pui

Forms

pui m (plural pui)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *pulleus, a popular form of Latin pullus (“young of an animal, chick”).^[2][3][4][1] DER follows Pușcariu, Candrea–Densusianu and the REW in this, and compares Lombard pui, Albanian puljë and the Béarnese form.^[4][5][6] The Latin word may go back to Proto-Indo-European *polH- (“young of an animal”).^[1]

DER and Wiktionary also allow a direct descent from the classical form: Romanian would then have had a singular *pul with the plural ⟨pui⟩, and the singular would have been rebuilt from the plural, as happened with copil (plural ⟨copii⟩).^[4][1]

The word survives in all four branches: Aromanian puljiu, Megleno-Romanian pul'u and Istro-Romanian pul'.^[4][1][7][8] Its Romance cognates include Italian pollo, Spanish pollo and French poule.^[4][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is in a Slavonic–Romanian document of 1453.^[9] In Romanian texts the plural puii “the young ones” appears in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century, in Psalm 83:3.^[10] MDA2 dates its first record to the Psaltirea Scheiană (c. 1573–1578).^[3]

Semantic evolution

The first sense is the young of a bird; it then widened to the young of any animal, to a child, and to a shoot or seedling.^[2][4] Dosoftei's psalter has „Ca puiul leului” “like the lion's whelp”.^[9] Used with de, the word makes diminutives (pui de pernă “a little pillow”) and intensives (pui de somn “a good nap”).^[2] Some senses are things that look small and many: the cross-stitch on a peasant blouse and the dots on a fabric.^[2][4]

From the derivative puică “pullet” come words for “turkey” in Bulgarian, Serbian, Ruthenian and Albanian, and Hungarian pulyka.^[4] Wiktionary takes Hungarian pulya “child” from Romanian too, with doubt.^[1]

Timeline

• 1453 – a record in a Slavonic–Romanian document.^[9]
• c. 1500–1520 – the plural puii in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[10]
• c. 1573–1578 – pui in the Psaltirea Scheiană.^[3]
• c. 1650–1700 – the verb pui “to bring forth young” in the Anonymus Caransebesiensis.^[3][9]
• 1688 – puii and puiul in the Bucharest Bible.^[11]
• 1801 – púiu in Klein's dictionary, glossed in Latin as pulus.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. A young bird, from hatching to maturity; a chick.^[2][1]
2. A chicken; its meat as food: supă de pui “chicken soup”.^[2][1]
3. The young of any animal; a cub or whelp.^[2][1]
4. An egg or larva of an insect.^[2]
5. (colloquial) A child; a term of endearment for a child or a loved man: Ce faci, puiule?^[2][1]
6. A young plant, seedling or shoot; a sucker at the foot of a maize stalk.^[2]
7. (popular, in the plural) Small cross-stitch embroidery on peasant blouses;^[2] (regional) dots of another colour on a fabric.^[2]
8. A small rowing boat carried by a larger vessel.^[2]

Interjection

1. A call used, usually repeated, to bring chickens and other poultry.^[2]

Word family

• puia
• împuia
• puiac
• puiandru
• puiat
• puică
• puicuță
• puiet
• puișor
• puiță

Related words

• Aromanian puljiu
• Latin pullus

Usage notes

DEX lists two further words spelled pui: a regional noun for an old Austrian silver coin, which it takes from Serbo-Croatian pulja, and a regional verb (third person puiește) “to hatch chicks”, formed from this noun.^[2] Glossaries record the coin in Transylvania as worth ten kreuzers.^[13]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 896
3. ^ a b c d Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 592
4. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. pui
5. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București, p. s.v. pui
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6826
7. ^ Kovačec, August (1998), Istrorumunjsko-hrvatski rječnik (s gramatikom i tekstovima), Pula
8. ^ Byhan, Arthur (1899), Istrorumänisches Glossar, Sechster Jahresbericht des Instituts für rumänische Sprache zu Leipzig: 174–366, p. 322
9. ^ 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. pui
10. ^ a b 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, p. Ps 83:3
11. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Genesis 49:9
12. ^ 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. 427
13. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov.; Speranția, Th. D. (1906–1908), Graiul nostru. Texte din toate părțile locuite de români, 2 vols., București: Socec, p. 208