Etymologically

Etymology and origin of the Romanian word împrumuta

Confidence
Probable
Formation
Inherited
First attested
c. 1500–1520 Psaltirea Hurmuzaki More words from the 15th century
Inherited from
Latin *impromutuo
Ultimate origin
Latin prōmūtuum

Forms

împrumuta (third-person singular present împrumută, past participle împrumutat, third-person subjunctive împrumute) 1st conjugation[1] Old Romanian also had a present împrumutez: Varlaam writes „Cela ce dă săracului, acela împrumuteadză pre Dumnezău” “he who gives to the poor lends to God”.[2][3] A form without the prefix, prumuta, occurs in the Psaltirea Scheiană.[4][5][1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *imprōmūtuō (“to borrow”), a Vulgar Latin verb that the REW reconstructs for Romanian, Italian improntare, French emprunter and Occitan emprumtar.[6][5][7] Latin itself has only prōmūtuor (“to be loaned beforehand”), formed on prōmūtuum (“a loan”).[7][8][1] Wiktionary gives the Vulgar Latin form as *imprūmūtō, with the first /o/ assimilated to the following /u/.[1]

Others derive the verb from the adverb and noun împrumut, itself from the same Latin noun: MDA2 and NODEX give only this source, DEX gives both, and Ciorănescu treats the verb as a derivative of the adverb that could also continue the Latin verb directly.[3][9][10][11] The verb survives south of the Danube as Aromanian mprumut, which Papahagi derives from the same Latin verb.[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century, at Psalm 36.[5][13] MDA2 dates the verb from the Psaltirea Scheiană, about 1573–1578.[3] From the first records it meant both “to lend” and “to borrow”.[2]

Semantic evolution

The DA records the verb from the 16th century both as “to lend something to someone” and, reflexive or with de la, as “to borrow from someone”; the Bucharest Bible of 1688 has both: „Să împrumutezi la limbi multe, iară tu să nu te împrumutezi” “you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow”.[2][14] Proverbs recorded by Zanne play on the lending sense: „Trei lucruri nu se împrumută: calul, nevasta și pușca” “three things are not lent: the horse, the wife and the gun”.[2][5] From taking something from another came the senses “to adopt words or customs” and “to imitate”, used of loanwords in linguistics.[3][10]

Timeline

  • c. 1500-1520 – in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki, Psalm 36.[5][13]
  • c. 1573-1578 – împrumuta in the Psaltirea Scheiană.[3][15]
  • 1649 – împrumut glosses Slavonic “I give as a loan” in Mardarie's lexicon.[16]
  • 1688 – lending and borrowing side by side in the Bucharest Bible.[14]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To lend: to give someone something that is to be given back: I-am împrumutat fratelui meu bicicleta pentru o săptămână.[10][3][1]
  2. To borrow: to take something from someone, to be given back later; also reflexive, a se împrumuta de la cineva: S-a împrumutat de la bancă să-și cumpere casă.[10][3][1]
  3. To adopt words, customs or ideas from another language or community; by extension, to imitate.[10][3]

Word family

  • împrumutare
  • împrumutător

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d Academia Română (1913–1949), Dicționarul limbii române (DA), ed. Sextil Pușcariu, tom I (A–B, C, D–De) and tom II (F–I, J–Lojniță), București: Socec / Universul / Monitorul Oficial și Imprimeriile Statului; page scans at cflr-scans.solirom.ro, p. s.v. împrumuta
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1197
  4. ^ Candrea, I.-A. (1916), Psaltirea Scheiană comparată cu celelalte psaltiri din sec. XVI și XVII traduse din slavonește, vol. II: Glosarele, București: Socec, p. 311
  5. ^ a b c d e Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. împrumuta
  6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 4319
  7. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București, p. 138
  8. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  9. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. împrumuta
  10. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 535
  11. ^ Ciorănescu, Alexandru (1958–1966), Diccionario etimológico rumano, La Laguna: Universidad de La Laguna (Romanian ed.: Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române, București: Saeculum, 2001), p. s.v. împrumut
  12. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 705
  13. ^ a b Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Ungureanu, Mădălina; Moruz, Alexandru et al., roPsalt: Re-evaluating the Sixteenth Century Romanian Psalters (aligned corpus), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. Ps 36:27
  14. ^ a b Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Deuteronomy 15:6
  15. ^ Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Ungureanu, Mădălina; Moruz, Alexandru et al., roPsalt: Re-evaluating the Sixteenth Century Romanian Psalters (aligned corpus), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. Ps 7:4
  16. ^ Ungureanu, Mădălina; Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Moruz, Alexandru (eds.), eRomLex: The First Romanian Bilingual Dictionaries (17th century), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. s.v. împrumut

Related etymologies

  • bun · also from Latin
  • unde · also from Latin
  • veni · also from Latin
  • noi · also from Latin
  • bine · also from Latin
  • un · also from Latin
  • și · also from Latin
  • sta · also from Latin
Cite this entry

“Împrumuta.” Etymologically, 11 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/ro/%C3%AEmprumuta. Accessed 12 Nov. 2026.

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