teacă

Forms

teacă f (plural teci)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin thēca (“case, box, sheath”), itself from Ancient Greek θήκη (thḗkē, “case, box, receptacle”).^{[2][3][4][5][1]} The Greek noun belongs to τίθημι (títhēmi, “to put, place”).^[1][6] The word survives south of the Danube: Aromanian teacã and Megleno-Romanian teacă.^[2][7][8] In Romance it lives on in French taie “pillowcase”, Occitan teca and Italian dialect forms such as Abruzzese teke and Bergamasque tiga “pod”.^[2][5][6]

Cihac derived the word from Modern Greek;^[9][2] Ciorănescu rejects this as impossible.^[9][2] Ungureanu sets the regional sense “pod” beside Italian, Ladin and Sardinian dialect words for the pea or bean pod, in line with his view that Romanian continues a dialectal spoken Latin.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is Coresi's Tetraevanghel of 1561, in John 18:11, where Jesus tells Peter to put his sword into the sheath.^[11] The Bucharest Bible of 1688 has the same verse.^[12] MDA2's first record is later, Cantemir's Istoria ieroglifică (1705): „Precum în teaca strâmbă sabiia dreaptă, nici în teaca dreaptă sabiia strâmbă a întra nu poate” “as a straight sword cannot go into a crooked sheath, nor a crooked sword into a straight one”.^[3][11]

Semantic evolution

Beside the scabbard of a sword or knife, the Latin sense “case” lives on in a wide range of uses: the socket of a tool into which the handle fits, the leaf sheath of grasses, a membrane around a muscle fibre, and regionally a box or the eyelid.^[3][4] The pod of beans and peas is an old sense, recorded by Tiktin and Ciorănescu; in some regions teacă means the bean itself.^[11][2][3] Several idioms grew from the scabbard: nu încap două săbii într-o teacă “two swords don't fit in one sheath”, of two people with authority who cannot get along;^[3][13][11] a se face teacă de pământ “to vanish, hide”;^[3][13][11] a asculta teacă de pământ “to listen in total silence”;^[3][13][11] a pune limba-n teacă “to hold one's tongue”.^[3][13][11] Moș Teacă, the ignorant old soldier of Anton Bacalbașa's work of that name, became a name for a blinkered military man or official.^[11][14]

Timeline

• 1561 – teacă “sheath” in Coresi's Tetraevanghel (John 18:11), the first record.^[11]
• 1673 – sabie din teacă in Dosoftei's verse Psalter.^[11]
• 1688 – teacă and teci in the Bucharest Bible.^[12]
• 1705 – the proverb of the crooked sheath in Cantemir's Istoria ieroglifică.^[3][11]

Meanings

Noun

1. A sheath or scabbard: a case of metal, wood or leather for a sword, knife or other blade or instrument; toc.^[4][3][1]
2. The part of a hand tool into which the handle is fitted.^[4][3]
3. A pod of beans or peas; păstaie.^[4][11]
4. (botany) The part of a leaf that wraps around the stem, especially in grasses; also the envelope of an ear or bud.^[3][15]
5. (anatomy) A membrane around a muscle fibre.^[3]

Word family

• tecar
• tecuță

Related words

• bibliotecă
• bodegă
• Aromanian teacã
• Latin thēca

Usage notes

Fixed expressions include a se face teacă de pământ “to make oneself scarce”, a rămâne teacă “to be left with nothing”, and ba că-i teacă, ba că-i pungă, said of someone who keeps finding excuses.^[4][3]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. teacă
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 1187
4. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1111
5. ^ a b Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 159
6. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1028
8. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 292
9. ^ a b Cihac, A. de (1870), Dictionnaire d'étymologie daco-romane I: Éléments latins comparés avec les autres langues romanes, Frankfurt am Main, p. 279
10. ^ Ungureanu, Dan (2024), Istoria limbii române, Chișinău: Cartier, p. 364
11. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. teacă
12. ^ a b Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. John 18:11
13. ^ a b c d Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 4, 403
14. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1305
15. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. teacă