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porcoi

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Etymology and origin of the Romanian word porcoi

porcoi1 big pig

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
1893 Damé's dictionary
Ultimate origin
Latin porcus
Etymology tree of porcoi1
inherited borrowed derived
Latin porcus
Italian porco
Romanian porc
Romanian porcoi
French porc
From the same root · porcoi1
Latin porcīnus ← porcus
Romanian porcar ← porc

Forms

porcoi m (plural porcoi)[1]

Etymology

The word for a big pig is formed from Romanian porc + -oi, with the augmentative suffix.[2][3][4][1] The noun porc continues porcus (“pig”).[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

MDA2's first record is Damé's dictionary of 1893–1895, and the DLR adds Tiktin and the CADE for the sense “big pig”.[3][4]

Semantic evolution

Besides the rare augmentative, the word is a popular name of the gudgeon, a small river fish, which also has other names formed on porc.[3][4][5]

Timeline

  • 1893 – Damé's dictionary, the first record.[3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (rare) A big pig; also called porcan.[3][4]
  2. (ichthyology, popular) The common gudgeon (Gobio gobio).[3][4][1]

porcoi2 haystack, heap

Confidence
Disputed
Formation
Derivation
First attested
1870 Costinescu's dictionary
From
Latin porca
Ultimate origin
Latin porca
Etymology tree of porcoi2
inherited borrowed derived
Latin porca
Romanian poarcă
Romanian porcoi

Forms

porcoi n (plural porcoaie)[1]

Etymology

The word for a haystack is, for Ciorănescu, a derivative with the augmentative suffix -oi, from Latin porca (“ridge of soil between furrows”), which he keeps apart from the Latin word for “sow”.[6] The simple word is not recorded in Romanian without the suffix.[6] The REW, after Pușcariu, also lists this word, porcan and porșor “heap” under the Latin noun in the sense “furrow”.[7] Wiktionary derives it from a lost Romanian word inherited from that Latin noun, and calls the derivation from porc a mistake for this sense.[1] DEX, MDA2 and the DLR derive it from Romanian porc + -oi.[2][3][4]

The Latin noun goes back to Proto-Indo-European *pr̥ḱeh₂ (“furrow”), and is related to English furrow.[1][8] It survives in Italian porca “a strip of ground between two furrows”, and there is a verb Spanish aporcar.[6][9] Ciorănescu thinks a Russian word for a wooden vessel, of unknown origin according to Vasmer, may come from the Romanian.[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Costinescu's dictionary of 1870 has it as a small haystack, and also as a small heap of anything.[10]

Semantic evolution

Ciorănescu puts first the mound of earth heaped round the base of cultivated plants, then a heap in general.[6] The usual sense is a heap of hay, straw or clover of any size, in particular a haycock, from which comes a large pile of things of the same kind.[3][2] In Banat and Muntenia it is a hut of hay, straw or reed in the shape of a stack, where peasants shelter while mowing; in Oltenia it is a large, dense bunch of grapes.[3][4] Repeated as an adverb, porcoaie-porcoaie means “in heaps”.[4]

Timeline

  • 1870 – Costinescu: a small haystack; a heap.[10]
  • 1893 – Damé's dictionary, which MDA2 gives as the first record of the word.[3]
  • 1939 – Scriban: a heap of hay in Moldavia and Muntenia, and a heap in general;[11] purcoi in Muntenia.[11]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A heap of hay or straw; specifically a haycock.[2][3][1]
  2. (by extension) A heap, pile, mass of things of the same kind.[2][3]
  3. A mound of earth heaped round the base of cultivated plants.[6][1]
  4. (regional, Banat, Muntenia) A hut of hay, straw or reed shaped like a stack, where mowers take shelter.[3]
  5. (regional, Oltenia) A large, dense bunch of grapes.[3]

Usage notes

The haystack word has the neuter plural porcoaie, while the augmentative of porc is masculine, plural porcoi.[3][1] The variant purcoi is common; the DLRLC treats the haystack word under it.[2][12]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1, 850
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 471
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. porcoi
  5. ^ 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. porc
  6. ^ 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. porcoi
  7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6657
  8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  9. ^ Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
  10. ^ a b Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 320
  11. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1, 1018
  12. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 504

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Porcoi.” Etymologically, 12 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/ro/porcoi. Accessed 12 Nov. 2026.

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