Jens Elmegaard Rasmussen wrote:
> Re-borrowing of a word is not uncommon, there are many instances of
> that. What it takes for the Patrone story to be true is that somebody
> translates that from its Latin source meaning 'host' into Romanian
> and then finds a way to embellish oasp- so that it looks a bit like
> Latin hospes. That would then be the word for 'cartridge', of which
> 'pod' would be a slightly metaphorical meaning. The connection
> between 'husk' and 'pod' is no more of a problem in this case than it
> is other way around. I do not know if there can have been a native
> variant of the word oaspe that could have been picked and used in
> these specialized meanings. But the semantic story looks so familiar
> that it might be worth somebody's trouble to follow the lead.
>
> Jens
Jens, first about German "Patrone"
This word is not from Latin or MLatin but a loan from French "patron"
which was translated as "the father-form" since the original meaning in
German was "Musterform, Modellform"; The French words is indeed from
MLat "patronus". The semantic change is explained as follow:
-the father is the example in the family, thus in the family of the
things which have to be made , the one example should be the father one
wherefrom the others are developed.
Now about the Rom. "hoaspã.
I fail to say here any way for the semantic develpoment of hospe to
"hoaspã" for the meaning "husk". I am not aware of the meaning "pãstaie"
(pod) George speaks about. In DEX is just the meaning of husk but no
"pod".In my dictionary for archaisms and regionalism we find some other
meanings. Please allow myself to give first the entry in Romanian for
allowing the correction of the translation which I will made:
hoaspã: (reg). 1) învelish (al grãuntelui de cereale, al bobului de
fasole, de mazãre, de strugure); pielitsã, pojghitsã, coajã; 2) fâshiile
de lemn luate de tâmplar cu gealãul, talash; 3) spumã plutitoare pe
borshul din putini, floare
I try to translate how exactly I can:
hoaspã: (reg) 1) cover ( of: the grain of cereals, of the bean, of the
pea, of the grape), peel; 2)wood strip which is resulting from the work
of the carpenter, sawdust; 3)floating foam on the borsch which is within
the barrel, the so-called "flower of the borsch"
Please excuse me , but from the meaning of Latin word (guest, visitor)
to these meanings seems to be a very long way if any.
Alex