pungă

Forms

pungă f (plural pungi)^[1]

Etymology

Its origin is not settled.^[1][2] The DLR takes it as borrowed from Byzantine Greek πούγγι (poúngi, “purse”), Medieval Latin punga and Old Church Slavonic пѫгва (pǫgva), and MDA2 names the same three sources, with the Modern Greek form.^[3][4] Wiktionary calls it of unknown origin, probably Greek.^[1]

Ciorănescu takes it from the medieval Greek word, with πούγγη (poúngē) and Modern Greek πουγγί (poungí) as the Greek forms, following Meyer, the REW and Tiktin, and he compares the Medieval Latin word.^[2] Since Miklosich most scholars (Densusianu, Byhan, Conev, Rosetti) have held that the Greek word reached Romanian through Slavonic, but Ciorănescu finds that step unnecessary.^[2] Scriban and Pascu took the word back to Gothic.^[5][6]

Babiniotis traces the Greek word through the medieval diminutive πουγγίον (poungíon) to Ancient Greek πούγγα (poúnga) of the 6th century, a loan of Vulgar Latin *punga, itself from Frankish *pokka (“bag”).^[7]

The word survives south of the Danube: Aromanian pungã, with the plural ⟨pundzi⟩.^[2][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1463, in a Slavonic-Romanian document.^[9] In a Romanian text it appears before 1642, in a passage printed in Gaster's chrestomathy, „cum de aduc banii și pungile” “as they bring the money and the purses”: a small bag for coins.^[4][3]

Semantic evolution

The first sense is the purse for coins, which gave the senses of its contents, money and wealth.^[3][10] Under Ottoman rule a pungă was also a sum of money, about 500 piastres: a document of 1754 speaks of „trei pungi de bani, adecă taleri 1500” “three purses of money, that is 1,500 thalers”.^[9][2] The Lexicon de la Buda of 1825 explains the same value, and Șăineanu took this sense as a translation of Turkish kese.^[11][12]

The shape of the purse gave the phrase a face gura pungă “to purse one's lips”, from a sour taste or from displeasure, and the senses of a paper or plastic bag and of a baggy fold of skin under the eyes.^[9][10] In slang it means “pocket”.^[13] The derivatives include pungaș “pickpocket, swindler” and pungăși “to steal”.^[2] It passed into Hungarian punga.^[1]

Timeline

• 1463 – the first record, in a Slavonic-Romanian document.^[9]
• before 1642 – pungile “the purses” in a text printed in Gaster's chrestomathy.^[4][3]
• 1648 – „bani în pungile voastre” “money in your purses” in the New Testament of Bălgrad.^[3]
• 1688 – pungă in the Bucharest Bible (Mark 6:8).^[9][14]
• 1754 – pungă as a sum of 500 thalers in a document.^[9]
• 1825 – the Lexicon de la Buda glosses it as Latin marsupium and notes the Ottoman sum of 500 thalers.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. A purse: a small bag of leather, cloth or plastic, closed with strings, for coins and other small things.^[10][4][1]
2. The contents of a purse; by extension, money, wealth.^[10]
3. (historical) A bag of 500 gold coins, thalers or old lei used in payments; the sum itself.^[10][2]
4. A bag of paper, plastic or other material for packing goods, especially food; its contents.^[10][1]
5. A baglike swelling of the skin, especially under the lower eyelid.^[10]
6. (slang) A pocket.^[13]

Word family

• pungoci
• punguliță
• pungi
• pungaș
• pungăși
• pungășie
• pungășoaică
• pungășesc
• pungui
• pungăli

Related words

• Aromanian pungã

Usage notes

Fixed expressions include a fi gros la pungă “to be very rich”, a-i sufla vântul în pungă “to be broke” and a-și dezlega punga “to be generous”.^[10]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g 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. pungă
3. ^ a b c d e Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. pungă
4. ^ 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, 599
5. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1076
6. ^ 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
7. ^ Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
8. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 894
9. ^ a b c d e f Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. pungă
10. ^ 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. 898
11. ^ a b 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. 560
12. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 524
13. ^ a b Volceanov, George (2007), Dicționar de argou al limbii române, București: Niculescu, p. s.v. pungă
14. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Mc 6:8