tufă

Forms

tufă f^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin tūfa (“a kind of helmet crest”), a late word recorded in Vegetius.^{[2][3][4][1][5][6]} Romanian widened the sense from the crest to a bush.^[7] Pușcariu argued that its presence in Romanian rules out R. Loewe's view that the Latin word was a loan from Germanic.^[5] DER and Tiktin compare Ancient Greek τύφη (túphē), the name of a reed used for stuffing cushions, which Beekes finds too different in sense for a sure connection.^[2][8][9]

It survives in Aromanian tufă and Megleno-Romanian tufcă (“bouquet”).^[2][10][11] DER, the REW and Pușcariu compare Sardinian tuvu (“thorn thicket”) and, with irregular forms, French touffe; the DHLF takes the French word from Germanic, and only as a hypothesis crossed with the Latin one.^[2][5][12] For Albanian tufë and Modern Greek τοῦφα (toúfa), DER suggests they may come from Romanian; the REW, after Jokl, took the Albanian word from Gothic, a link DER finds most improbable.^[2][11]

The sense “nothing” is not clear: Tiktin thought of Ancient Greek τῦφος (tûphos, “smoke, vapour”), DER finds this insufficient and suggests a shortening of tuflă, and Scriban saw an allusion to the lack of vegetation in Venice.^[2][8][13]

Earliest recorded meaning

MDA2 and the DLR date the first record to about 1512–1513, citing Mihăilă's dictionary of early Romanian, and Tiktin to about 1513.^[3][14][8] In the Palia of Orăștie (1581–1582) Abraham sees a ram caught „cu coarnele întru tufă de spini” “by the horns in a thorn bush”.^[14]

Semantic evolution

The core sense is a bush or shrub with dense branches growing from the root, and a clump of shoots, flowers or grasses from one root.^[4][3] Old texts use it for thickets: a boundary „costișul cu tufele” “the slope with the bushes” in a document of 1672, and „tufele ierbii” “the tufts of grass” in the Bible of 1688.^[14][15] Regionally it names particular trees: the downy oak (Quercus pubescens) in Muntenia and Oltenia, and the hazel.^[8][16][2] The Lexicon of Buda of 1825 gives both “bush” and “hazel”.^[17]

Figurative senses are thick, bushy hair and a green branch, with the regional “cudgel”.^[4] The colloquial tufă “nothing, no trace” is common in 19th-century prose: Ispirescu's „Ceva țoale ori vrun dichis în casa lui, tufă!” “any clothes or fittings in his house: not a trace!”.^[8] Tufă-n pungă is an empty purse, and so a penniless man.^[8][4] In slang tufă is someone who knows nothing about a subject.^[18]

Derivatives include tufan “downy oak”, tufar, tufăriș and tufiș “thicket”, tufănică “chrysanthemum”, and with an expressive s- stuf “reed” and stufos “bushy”.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1512–1513 – the first record, after Mihăilă's dictionary.^[3][14]
• 1581–1582 – tufă de spini “thorn bush” in the Palia of Orăștie.^[14]
• 1672 – „costișul cu tufele” in a boundary document.^[14]
• 1688 – tufele ierbii in the Bucharest Bible (Genesis 9:3).^[15]
• 1801 – listed by Klein.^[19]
• 1825 – “bush” and “hazel” in the Lexicon of Buda.^[17]
• 19th century – tufă “nothing” in Creangă and Ispirescu.^[8][20]

Meanings

Noun

1. A shrub or bush, a woody plant with dense branches growing from the root, or a clump of flowers, shoots or grasses from one root.^[4][3][1]
2. (colloquial) Nothing, not at all, in tufă or tufă de Veneția.^[4][3] Tufă-n pungă or tufă-n buzunar: nothing, or a penniless man.^[4][3]
3. (figurative) Thick, bushy hair.^[4][3]
4. (rare) A green branch, and (regional) a cudgel.^[4]
5. (regional) The downy oak, Quercus pubescens, or the hazel.^[3][16][8]

Word family

• stuf
• tufan
• tufănică
• tufăriș
• stufăriș
• tufiș
• stufos

Related words

• Aromanian tufă
• Latin tūfa

Usage notes

Tufă is also a surname, and Tufe and Tufele are field names in Transylvania.^[1][21]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. tufă
3. ^ 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, 1294
4. ^ 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. 1152
5. ^ a b c Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 165
6. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 670
8. ^ a b c d e f g h Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. tufă
9. ^ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1052
11. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 8973
12. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
13. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1, 1353
14. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. tufă
15. ^ a b Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Genesis 9:3
16. ^ a b Panțu, Zach. C. (1929), Plantele cunoscute de poporul român. Vocabular botanic cuprinzând numirile române, franceze, germane și științifice, 2nd ed., București: Editura Casei Școalelor, p. 316
17. ^ 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. 726
18. ^ Volceanov, George (2007), Dicționar de argou al limbii române, București: Niculescu, p. s.v. tufă
19. ^ 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. 460
20. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 4, 514
21. ^ Constantinescu, N. A. (1963), Dicționar onomastic romînesc, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. s.v. tufă