poftă

Forms

poftă f (plural pofte)^[1] The old form is pohtă: Coresi's Tetraevanghel has „nece de în pohta trupului, nece de în pohta bărbătească” “nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man” (John 1:13).^[2] MDA2 also records a regional poptă.^[3]

Etymology

DEX, the DLR and MDA2 take it as a back-formation from Romanian pofti (“to desire”), and Wiktionary and Wikționar agree.^{[4][5][3][1][6]} The verb, old ⟨pohti⟩, is from Old Church Slavonic похътѣти (poxŭtěti), formed with по- (po-) on хътѣти (xŭtěti), from Proto-Slavic *xъtěti, a variant of *xotěti (“to want”).^[1][3]

Ciorănescu instead takes the noun straight from the Slavonic noun похоть (poxotĭ, “desire”), after Miklosich and Cihac, and compares Serbo-Croatian pohot;^[7][8] Scriban and Șăineanu give the same Slavonic word.^[9][7][8] That noun is formed with the same prefix on the same root.^[10][11] Ciorănescu rejects Philippide's derivation from Ancient Greek πόθος (póthos, “longing”).^[9] The change from ⟨h⟩ to ⟨f⟩ shows in the old ⟨pohtă⟩ beside modern ⟨poftă⟩.^[4][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is pohta in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century, at Psalms 9:24, 9:41 and 102:5.^[12] At Psalm 102:5 it renders Slavonic похоть “desire” in the verse about the Lord who fills one's desire with good things.^[11][12] The verb pofti appears in the same psalter.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The old texts use the word for desire in general and for the “lusts of the flesh”, poftele trupești; the Bible of 1688 has many such plurals.^[2][13] It also meant will or wish: Nicolae Costin writes that a prince plundered a town pe pofta of a Polish lord, at his wish.^[2] Klein's dictionary of 1801 adds the cravings of pregnant women.^[14]

The sense of appetite for food and drink gave the wish poftă bună! “enjoy your meal” and de poftă “just a taste”.^[4][7] Other phrases are cu poftă “with relish” and a-și pune pofta în cui “to give up a cherished wish”.^[4][3] In the Banat poftă is also a gift of food brought to a woman who has just given birth.^[9]

Timeline

• c. 1500–1520 – pohta in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki, the first record.^[12]
• c. 1563–1583 – pohtă in the Codicele Voronețean (James 1:14).^[2]
• c. 1573–1578 – pohta in the Psaltirea Scheiană, MDA2's first record.^[3]
• 1688 – poftă, poftele in the Bucharest Bible.^[13]
• 1801 – pófta in Klein's dictionary, with the cravings of pregnant women.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. A strong desire to do or have something; inclination, mood, pleasure.^[4][3]
2. Sexual desire, lust; by extension an excessive desire, a passion or vice.^[4]
3. (dated) greed.^[4]
4. appetite: hunger or thirst; a craving for a particular food or drink.^[4][1]
5. (regional, Banat) A gift of food brought to a woman who has just given birth.^[9]

Word family

• poftalnic
• poftăreț
• pofticios

Related words

• pofti
• nepoftit

Usage notes

Poftă bună! is the usual wish to someone who is eating or about to eat.^[4] Pe poftă or după pofta inimii means “to one's heart's content”.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. poftă
3. ^ 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, 442
4. ^ 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. 840
5. ^ Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. poftă
6. ^ Wikționar (Romanian Wiktionary), ro.wiktionary.org
7. ^ a b c Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1006
8. ^ a b Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 492
9. ^ a b c d 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. poftă
10. ^ Georgiev, Vladimir I. et al. (eds.) (1971–), Bălgarski etimologičen rečnik, Sofija: Izdatelstvo na Bălgarskata akademija na naukite, p. 5, 564
11. ^ a b Kurz, Josef; Hauptová, Zoe (eds.) (1958–1997), Slovník jazyka staroslověnského / Lexicon linguae palaeoslovenicae, 4 vols. + supplements, Praha: Academia; digital ed. gorazd.org
12. ^ a b c Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Ungureanu, Mădălina; Moruz, Alexandru et al., roPsalt: Re-evaluating the Sixteenth Century Romanian Psalters (aligned corpus), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro
13. ^ a b Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition)
14. ^ a b Gáldi, László (ed.) (1944), Samuel Klein: Dictionarium valachico-latinum. Primul dicționar al limbii române, Budapest: Királyi Magyar Pázmány Péter Tudományegyetemi Román Intézet (Klein's dictionary of 1801, with Gáldi's etymological study), p. 420