Etymologically
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putsãn

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Forms

putsãn m (feminine putsãnã, masculine plural putsãnj, feminine plural putsãni or putsãne)[1]

  • As an adjective: feminine putsãnã, masculine plural putsãnj, feminine plural putsãni or putsãne; as an adverb it does not change.[2][1]
  • Other spellings: ptsãn, putsãnu and putsen in Wiktionary;[1][3] PUȚÍ'N (adverb) and PUȚIN, -nă, plural puți'n'i, -ne, in Papahagi's dictionary;[4] puţinu, feminine -ă, in Mihăileanu;[5] puțin and psîn in Dalametra;[6] πουτσίνου, πτσᾶνου and μτσᾶνου (putsínu, ptsanu, mtsanu) in Nikolaidis's Greek script;[7] putsinu in Kavalliotis's word list.[8]
  • Regional forms: puţî'n, puţân and the shortened pţîn and psîn in Pericle Papahagi's tales;[9] putsin among the Fărșerots;[10] putsân in the speech of the Aromanians of Albania.[11] Pascu quotes putin from Boiagi.[12]

Etymology

Its origin is disputed.[13][14] Pușcariu takes it as inherited from Vulgar Latin *putinus, a derivative of Latin putus (“boy”), formed as masculīnus was formed from masculus;[15] Wiktionary takes *putinus as a blend of Late Latin pitinnus (“very small”) with the root of putus.[1] Pascu proposes *pautinus, from *paucinus, a derivative of paucus (“few”) crossed with pitinnus;[12] Nikolaidis starts from a Latin diminutive of paucus.[7] Papahagi's index of etyma lists the word as uncertain,[14] and Ciorănescu calls it obscure, most likely from an expressive root, comparing Medieval Latin pittinus (“small”).[13]

The word is shared with Romanian puțin, Megleno-Romanian puțǫn and Istro-Romanian puțin.[13][16][17] In Latin putus meant a boy; its diminutive putillus meant very young, tiny.[18] De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *put-o- (“boy”).[18]

Earliest recorded meaning

Kavalliotis's word list of 1770 has Πουτζίνου, which the index reads as putsinu, for Modern Greek ὀλίγος (olígos, “little, few”).[8]

Semantic evolution

The sense has stayed the same: little in amount, few in number, short in time.[2][4] Pascu quotes the derivatives maputină (at least) from Boiagi and puținime (a small number) from Mihăileanu.[12] In Pericle Papahagi's tales multu-puţî'n (the much and little) means everything one owns.[9]

Timeline

  • 1770 – putsinu “little, few” in Kavalliotis's word list.[8]
  • 1813 – putin in Boiagi's grammar, as Pascu quotes it.[12]
  • 1901 – puţinu in Mihăileanu's dictionary.[5]
  • 1906 – puțin and psîn in Dalametra's dictionary.[6]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. little, small in amount; few.[1][2][4]
  2. short (of time).[2]

Adverb

  1. A little, a bit.[1][2][4]
  • Romanian puțin

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 875
  3. ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 863
  4. ^ a b c d Papahagi, Tache (1974), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, 2nd augmented ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. 1037
  5. ^ a b Mihăileanu, Ștefan (1901), Dicționar macedo-român, București, p. 433
  6. ^ a b Dalametra, I. (1906), Dicționar macedo-român, București: Academia Română, p. 179
  7. ^ a b Νικολαΐδης, Κωνσταντίνος (1909), Ετυμολογικόν λεξικόν της κουτσοβλαχικής γλώσσης, Αθήνα, p. 443
  8. ^ a b c Meyer, Gustav (1895), Albanesische Studien IV: Das griechisch-südrumänisch-albanesische Wörterverzeichnis des Kavalliotis, Sitzungsberichte der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften in Wien, phil.-hist. Classe 132, p. 90
  9. ^ a b Papahagi, Pericle (1905), Basme aromâne și glosar, București: Academia Română, p. 689
  10. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1931), Fărșeroții: studiu lingvistic asupra românilor din Albania, Dacoromania VI: 1–210, p. 133
  11. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1932), Aromânii: dialectul aromân. Studiu lingvistic, București: Academia Română (Academia Română, Studii și cercetări XX), p. 262
  12. ^ a b c d 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, 150
  13. ^ a b c Ciorănescu, Alexandru (1958–1966), Diccionario etimológico rumano, La Laguna: Universidad de La Laguna (Romanian ed.: Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române, București: Saeculum, 2001)
  14. ^ a b Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1239
  15. ^ Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
  16. ^ Papahagi, Pericle (1902), Megleno-românii: studiu etnografico-filologic I, București: Academia Română (with a glossary)
  17. ^ Kovačec, August (1998), Istrorumunjsko-hrvatski rječnik (s gramatikom i tekstovima), Pula
  18. ^ 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