vintre

Forms

vintre f (plural vintre)^[1] Old texts also have ventre: „Din rodul ventrelui tău voiu pune în scaunul tău” “of the fruit of thy belly will I set upon thy throne” (the Psalter of 1651, Psalm 131).^[2] Old and regional variants include vintră, vântră, vântre, vintere and vintire;^[3][2] Tiktin explains vintră and vântră as singulars made from the plural.^[3][2] The old language also used it as a neuter, as in Dosoftei's „vintrele nostru-n pământ să lipește” “our belly cleaves to the earth”.^[4][2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin venter (“belly, abdomen”), from its accusative form.^{[5][6][3][7][1]} Pușcariu discusses it as article 1899 of his dictionary of the Latin element.^[6] Its Romance cognates include Dalmatian viantro, Italian ventre, Sardinian bentre, French ventre, Occitan ventre, Catalan ventre, Spanish vientre and Portuguese ventre.^[5][8] The Latin noun is masculine;^[6] Pușcariu notes that besides Romanian it became feminine only in Sicilian, some southern Italian dialects and Sardinian.^[6]

The further origin of the Latin word is unclear: Wiktionary reconstructs Proto-Indo-European *wend-tri- and compares Latin vēsīca (“bladder”).^[1] De Vaan finds a preform with or without a nasal possible and reports Hamp's view that it is at bottom the same word as uterus.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Candrea's glossary of the Psaltirea Scheiană (c. 1573–1578) records the word as a neuter meaning “belly”.^[10] Tiktin's first record is the Palia de la Orăștie of 1581–1582 (Exodus 28), and MDA2's a prayer book of 1639: „vintrele de se va clăti” “if the belly is shaken”.^[2][3][4]

Semantic evolution

In the old language vintre often rendered the “belly” or “womb” of the Greek and Latin Bible.^[2] The chroniclers used it for the belly: Miron Costin tells of a soldier speared „dirept pen vintre” “right through the belly”.^[4] The sense narrowed in popular use to the soft lower and side parts of the belly, and the plural came to mean the entrails.^[3][7] It also meant the womb and, regionally, the genitals.^[3]

A second sense is illness of the bowels: dysentery or diarrhoea, recorded in Nicolae Costin's chronicle and in Dosoftei and still used in curses by Sadoveanu's characters.^[2][11] In folk poetry vântra pământului “the belly of the earth” means its centre.^[2] Ciorănescu notes that the word is little used in literature but widespread in popular speech.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 1573–1578 – a neuter vintre “belly” in the Psaltirea Scheiană.^[10]
• 1581–1582 – vintre in the Palia de la Orăștie.^[2]
• 1639 – vintrele in a prayer book, MDA2's first record.^[3][4]
• 1651 – ventrele “the belly” in a psalter.^[2]
• 1688 – vintre in the Bucharest Bible.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. (popular) The belly, abdomen, especially its soft lower and side parts.^[7][3][1]
2. (popular, in the plural) The entrails.^[7][3]
3. (dated, popular) The womb.^[3]
4. (popular) dysentery; diarrhoea.^[7][5]
5. (regional) The inner part of a thing or place.^[3]

Word family

• vintriș
• suvintri
• vintricel

Related words

• ventricul
• Latin venter

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. víntre
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 1484
4. ^ a b c d Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. vintre
5. ^ 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. vintre
6. ^ a b c d Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 178
7. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1199
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 9205
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A. (1916), Psaltirea Scheiană comparată cu celelalte psaltiri din sec. XVI și XVII traduse din slavonește, vol. II: Glosarele, București: Socec, p. 408
11. ^ Gaster, M. (1891), Chrestomatie română: texte tipărite și manuscrise (sec. XVI–XIX), dialectale și populare, cu o introducere, gramatică și un glosar româno-francez, vol. II, Leipzig: Brockhaus / București: Socec, p. 350
12. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Acts 28:8