pulpos

Forms

pulpos m or n (feminine singular pulpoasă, masculine plural pulpoși, feminine/neuter plural pulpoase)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian pulpă (“calf of the leg; pulp”) + -os.^[2][3][4][1] Candrea–Densusianu, Cihac and Șăineanu see it instead as inherited from Latin pulpōsus (“fleshy”), and the REW lists the Romanian word under the Latin adjective.^[5][6][7][8] Wiktionary gives both explanations; the Latin word is Late Latin, formed on pulpa (“flesh”).^[1]

Candrea–Densusianu compare Italian polposo, Sardinian pruposu and Occitan poupous; the REW adds Spanish pulposo and Portuguese polposo.^[5][8] The sense “of the nature of pulp” is a 19th-century loan from French pulpeux, as Marcu and Maneca's dictionary gives it.^[9][10]

Pulpă itself continues the Latin noun, which de Vaan traces to Proto-Italic *pelpā (“meat”), with Umbrian pelmner (“of meat”).^[11][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

MDA2's first record is Bobb's Romanian–Latin–Hungarian dictionary of 1822, which Tiktin dates 1823.^[2][13] The sense there is “with thick, fleshy calves”.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The adjective describes people and animals with big, thick calves or thighs, and by restriction muscular legs.^[4][2] Damé's book of folk terminology describes a good milch cow with legs „pulpoase sus și subțiri jos” “thick above and thin below”.^[4][13] In south-eastern Oltenia and western Muntenia it means “well built, robust”, and in Moldavia, Bukovina, Banat and Mehedinți it is said of a cow with a large udder.^[4][5]

Costinescu's dictionary of 1870 already has two entries: one for the fleshy calves and one for the sense “pulpy”, matching French pulpeux.^[14] Modern dictionaries keep this sense for fruit with plenty of flesh.^[3][10]

Timeline

• 1822 – pulpos in Bobb's dictionary.^[2]
• 1825 – pulposu “fleshy, with big calves”, glossed Latin pulposus, carnosus, in the Lexicon de la Buda.^[15]
• 1870 – pulposŭ both “with thick calves” and “pulpy” in Costinescu's dictionary.^[14]
• 1893–1895 – vacile pulpoase “thick-legged cows” in Damé's dictionary.^[16]

Meanings

Adjective

1. With big, thick calves; of legs, muscular.^[3][2][1]
2. (regional) Well built, robust.^[2][4]
3. (regional) Of cows and other mammals, with a large udder.^[2][4]
4. Of fruit, with plenty of pulp.^[3][2][1]

Related words

• pulpă
• Latin pulpōsus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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, 595
3. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 896
4. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română (1913–1949), Dicționarul limbii române (DA), ed. Sextil Pușcariu, tom I (A–B, C, D–De) and tom II (F–I, J–Lojniță), București: Socec / Universul / Monitorul Oficial și Imprimeriile Statului; page scans at cflr-scans.solirom.ro, p. s.v. pulpos
5. ^ a b c Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București, p. 237
6. ^ Cihac, A. de (1870), Dictionnaire d'étymologie daco-romane I: Éléments latins comparés avec les autres langues romanes, Frankfurt am Main, p. 220
7. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 524
8. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6835
9. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. pulpos
10. ^ a b Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. pulpos
11. ^ 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. pulpă
12. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. pulpa
13. ^ a b Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. pulpos
14. ^ a b Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 378
15. ^ Lesicon românescu-latinescu-ungurescu-nemțescu quare de mai mulți autori, în cursul a trideci și mai multor ani s-au lucrat (1825), Buda: Typographia Universității (the Lexicon of Buda, ed. Petru Maior et al.), p. 559
16. ^ Damé, Frédéric (1893–1895), Nouveau dictionnaire roumain-français, 4 vols., Bucarest: Imprimerie de l'État, p. 2