scoică

Forms

scoică f (plural scoici)^[1] Regional variants are scaucă (plural scăuci) and zguoică; besides the plural scoici an older popular plural scoice occurs.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old Church Slavonic сколька (skolĭka, “shell”), as Tiktin, Ciorănescu, MDA2 and DEX give it.^[3][4][2][5] MDA2 compares Bulgarian скойка (skojka), and Wiktionary takes the word from this Bulgarian dialect form of сколка (skolka).^[2][1] The Bulgarian etymological dictionary explains the Bulgarian form by a dialectal change of /lʲ/ to /j/ and names it, after Mihăilă, as the source of the Romanian word.^[6] Ciorănescu also compares Polish skojka and Serbo-Croatian školjka.^[4]

The Slavonic word continues Proto-Slavic *skalьkā, which is related to Lithuanian skalà (“splinter”), German Schale (“shell, peel”) and Gothic 𐍃𐌺𐌰𐌻𐌾𐌰 (skalja, “tile”), from the root Proto-Indo-European *skel- (“to split”).^[6][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is of 1610.^[3] MDA2 cites Dosoftei's Lives of the Saints, printed at Iași in 1682–1686.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The word names the mollusc and its shell, then the shell of a snail.^[5][2] Things shaped like a shell took the name: a glass canopy over a doorway, a bony growth on a horse's hoof that makes it limp, and the recess in a hunting gun's breech that holds the firing pin.^[5][8] Popular phrases use it for thinness and touchiness: a mânca numai zeamă de scoici “to be very thin”, a se arde cu zeamă de scoici “to take offence at nothing”.^[2] In slang it also names the vulva.^[9]

Timeline

• 1610 – the first record.^[3]
• 1682–1686 – Dosoftei's Lives of the Saints.^[2]
• 1801 – Scóica in Klein's dictionary, glossed with Latin words for a shell.^[10]
• 1825 – scoică “mussel” in the Buda dictionary.^[11]
• 1870 – the shell of snails and of sea animals such as mussels and oysters.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. A mussel or similar bivalve: a mollusc with a soft body protected by two chalky valves;^[5][2] scoică de râu and scoică de baltă are freshwater mussels (Unio, Anodonta), scoică-de-mărgăritar the pearl oyster.^[5][2]
2. The chalky shell of such a mollusc; also the shell of a snail.^[5]
3. A canopy, often of glass, in the shape of a shell or fan over the entrance of a building.^[5]
4. A bony growth on the pastern or coronet of a horse's hoof that makes it limp.^[5]
5. In hunting guns, the recess of the breech into which the firing pin is screwed.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 816
3. ^ a b c Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. scoică
4. ^ 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. scoică
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 991
6. ^ a b Georgiev, Vladimir I. et al. (eds.) (1971–), Bălgarski etimologičen rečnik, Sofija: Izdatelstvo na Bălgarskata akademija na naukite
7. ^ Vasmer, Max (1964–1973), Ètimologičeskij slovar' russkogo jazyka, transl. and suppl. by O. N. Trubačev, 4 vols., Moskva: Progress
8. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1173
9. ^ Volceanov, George (2007), Dicționar de argou al limbii române, București: Niculescu, p. s.v. scoică
10. ^ 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. 439
11. ^ 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. 620
12. ^ Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 485