть (puknutʹ) and the Serbo-Croatian and Ukrainian forms.^[5][6][7] Ciorănescu thinks the resemblance is accidental.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the Latin–Romanian glossary known as Anonymus Caransebesiensis, which MDA2 dates to about 1650–1700 and Tiktin to about 1670.^[2][6] The core sense is to make a short, sharp noise by a blow or by pressure.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

Most of the senses describe a sound: a whip cracked by a carter, a gunshot, a door or a shutter slammed, wood crackling in the fire, joints cracking when stretched.^[4][2][3] Folk belief made Saint Elijah crack thunder from his whip: „pognea din pleasna biciului său tunete și trăsnete”.^[6] In the transitive use the noise becomes the blow itself, “to hit someone hard and short”, and Moldovan speech uses it in that sense.^[3][8] From the sound of something giving way come the senses “to burst, to crack, to split from strain”, and figuratively “to break out suddenly”.^[3][2] In some regions it is said of leaves rustling.^[2]

Ciorănescu lists a large family of derivatives: pocnet “detonation, crack”, pocneală, pocnitoare “whip lash, firecracker”, pocănitoare “a kind of rattle” and pocnitură “blow”.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 1650-1700 – pocni in the glossary Anonymus Caransebesiensis, the first record.^[2][6]
• 1862 – Pontbriant's dictionary records it.^[4]
• 1893–1895 – Damé glosses it with French éclater, claquer and détonner.^[9]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive) To make a short, sharp sound; to bang, to crack; of doors and windows, to slam; of joints, to crack when stretched.^[3][2][1]
2. (figurative, intransitive) To break out suddenly.^[3]
3. (transitive and intransitive) To hit short and hard; to hit the target squarely.^[3][1]
4. (intransitive) To burst or split with a noise; to tear from being stretched too far.^[3][10]

Word family

• pocnet
• pocnitoare
• pocnitură
• pocneală

Related words

• poc

Usage notes

The verb is often followed by din and the thing that makes the sound: a pocni din bici “to crack the whip”, a pocni din degete “to snap one's fingers”.^[11] The expression a-i pocni cuiva fălcile is said of someone who eats greedily.^[11][3]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 436
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 839
4. ^ a b c d e Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. pocni
5. ^ a b c d e 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. poc
6. ^ 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. pocni
7. ^ Vasmer, Max (1964–1973), Ètimologičeskij slovar' russkogo jazyka, transl. and suppl. by O. N. Trubačev, 4 vols., Moskva: Progress, p. s.v. пукать
8. ^ Stati, Vasile (2003), Dicționar moldovenesc-românesc, Chișinău, p. 231
9. ^ Damé, Frédéric (1893–1895), Nouveau dictionnaire roumain-français, 4 vols., Bucarest: Imprimerie de l'État, p. 2
10. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. pocni
11. ^ a b Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 478