tăciune

Forms

tăciune m (plural tăciuni)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin tītiō (“firebrand”).^{[2][3][4][5][1]} MDA2 and DEX start from a popular form with a short vowel, Latin *tĭtio.^[4][5] Lactantius already called the word popular.^[6] De Vaan derives the Latin noun from Proto-Indo-European *tih₁-ti-.^[7]

It survives south of the Danube: Aromanian tãciune and Megleno-Romanian tăciuni.^[2][8][9] Its Romance cognates include Italian tizzone, Occitan tizó, Catalan tizó, French tison, Spanish tizón and Portuguese tição.^[2][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Romanian words appear first as names: Tăciune is a personal name in a Moldavian document of 1591.^[3][11] The common noun occurs in Moxa's chronicle, in Priam's dream of a burning brand coming out of his wife's body, „un tăciune aprins”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The Latin sense “brand, half-burnt piece of wood” has lasted, together with “smouldering coal”.^[5][4] The Bible of 1688 has the image of a brand pulled out of the fire.^[3] As with French charbon and Italian carbone, the word was also applied to smut, a fungal disease of cereals that turns the grain to black dust.^[2][3] Folk speech uses it in phrases of poverty: a nu avea nici tăciune în vatră “to have not even a brand on the hearth”, to be very poor.^[5][3] Tăciune acoperit “covered brand” is a hypocrite.^[3][12]

Timeline

• 1591 – Tăciune as a personal name in a Moldavian document, the first record.^[3][11]
• 1673 – la tăciuni hierbinte “on hot embers” in Dosoftei's verse Psalter.^[13][4]
• 1688 – the Bucharest Bible: „V-ați făcut ca tăciunele scos den foc” “you became like a brand pulled out of the fire” (Amos 4:11).^[3]
• 1801 – tăciune stins “extinguished brand” in Klein's dictionary.^[14]
• 1825 – the Lexicon de la Buda has both the brand and the smut of grain.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. A firebrand: a piece of wood that has not burnt completely; ember or wood that smoulders without a flame: Mai pune un lemn peste tăciuni.^[5][4][1]
2. smut: a disease of plants, especially cereals, caused by a parasitic fungus that destroys the affected parts and leaves a black powder in their place.^[5][4]

Word family

• tăciuna
• tăciunos

Related words

• ațâța
• Aromanian tãciune

Usage notes

A nu avea nici tăciune în vatră means to be very poor;^[1] nu-i ard nici tăciunii în vatră is said of someone for whom nothing goes right.^[5][4] Regionally, MDA2 records teciune.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d 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. tăciune
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. tăciune
4. ^ 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, 1165
5. ^ a b c d e f g DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1106
6. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1024
9. ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 999
10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 8758
11. ^ a b Constantinescu, N. A. (1963), Dicționar onomastic romînesc, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. s.v. tăciune
12. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1, 1302
13. ^ Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. tăciune
14. ^ 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. 454
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. 707