Etymologically
Log in

fatsã

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 26 October 2026 at 23:39. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Forms

fatsã f (plural fãts or fatsi or fatse)[1]

  • Plural fãts or fatsi / fatse.[2][1]
  • Other spellings: fatse in Wiktionary;[1] FAȚĂ in Papahagi's dictionary and in Pascu, who gives the plurals fațe and făți;[3][4] φάτσα, plural φάτς, in Nikolaidis's Greek script, which he transcribes fatsă, fats;[5] fáță in Mihăileanu;[6] fatso, plural fats, in Weigand's glossary.[7]
  • Regional forms: fátsă, plural fắtsî, in the dialect of Metsovo;[8] the glossary of the ALAR atlas records fáţă and fáţâ, with the plurals fáţe, fáţi, făţ and fắţurĭ at different points of the atlas.[9]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin facia (“face”),[3][4][1] the popular form of faciēs (“appearance, face”);[10][11][12] Wiktionary's Latin record notes that facia is attested in Vergilius around the 7th century.[1] De Vaan lists faciēs among the derivatives of faciō (“to make”), from Proto-Italic *fak-i- and Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁- (“to put”);[13] Wiktionary explains the noun as a make, an imposed form, formed like speciēs beside speciō.[1]

The word is common to the four Eastern Romance languages: Romanian față, Megleno-Romanian fáţă and Istro-Romanian fǫte.[10][14] Further west the popular form gave Italian faccia, French face and Spanish haz;[10][11] Ciorănescu also compares Modern Greek φάτσα (fátsa).[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The oldest dated record among these sources is Weigand's glossary of 1894, which glosses fatso as cheek and face.[7]

Semantic evolution

The word means the face,[2][1] and also the cheek in Weigand, in Metsovo and in the ALAR atlas.[7][8][15] Papahagi's dictionary lists nine senses: face, surface (fáța a múntilui, "the face of the mountain"), colour or look, permission or freedom, a good-for-nothing, a shameless person, a hypocrite, making oneself ridiculous, and openly, to one's face.[3] Mihăileanu records față lae ("black face") for a wretch and fața aróșă ("red face") for a shameless man;[6] Pascu adds Dalametra's față a loclui for mica.[4] In the folk tales Fáța-a-lóclui, "the Beauty of the world", is the name of the beautiful princess.[3]

Timeline

  • 1894 – fatso “cheek, face” in Weigand's glossary.[7]
  • 1901 – fáță “face, cheek” in Mihăileanu's dictionary.[6]
  • 1909 – φάτσα “face, look” in Nikolaidis's dictionary.[5]
  • 1925 – Pascu derives it from Latin facia.[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The face.[2][1][3]
  2. The cheek.[7][8][15]
  3. The surface or outer side of a thing.[3][8]
  4. colour, look, appearance.[3][16]
  5. (figurative) Freedom, indulgence given to someone.[3][4]
  • Romanian față

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 444
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Papahagi, Tache (1974), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, 2nd augmented ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. 541
  4. ^ a b c d e Pascu, Giorge (1925), Dictionnaire étymologique macédoroumain, 2 vols. (I: Les éléments latins et romans; II: Les éléments grecs, turcs, slaves, albanais, germaniques, magyars, néologismes, créations immédiates, obscurs), Iași: Cultura Națională, p. 1, 83
  5. ^ a b Νικολαΐδης, Κωνσταντίνος (1909), Ετυμολογικόν λεξικόν της κουτσοβλαχικής γλώσσης, Αθήνα, p. 566
  6. ^ a b c Mihăileanu, Ștefan (1901), Dicționar macedo-român, București, p. 188
  7. ^ a b c d e Weigand, Gustav (1894), Die Aromunen: ethnographisch-philologisch-historische Untersuchungen, vol. II: Volksliteratur der Aromunen (with a glossary), Leipzig: J. A. Barth, p. 304
  8. ^ a b c d Δασούλας, Φώτης (2013), Το βλαχικό ιδίωμα του Μετσόβου, 2nd ed.
  9. ^ Saramandu, Nicolae (2023), Glosar aromân, Fonetică și dialectologie XLII: 103–176, p. 127
  10. ^ 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)
  11. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  12. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București
  13. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  14. ^ Saramandu, Nicolae (coord.) et al. (2010–), Dicționarul dialectului meglenoromân, general și etimologic, fascicles in Fonetică și dialectologie XXIX–, p. 156
  15. ^ a b Saramandu, Nicolae (2023), Glosar aromân, Fonetică și dialectologie XLII: 103–176, p. 128
  16. ^ Caragiu Marioțeanu, Matilda et al. (1997), Dicționar aromân (macedo-vlah) DIARO, A–D, București, p. 87