pumn

Forms

pumn m (plural pumni)^[1] Old texts also have pugn: „Trandafir cu pugnu între spete așa o lovește” “Trandafir strikes her so hard with his fist between the shoulders” (Budai-Deleanu).^[2][3] Scriban notes pum as the northern pronunciation.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin pugnus (“fist”).^{[5][6][3][2][7][1]} The word survives in all four branches: Aromanian pulmu, Megleno-Romanian pulm and Istro-Romanian pumnu.^[5][8][9] The Aromanian and Megleno-Romanian forms were crossed with palmă “palm”.^[7][10][11] Its Romance cognates include Italian pugno, Occitan ponh, French poing, Catalan puny, Spanish puño and Portuguese punho.^[5][11]

The Latin noun is related to pungō (“to prick”) and Ancient Greek πυγμή (pugmḗ, “fist”), and comes from Proto-Indo-European *puǵnos.^[1][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1563, in Coresi's Praxiu.^[6] MDA2 starts with the Moldavian law code of Vasile Lupu's time: „Cela ce va lovi pre altul cu pumnul ... să cheamă sudalmă mare” “he who strikes another with his fist … that is called a great insult”.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Besides the clenched hand the word means a blow with it and the amount it holds, “a handful”, and so also “a small number”: un pumn de oameni “a handful of men”.^[6][13] The handful is also the sense of Aromanian pulmu.^[8][14] As a measure of length, two thirds of a span, it survives among fishermen.^[13][15]

In Transylvania the plural pumni and the derivative pumnaș name the embroidered cuffs of a shirt.^[7][5] Ciorănescu takes pumnal “dagger” as a rendering of French poignard or Italian pugnale.^[5] Transylvanian Saxon borrowed the Romanian word as pun.^[5]

Timeline

• 1563 – the first record, in Coresi's Praxiu.^[6]
• 17th century – pumnul in the Moldavian law code of Vasile Lupu's time.^[3][2]
• 1688 – pumnul in the Bucharest Bible.^[16]
• 1801 – Pumn in Klein's dictionary, glossed Latin “pugnus”.^[17]
• 1825 – the Lexicon de la Buda gives the senses “fist” and “handful”.^[18]

Meanings

Noun

1. fist: the hand closed with the fingers bent and pressed together;^[13][3][1] un pumn de “a handful of”, a small amount or number.^[13][3][1]
2. A punch, a blow with the fist.^[13][1]
3. The hand or hands cupped to hold something, and what they hold; a handful.^[13][1]
4. A measure of length used by fishermen, two thirds of a span.^[13]

Word family

• pumnaș
• pumni
• pumnal
• pumnișor

Related words

• Aromanian pulmu
• Latin pugnus
• palmă

Usage notes

Common phrases are a râde în pumni “to laugh up one's sleeve”, a plânge în pumni “to cry in secret” and a arăta pumnul “to shake one's fist”.^[13][19] The popular plural pumnuri also occurs.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. pumn
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, 596
4. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1074
5. ^ 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. pumn
6. ^ 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. pumn
7. ^ a b c Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 123
8. ^ a b Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 892
9. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 240
10. ^ Pascu, Giorge (1925), Dictionnaire étymologique macédoroumain, 2 vols. (I: Les éléments latins et romans; II: Les éléments grecs, turcs, slaves, albanais, germaniques, magyars, néologismes, créations immédiates, obscurs), Iași: Cultura Națională, p. 1, 148
11. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6814
12. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ a b c d e f g h DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 897
14. ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 866
15. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 524
16. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Exod 21:18
17. ^ 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
18. ^ 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
19. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 623