spic

Forms

spic n (plural spice)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin spīcum (“ear of grain”), a neuter variant of spīca.^{[2][3][4][5][1]} DER cites Pușcariu and the REW for the etymon.^[2][6]

The word survives south of the Danube: Aromanian schic and Megleno-Romanian spic.^[2][7][8] Its Romance cognates from the neuter form include French épi, Occitan espic and Friulian spi, while Italian kept it only as Italian spigo, the name of lavender.^[6][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1551–1553, in the Slavonic–Romanian Gospel book of Sibiu, at Matthew 12:1: „Și începură a rumpe spice” “and they began to pluck the ears of grain”.^[4] MDA2 dates it to Coresi's Tetraevanghel of 1560–1561, where the same verse has the disciples pluck ears and eat.^[3][9]

Semantic evolution

The sense of the ear of grain has stayed central from the first texts on.^[4][9] The shape gave several transferred senses: a decorative ear motif in folk embroidery and weaving, the tips of the longer hairs in an animal's fur, and, in popular use, a mountain peak or the ridge of a roof.^[5][2] Spic de zăpadă names large snowflakes falling with rain.^[5] MDA2 adds rarer senses: a yellow colour like ripe wheat, a beam of rays, and regionally the chaff that falls when grain is winnowed.^[3]

Romanian formed spicui “to glean” and înspica “to come into ear”.^[2] The REW also records the participle înspicat in the sense “speckled”.^[6] The Lexicon de la Buda of 1825 compared the word with Italian spiga.^[10]

Timeline

• 1551–1553 – spice “ears of grain” in the Slavonic–Romanian Gospel book of Sibiu (Matthew 12:1), the first record.^[4]
• 1560–1561 – spice in Coresi's Tetraevanghel.^[3][9]
• 1660 – a Slavonic–Romanian lexicon gives it for Slavonic клас “ear”.^[11]
• 1688 – spice in the seven ears of Pharaoh's dream in the Bucharest Bible.^[12]
• 1825 – spicu in the Lexicon de la Buda, glossed with Latin, Hungarian and German words for “ear”.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. An ear or spike of grain: the inflorescence of grasses, many small short-stalked flowers set along a long central axis.^[5][1]
2. A decorative motif shaped like an ear of grain, common in folk embroidery and weaving.^[5][3]
3. The tips of the longer, differently coloured hairs in the fur of some animals.^[5]
4. spic de zăpadă: large snowflakes falling mixed with raindrops.^[5]
5. (popular) A mountain peak; the ridge of a roof.^[5][2]

Word family

• spicui
• spicuitor
• înspica

Usage notes

The plural is spice, with an older and regional spicuri.^[5][4] A da în spic means “to come into ear”, said of grain close to ripeness: Grâul a dat în spic devreme anul acesta.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c 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. spic
3. ^ a b c d e Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 953
4. ^ a b c d e Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. spic
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1040
6. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 8148
7. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 958
8. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 271
9. ^ a b c Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. spic
10. ^ 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. 661
11. ^ Ungureanu, Mădălina; Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Moruz, Alexandru (eds.), eRomLex: The First Romanian Bilingual Dictionaries (17th century), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. s.v. spic
12. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Gen 41:5