prunc

Romanian

Alternative forms

• прунк (prunc) — post-1930s Cyrillic spelling

Etymology

Inherited from Vulgar Latin *pueruncus, from Latin puer (“child”) + diminutive suffix -unculus. In Vulgar Latin, a popular, syncopated variant of the suffix -unculus was *-unclus, hence words like unchi, rărunchi, genunchi, etc. This *puerunclus was hypercorrected by analogy with Latin iuvencus ("calf, bullock"; inherited as junc), resulting in an unusual *pueruncus. While the hypercorrection itself is unusual, unusual hypercorrections in Romanian are not something unthinkable (see how curună evolved into cunună in Romanian by being misperceived as rhotacized).

See also the word trunchi for another example of a word in Romanian being displaced by its diminutive variant.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈprunk/
• Rhymes: -unk
• Hyphenation: prunc

Noun

prunc m (plural prunci)

1. infant; newborn; baby

   Synonyms: bebe, copilaș

Declension

Declension of prunc

	singular			plural
	indefinite	definite		indefinite	definite
nominative-accusative	prunc	pruncul		prunci	pruncii
genitive-dative	prunc	pruncului		prunci	pruncilor
vocative	pruncule			pruncilor

Derived terms

• pruncă
• pruncie
• prunculeț
• pruncușor