FEMEIE · FAMILIA · HOUSEHOLD

Why was the woman a household?

Femeie is a Latin household narrowed to a single person. DEX derives it from Lat. familia, with no sound steps shown; DER says the sense change appears only in Daco-Romanian. The four Romance cousins kept their household — in none did it become a woman — and the proof sits in dated attestations, from Coresi's fămeaia to Floarea Darurilor.

Walk the pipe

Lat. familia: all DEX '09 gives: the household, no steps
1579–80: Coresi: wife and whole house in one line
only in Daco-Romanian: DER's verdict — with its parallels beside it

Three pictures, one narrowing:

The house, the woman, the manuscript: three ways of seeing a household turned woman.Photo: Tyler Bell (CC BY 2.0), Joe Mabel (public domain), Manuscript page (public domain), Wikimedia Commons

Pipe
Years
Cousins
Witnesses
The tally
Four dates
Dispute
Game
Sources

The page machine

The pipe, joint by joint

Seven joints, two languages, three grades of tightness. Each joint wears its language on a tag, and the seals show how tight the link is: attested, etymology, hypothesis. The false friend carries a question mark.

familia Latin LA ETYMOLOGY

Lewis & Short: “the slaves in a household, a household establishment” — the slaves of the house, then the estate, the kin, rarely the members. Mark this: not the wife with the children. The pipe starts here. (L&S, via Perseus)

fămeaia Coresi, 1579–80 RO ATTESTED

“Și cu muiarea ta și cu toată fămeaia ta pasă la besearecă” — wife and whole house, told apart in one line. The print reads фъмѣа; DLR transcribes fămeaia and cites CORESI, ap. GCR I, 24/31. (DLR, after Gaster)

fomeaea The Legend, c. 1600 RO ATTESTED

“să meargă la besearecă cu toată fomeaea” — after Șăineanu, who takes it from the Legenda Duminecei. The papers passed through Măhaciu around 1600, after Hasdeu. (Șăineanu, after Hasdeu)

fămeaie The Antologhion, 1646 RO ATTESTED

“Și împărțea pre fămeaie bucate” — AP. 1646, 5v, after DLRLV: the family receives the dishes. A dictionary transcription, no facsimile seen. (DLRLV)

fămeaia Floarea Darurilor, 1693 RO ATTESTED

“Lot, ieși tu și muiarea ta și fămeaia ta afară din cetate” — FL. D 1693, 32r, after DLRLV: both words again, told apart. (DLRLV)

femeie Romanian today RO ETYMOLOGY

DEX '09: “FEMEIE, femei, s. f.” — “Lat. familia.” That is all: no sound steps, no middle forms. A dictionary etymology, not a proven chain. (DEX)

femina the false friend? LA HYPOTHESIS DISPUTED

French femme comes from femina, another Latin word — not from familia. None of the consulted entries mentions it; it stands here as a fence, not a link. (Wiktionary, fence)

How to read the seals: attested means found in a dated text; etymology, a route a dictionary proposes; hypothesis, a link set with a question mark. The pipe is tight on attestations and on the dictionary; when the sense narrowed stays this page's hole.

At home

From Coresi to DEX: 1579–2009

Four hundred years of the written house, in four stops. Every quotation brings its paper: the press, the manuscript, the century, or the dictionary.

The press

The golden line sits with Coresi: “Și cu muiarea ta și cu toată fămeaia ta pasă la besearecă” — wife and whole house, told apart. Gaster's page wears the 1579–1580 header, and DLR cites CORESI, ap. GCR I, 24/31. The print reads фъмѣа; the quotation here follows DLR's transcription.

The papers

The Legenda Duminecei says “să meargă la besearecă cu toată fomeaea” — after Șăineanu, who dates it 1600. Hasdeu shows them written between 1580 and 1619, with popa Grigorie noting the title around 1600.

The century in books

The 1646 Antologhion shares “pre fămeaie bucate”, and the 1693 Floarea Darurilor leads Lot out “cu muiarea ta și fămeaia ta” — both after DLRLV, from dictionary transcriptions. The seventeenth century still says family.

The dictionaries

CADE puts family first; Șăineanu 1929 writes flatly that the sense narrowed to its female representative; Scriban divides the centuries — “Sec. 16-17. Familie. Azĭ. Soție, nevastă”; DER says “numai în dacorom”; DEX '09 closes with Lat. familia.

A peasant wedding by Bruegel the Elder, full tables and guests — A peasant wedding, Bruegel — contemporary with the Coresi prints. Photo: Pieter Brueghel the Elder, Wikimedia Commons, public domain

Gaster 1891: the Chrestomathy (scan) →

The Romance neighbours

The cousins who kept their household

Four great cousins, one inheritance, another road: each kept its house, and none made a woman of it. The proof sits in their dictionaries, not in our say-so.

The Italian

Treccani gives famiglia as the community of those living under one roof — from lat. famĭlia. Treccani also recalls that at first they were “the slaves and servants under the same roof”. For woman, the Italian says donna — from domina, the mistress. The household kept. (Treccani)

The Frenchman

Famille is the family, the group of kin — after Wiktionary, since CNRTL would not let machines read it. And for woman French has another word, femme, from femina: this page's false friend. (Wiktionary)

The Spaniard and the Portuguese

RAE derives familia from lat. familia — the group bound by marriage, kinship, or living together; sense 10 keeps even the servants, “criados”. Priberam gives família as the host of kin, above all those living together. For woman, the Spaniard says mujer, the Portuguese says mulher — both from mulier, the same root as our muiere. (RAE, Priberam)

Muierea

While femeie meant the house, the woman-woman was called muiere — from lat. mulier, says DEX. DLR keeps her from the psalters to the Bible: “Muiarea ta, ca o viță rodită”, “Numele muierii lui Avram, Sara”; the Palia de la Orăștie says “Şi dzise de Sara, muiarea lui”, after Vieru 2010. The rival, not the kin. (DLR, DEX)

The doublet

When femeie narrowed to its representative, the language brought its house back on another train: familie. DER says it plainly: “Este dublet de la familie.” (DER)

Medieval genealogical scheme with roundels and an Abraham roundel — Kin drawn out: a medieval genealogical scheme — MDA2's sense 5. Photo: Illustrated by Stephanus Garsia (and other unnamed), Wikimedia Commons, public domain

Treccani: famiglia (dictionary) →

In their own words

Six witnesses

The dictionaries tell the story themselves — each with its quotation, its source, and its measure.

DEX '09

“FEMEIE, femei, s. f. 1. Persoană adultă de sex feminin; muiere. 2. Persoană de sex feminin căsătorită. … – Lat. familia „familie”.”

DEX '09 (2009), via dexonline

The household is the father, quotes and all — with no sound steps shown.

DER

“1. (Înv.) Familie. … Lat. fămĭlia … Schimbarea semantică apare numai în dacorom. … Este dublet de la familie.”

DER (Ciorănescu), via dexonline

The hard verdict, the parallels, and the doublet: the whole story in one entry.

MDA2

“femeie sf [At: CUV. D. BĂTR. II, 52 / … / E: ml familia „familie”] 1-2 (Înv) Familie. 3 (Înv) Femeia și copiii. 4 (Înv) Copiii…”

MDA2, via dexonline

The narrowing ladder, rung by rung; ml stays unexpanded.

Șăineanu 1929

“[Vechiu-rom. fămeaie, familie … = lat. FAMILIA: în limba modernă s'a restrâns sensul la reprezentantul ei femeiesc]”

Șăineanu, 6th ed. (1929), via dexonline

The sentence that names the narrowing, with the Legend as witness.

Scriban 1939

“(lat. familia, familie…) Sec. 16-17. Familie. Azĭ. Soție, nevastă.”

Scriban (1939), via dexonline

The division of the centuries: family then, wife today.

Lewis & Short

“fămĭlĭa … the slaves in a household, a household establishment, family servants, domestics (not = family, i.e. wife and children…)”

L&S, via Perseus

The starting point: the slaves of the house, anything but the wife.

DEX: femeie (dictionary) →

The reckoning

What we know and what we do not

Four cards on the table: two hold, one quarrels, one is missing.

We know

The father is familia — so give all five Romanian dictionaries on the page. And in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the word meant the house: Coresi, the Legend, the Antologhion, and Floarea Darurilor witness it.

The narrowing

The MDA2 ladder shows the road: family, the woman and children, the children, the kin — down to the female adult. Șăineanu names it: the sense narrowed to its female representative.

The dispute

DER says “numai în dacorom”, yet DER itself strings its parallels: alb. fëmiljë “copil”, v. lomb. fameja, gal., port. femia. What they did with the sense lies beyond the quotation — the tension stays in the same entry, unresolved.

The hole

None of the dated texts checked here shows the moment of narrowing: in 1693 it is still family, and today's sense has no birth certificate. When the woman became the woman stays this page's question.

The dates that hold

Four dates

Four stops hold the whole pipe: one press, one legend, and two seventeenth-century books — each with its paper.

Coresi: fămeaia
1579–80
“Și cu muiarea ta și cu toată fămeaia ta” — after DLR, which cites CORESI, ap. GCR I, 24/31. The date sits on Gaster's page.
Witness 1 of four
The Legend: fomeaea
c. 1600
“să meargă la besearecă cu toată fomeaea” — after Șăineanu. The Măhaciu papers were written between 1580 and 1619, after Hasdeu.
Witness 2 of four
The Antologhion: fămeaie
1646
“Și împărțea pre fămeaie bucate” — AP. 1646, 5v, after DLRLV. A dictionary transcription.
Witness 3 of four
Floarea Darurilor: fămeaia
1693
“Lot, ieși tu și muiarea ta și fămeaia ta” — FL. D 1693, 32r, after DLRLV. Both words again.
Witness 4 of four

Four dates, four papers: Gaster 1891 for Coresi, Șăineanu for the Legend, DLRLV for the seventeenth century.

The ladder of forms

familia
Latin: the slaves of the house, the household
fămeaia
Coresi, 1579–80
fomeaea
The Legend, c. 1600
fămeaie
The Antologhion, 1646
fămeaia
Floarea Darurilor, 1693
femeie
DEX '09: Lat. familia

The quarrel

Only here? DER's parallels

One dictionary says two things that clash — and the century of narrowing has no paper. We set them face to face. DISPUTED

DER: the narrowing is ours alone

“Schimbarea semantică apare numai în dacorom.” Stated flatly and with heavy bibliography: Pușcariu, Candrea-Densușianu, REW, DAR, Wagner, Rohlfs. Nobody else narrowed to the woman — after DER.

DER again: the parallels

“cf. alb. fëmiljë «copil», v. lomb. fameja, gal., port. femia.” What they did with the sense, the quotation does not say — yet they stand in the same entry as the verdict, like witnesses unheard. (DER)

The faceless century

Scriban divides the centuries — “Sec. 16-17. Familie. Azĭ. Soție” — but no dated text shows the moment of crossing. In 1693 it is still family. When the woman became the woman, none of the checked papers says.

This page does not settle it: DER with its parallels, the century with no paper. What stands: the father familia, four attestations with the house sense, and four cousins who kept their household.

What is NOT disputed: the Latin father familia; the 1579–80, c. 1600, 1646, 1693 attestations with the house sense; the rival muiere; the four cousins with their household kept. These are not disputed.

DER: femeie (dictionary) →

Test yourself

Which is older?

Six stops from the page, from press to dictionary. Set them from the oldest to the newest.

On each card press the number of its place in the row, then check the order.

1693
Floarea Darurilor: fămeaia
Place
1579–80
Coresi: fămeaia
Place
2009
DEX '09: Lat. familia
Place
1646
The Antologhion: fămeaie
Place
1929
Șăineanu: narrowed sense
Place
c. 1600
The Legend: fomeaea
Place

Score: 0 of 6

The right order, oldest first

1579–80 — Coresi: fămeaia
c. 1600 — The Legend: fomeaea
1646 — The Antologhion: fămeaie
1693 — Floarea Darurilor: fămeaia
1929 — Șăineanu: narrowed sense
2009 — DEX '09: Lat. familia

The stops stand in the order of their opening years.

Sources

Every quotation on the page points at one of the addresses below: dictionaries through dexonline, texts through scans and editions.