vagin

Forms

vagin n (plural vagine)^[1] The earliest records use a feminine vaghină: „a simțit pe dinlăuntru vaghinii... părţi rătunde d-ale copilului” “she felt inside the vagina round parts of the child” (1836).^[2][3] Kretzulescu has a masculine or neuter vaghin: „prin vaghinul dasupra căruia... se află” “by the vagina above which… lies”.^[2] A health manual has vajină: „se va băga în vajina mitrei” “it will be inserted into the vagina of the womb”.^[2] Besides the usual plural vagine there is a rare vaginuri.^[4][5]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French vagin, with Latin vāgīna (“sheath, scabbard”) as a second source, as DEX, MDA2 and Marcu give it; the DLR takes the anatomical sense from both and the senses “sheath” and “leaf sheath” from Latin alone.^{[4][3][6][2][1]} The French word is a learned loan from the Latin, first in its Latin form (1668), then from 1676 in French form, a doctors' euphemism, “the sheath”.^[7]

The Latin word goes back to *wāgīnā.^[8][1] A link with Lithuanian vóžti (“to cover”) has been suggested, but de Vaan calls it a gratuitous proposal.^[8][9] The inherited French doublet is gaine “sheath”.^[7][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

MDA2 and the DLR date the first record to 1836, a medical account of a midwife's examination with the form vaghină.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

The 19th-century medical texts wavered between vaghină, vaghin, vajină and vagină before the neuter vagin of French became the norm.^[2] Botanists used the feminine vagină for the sheath at the base of a leaf, as in Panțu and the Flora of the Romanian Academy, and the etymological sense “sheath” appears in a few dictionaries.^[2][3]

Timeline

• 1668 – French takes over Latin vagina as an anatomical term;^[7] vagin from 1676.^[7]
• 1836 – vaghină, the first Romanian record.^[3][2]
• 19th century – the variants vaghin and vajină in medical writing.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (anatomy) The vagina: the muscular and membranous canal of the female genital tract between the vulva and the uterus.^[4][3]
2. (rare, as feminine vagină) A sheath.^[3][2]
3. (botany, as feminine vagină) The sheath at the base of a leaf.^[3][2]

Related words

• vaginal
• Latin vagina

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. vagin
3. ^ 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, 1406
4. ^ a b c DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1181
5. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România
6. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual
7. ^ a b c d Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press