pod

Forms

pod n (plural poduri)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old Church Slavonic подъ (podŭ, “floor, platform”), from Proto-Slavic *podъ.^[2][3][4][1] Ciorănescu glosses the Slavonic word “platform”, following Miklosich, Cihac, Conev and Spitzer, and compares Bulgarian под (pod), Serbo-Croatian pod and Slovene pod “plank floor”.^[4] Miklosich gives the Old Church Slavonic noun the sense “boarded floor, storey” and lists the Romanian word beside Hungarian pad.^[5] Ciorănescu compares the Hungarian word in the sense “attic”; it is a separate loan into Hungarian from Slavic.^[4][6] Ciorănescu lists Megleno-Romanian pod as well.^[4] Capidan records it for the flour bin of a mill and takes it from Bulgarian.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is a charter of 1352.^[8] In Romanian texts the word appears in the Codicele Voronețean (c. 1563–1583), MDA2's first record; the oldest sense MDA2 lists is the dated “storey, floor of a building”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Ciorănescu puts the plank platform or floor first, with the bridge, the ceiling, the attic and the floorboards among its later senses.^[4] In the 17th-century Slavonic–Romanian lexicons the word glosses Old Church Slavonic мостъ (mostŭ, “bridge”), and the Bible of 1688 has it many times.^[9][10]

The streets of Romanian towns were paved with thick oak planks, which were called pod, and the word then meant the paved street itself, as in Podul Mogoșoaiei in Bucharest.^[2][8] Scriban says such paving was used until about 1860.^[11] At funerals, strips of cloth called poduri are spread on the ground where the procession stops; folk belief held that they serve the dead as bridges over the rivers on the way to the other world.^[8][4] Because beggars sat at bridges, a cere la pod meant “to beg”, and pe poduri “like a beggar, homeless”.^[8][3]

Modern technical senses (a platform, an overhead crane, a weighbridge, a dental bridge) extend the bridge sense, and podul palmei “the palm of the hand” extends the flat surface.^[2] Regional senses include the layer that rises on the surface of milk or of plum mash in Oltenia and the floor of a cart in Banat and Transylvania.^[12][3]

Timeline

• 1352 – a charter, the first record.^[8]
• c. 1563–1583 – the Codicele Voronețean.^[3]
• 1649 – Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[9]
• c. 1660–1670 – a Slavonic–Romanian lexicon glosses Slavonic мостъ “bridge” with it.^[9]
• 1688 – the plural poduri at Genesis 6:16 in the Bucharest Bible.^[10]
• 1947 – pod, a Transylvanian name of the nase fish.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. A bridge of wood, stone, concrete or metal over a river or a valley, carrying a road or railway: Au trecut podul peste Olt, with pod de gheață an ice bridge, a frozen river surface, pod plutitor (or umblător) a ferry and pod de vase a pontoon bridge.^[2][3]
2. A drawbridge of a medieval castle or fortress.^[2]
3. A platform of similar shape used as a work place or for protection; an overhead crane (pod rulant); pod-basculă a weighbridge.^[2]
4. (dated) The deck of a ship.^[2][3]
5. (dated) A paving of thick oak planks on a street, and by extension a street paved this way.^[2]
6. (Orthodox Christianity) A long strip of cloth laid down along the route of a funeral procession.^[2]
7. An attic, loft: the space between the roof and the top floor of a building; by extension, the ceiling: Am urcat lăzile în pod.^[2][3]
8. podul palmei the palm of the hand, podul mâinii the back of the hand.^[2]
9. (dentistry) A dental bridge.^[2]

Word family

• podar
• podărit
• podeț
• podea
• podișcă
• podișor
• podeală
• podiș
• poduț

Related words

• Old Church Slavonic подъ (podŭ)

Usage notes

Set phrases include din pod în pivniță “from attic to cellar, entirely”, a cădea ca din pod “to be taken aback” and a face podul “to do a backbend” in gymnastics.^[2] A separate Transylvanian pod, the nase fish (Chondrostoma nasus), is a back-formation from poduț.^[13][14]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 839
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 437
4. ^ a b c d e f 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. pod
5. ^ Miklosich, Franz (1862–1865), Lexicon palaeoslovenico-graeco-latinum emendatum auctum, Vindobonae: Braumüller
6. ^ Benkő, Loránd (ed.) (1967–1976), A magyar nyelv történeti-etimológiai szótára, 3 vols., Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, p. 3, 54
7. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 228
8. ^ 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. pod
9. ^ a b c Ungureanu, Mădălina; Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Moruz, Alexandru (eds.), eRomLex: The First Romanian Bilingual Dictionaries (17th century), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. s.v. pod
10. ^ a b Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Gen 6:16
11. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1004
12. ^ Cazacu, Boris (coord.) et al. (1967), Glosar dialectal. Oltenia, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. 85
13. ^ a b Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 438
14. ^ Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. pod