Linguistic Society of America

Romance Etymologies
Author(s): Carlton C. Rice
Source: Language, Vol. 9, No. 4 (Dec., 1933), pp. 309-312
Published by: Linguistic Society of America
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/409417
Accessed: 10-06-2017 05:56 UTC

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 ROMANCE ETYMOLOGIES

CARLTON C. RICE

CATAWBA COLLEGE

1. Provengal escacha, escaicha, escaissa, 'break with the teeth',

'break', 'tear', 'bite' is not mentioned by Meyer-Liibke. The forms
escacha, escaissa seem to be regular reflexes of *excoactare, *excoactiare
'to smash', the ai in escaicha being due to the attraction of escaissa.
Meyer-Ltbke does mention French 6cacher 'to smash' along with French
cacher 'to hide' as a doubtful derivative of *coacticare. These French
words seem to be Provengal loanwords from *[ex]coactare. Provengal
quicha 'to press', 'to pinch' must have some other source.
2. Italian friiiare 'to smart' < *frictiare : frictus : frigo 'to roast'.
The word was derived by Diez from *frictiare : frictus : fr'tco 'to rub
but the latter etymology presents phonetic irregularity as well as sem
antic difficulty, and is not repeated by Meyer-Lhbke,l who omits th
word. The phonetic development *frictiare > frii~are may be regular
In rizzare, dirizzare we have, to be sure, a voiceless zz from cty (< *re
tiare, *directiare), but the examples hardly establish a phonetic law.
The variant treatment of cty in rizzare and frixiare seems to show a
regional divergence.
3. Italian paggio 'young servant', French page 'page' was derived
by Diez from Greek ratslov 'boy', on the supposition that it was
brought from Byzantium during the Crusades. Meyer-Liibke, in his
Romanische Grammatik,2 more plausibly assumed that *padium was
an early Greek loanword, the non-appearance of which in Latin writin
is a mere accident. Still, as no other early Greek loanword showin
this phonetic development has survived in Romance, the etymology
must be declared quite doubtful. Meyer-Liibke himself, in the third
edition of his Rom. Etym. Wb., doubts the derivation of paggio from
-raLblov on the ground that the word is older in French than in Italian
Now it is true that the word is attested in French as early as the thir
teenth century; but recognition of that fact does not necessitate the

1 Rom. Etym. Wb.2,3

2 1. 32.

309

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310 CARLTON C. RICE

abandonment of the common assum

from Italy, as the direction of voca
out from the phonology of the wo
their appearance in writing. On t
example, admits the derivation of O
'head';3 and the derivation of Old
'throat'.4
I propose to derive the Italian word from Vulgar Latin *pageus, a
type parallel with pagensis > French pays 'country', formed from
pagus + -eus instead of -ensis. Meyer-Liibke3 gives about forty exam-
ples of the use of the suffix -eus, and says that substantivized adjectives
(like lineum : linum) are numerous. The Italian phonology assumed
is regular.
After having decided to present this etymology, I found a similar
theory set forth in his dictionary by Littr6, who mentions Low Latin
pagius 'page', and postulates the Vulgar Latin type pagius.
4. Old French puirier 'to hand on', 'to offer' was derived by Diez
from porrigere 'to reach'; but, as Meyer-Liibke indicates,5 this is not
clear. In view of the existence of the Old French particle por, puer,
Provengal por, pore, noticed by Diez6 in compounds like Provengal por
gitar 'to throw away', and by him derived from Latin porro, I propose
to connect puirier with the type *porriare : porro + -iare. This form-
ation is analogous to that of *abantiare > French avancer.
5. Provengal trobar, French trouver 'to find'. Meyer-Liibke5 remarks
that the derivation of these words from turbare 'to disturb' rests on the
undemonstrable assumption that the Latin verb developt the meaning
'to pulsate'. The phonetic anomalies presented by the etymology
trouver, trobar < turbare are also considerable, including (aside from the
defensible metathesis) the assumption of an irregular stem-vowel in
Old French trueve, Provengal trQba, which naturally suggest that the
etymon had an open o, and the difficult assumption of the persistence
of b in Provengal, which seems rather to show that the etymon contained
the sound p.
As an alternative which has hitherto remained unnoticed, so far as I
am aware, I suggest derivation from the Frankish stem top, which ac-
cording to Diez, followed by Korting, gives Spanish topar, Italian
3 Rom. Gram. 2. 448f.
4 Op. cit.3
I Op. cit.3
6 Et. Wb. d. rom. Sprachen 660 (1887).

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 ROMANCE ETYMOLOGIES 311

intoppare 'to run across', 'to find'. These w

LiUbke, perhaps inadvertently, as he ack
Spanish topetar 'to but' from this stem
topar, intoppare was evidently 'to but aga
The etymology which I propose cannot, t
semantic grounds.
This etymology assumes the metathesize
and Provencal, while we have developm
stem in Spanish and Italian. As analogous
cite the Vulgar Latin base *tresaurus, req
and Catalan reflexes, while the unmetathe
assumed in the case of the corresponding
lian words. So, too, we have Italian to
treuil 'windlass', Catalan trolh 'oilpress' < L
Latin *troculum 'press'. Likewise, Italian
beside French tremper, Catalan trempar, t
ing for this word (< Latin temperare) bot
thesized forms; It. tonare, tronare, Fre
tromar < tonare.
When the Latin termination -are was added to the Frankish noun-
stem *top, the p became pp in Italy, remained p in Spain, and developt
like a Latin intervocalic p in French and Provengal. This divergent
development was due to borrowing in two different periods. The pho-
nological principle involved has been dealt with systematically by
Mackel,7 who divides all Germanic loanwords in Romance into two
strata, an earlier one containing the words that participated in the
Romance sound-shifts, and a later one including those that did not. I
will quote a few pertinent examples. While Frankish skrapan 'to
scrape' shows a Frankish intervocalic p undevelopt in Old French es-
craper, in French buer, Provengal bugar < Frankish biikon 'to buck
clothes' we have a case of the development of Frankish intervocalic k
in French and Provengal. Again, Frankish pauta 'paw' gives Provengal
pauta, without development, but Old French poue, with development
thru ;5. Mackel8 expressly states that in the first stratum of loanwords,
intervocalic Germanic p becomes v in French, and cites Old Low Frank-
ish *skapid > Old French eschevi 'lithe'. Meyer-Liibke9 similarly
7Die germanischen Elemente in der franz6sischen und provenzalischen
Sprache. Franz6sische Studien 6. 1 (1887).
8 Op. cit. 177.
Op. cit.3

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312 CARLTON C. RICE

indicates the accepted derivation

escabin from a Germanic skapins 'al
In the early stratum of loanwords, a
the main stress becomes in Old Fre
vengal. One example given is Ge
Provengal Qsa 'trousers'.
Spanish topetar 'to but into' evi
*topittare, with the VL suffix -ittare
to have been living in the Old Spani
I believe Spanish tropezar 'to stu
metathesized type *tropittiare.

10 Op. cit. 29.

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