viespe

Forms

viespe f (plural viespi)^[1] The older form viaspă is in the Bucharest Bible of 1688: „Au trimis mai nainte de voi viaspea” “he sent the wasp ahead of you” (Joshua 24:12).^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin vespa (“wasp”).^{[4][2][5][3][1]} Pușcariu, Tiktin and Scriban posit Vulgar Latin *vespis, remade after apis (“bee”) to explain the final /e/, and compare Sardinian espe.^[6][3][7] DEX gives the same reconstruction.^[8] Ciorănescu, after Byck and Graur, takes the regular outcome to be viaspă, still heard in Moldavia, and the modern singular to be remade from its plural ⟨viespi⟩.^[4] Wiktionary finds this the likelier account.^[1] The Latin word goes back to Proto-Indo-European *wobʰseh₂ (“wasp”), perhaps from *webʰ- (“to weave”).^[1][9]

Ciorănescu gives Aromanian vaspe and Megleno-Romanian vaspi south of the Danube.^[4] The Romance cognates include Italian vespa, Catalan vespa, French guêpe, Spanish avispa and Portuguese bespa.^[4][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the Palia de la Orăștie of 1581–1582, in God's promise of Exodus 23:28: „Viespi încă voiu slobodzi eu înaintea ta” “I will also send wasps before you”.^[3][2] A personal name Vespea is recorded in Transylvania in 1584.^[11]

Semantic evolution

The word names several stinging insects like the bee: the common wasp and, with a qualifier such as viespe bondărească or viespe mare, the hornet.^[2][5] Compounds name other insects: viespea stejarului “oak gall wasp” (Cynips quercus), which lays its eggs in oak leaves.^[5][12] Figuratively it is a spiteful, quarrelsome woman, as in Creangă's tale of the mistress „care înălbise pe dracul” “who had turned the devil grey”, and talie de viespe is a very slim waist.^[13][7][8]

Timeline

• 1581-1582 – first record, viespi in the Palia de la Orăștie (Exodus 23:28).^[3][2]
• 1584 – the personal name Vespea in Transylvania.^[11]
• c. 1660-1670 – viespi in a Slavonic–Romanian lexicon; later lexicons gloss Slavonic ѡсы “wasps” with viespile.^[14][15]
• 1688 – viespile and viaspea in the Bucharest Bible.^[16][2]
• 1705 – viespile in Cantemir's Istoria ieroglifică.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. wasp: the name of several insects of the order Hymenoptera, like the bee, most with a sting and a venom sac at the end of the abdomen.^[8][5][1]
2. (figurative) A spiteful woman.^[8][17]

Word family

• viespar
• viespariță
• viespoi

Related words

• Aromanian vaspe
• Latin vespa

Usage notes

MDA2 records a great many regional forms, among them viaspă, veaspă, vespe and viespere; regionally the word is also masculine.^[5][3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. viespe
3. ^ a b c d e f Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. viespe
4. ^ 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. viespe
5. ^ 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, 1476
6. ^ Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 177
7. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1405
8. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1198
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. vespa
10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 9272
11. ^ a b Constantinescu, N. A. (1963), Dicționar onomastic romînesc, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. s.v. viespe
12. ^ Dima, Eugenia (coord.) (2007), Dicționar explicativ ilustrat al limbii române, Chișinău: Arc / Gunivas, p. s.v. viespe
13. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 4, 659
14. ^ 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. viespi
15. ^ 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. viespile
16. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Exod 23:28
17. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. viespe