Etymologically

Etymology and origin of the Romanian word închide

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
1500–1520 Psaltirea Hurmuzaki More words from the 15th century
Inherited from
Latin includo
Ultimate origin
Latin claudō
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin claudō
Latin inclūdō
Romanian închide
English include
From the same root
Latin circumclūdō ← claudō
Latin claustrum ← claudō
Latin clausūra ← claudō
Latin clausus ← claudō
Latin clūsa ← claudō
Latin conclūdō ← claudō
Latin disclūdō ← claudō
Latin exclūdō ← claudō
Latin interclūdō ← claudō
Latin occlūdō ← claudō
Latin praeclūdō ← claudō
Latin rēclūdō ← claudō
Latin sēclūdō ← claudō
Latin inclūsiō ← inclūdō
Latin inclūsīvus ← inclūdō
Romanian închisoare ← inclūdō

Pronunciation

  • [ɨnˈki.de][1]

Forms

închide (third-person singular present închide, past participle închis, third-person subjunctive închidă), 3rd conjugation[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin inclūdō (“to shut in, enclose”), formed with in- on claudō (“to shut”).[2][3][4][1] In Romanian it took over the senses of the simple verb, “to close, shut”.[2] Candrea and Densusianu trace its vowel /i/ to an older ⟨iu⟩, reduced first in the forms where that syllable was unstressed.[5]

The verb survives in all four branches: Aromanian ncljid, Megleno-Romanian ancl'id and Istro-Romanian ăncl'id.[2][6][7] Ciorănescu compares the Romance descendants of the simple verb, Italian chiudere, Occitan claure and French clore.[2][8] The learned include is a doublet of it.[1] deschide “to open” goes back to Latin disclūdō.[2][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century has închide and the participle închis.[10][11] MDA2's first record is the Codicele Voronețean of about 1563–1583.[3] Coresi's Gospel with homilies (1581) uses it of shutting doors: „Că-și închid ușile împărăției” “for they shut the doors of the kingdom”.[12]

Semantic evolution

From shutting doors, windows and lids the verb spread to closing the eyes, the mouth or a book, then to enclosing land, surrounding a city with troops and locking someone up.[12][13] Further senses are “to end” (a session or a season) and, in the old language, “to conclude” (an agreement).[13] Reflexively it is used of wounds that heal, of the sky that clouds over and of colours that grow darker.[2][14] The modern sense “to switch off” a device came later.[15][1]

A închide ochii is to sleep or to die, and a închide (cuiva) gura is to silence someone.[15] The DA notes that the Transylvanian a închide un ochi “to turn a blind eye” follows German ein Auge zudrücken.[12]

Timeline

  • early 16th century – închide and închis in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.[10]
  • c. 1563–1583 – închide in the Codicele Voronețean.[3]
  • 1581 – „își închid ușile împărăției” “they shut the doors of the kingdom” in Coresi.[12]
  • 1660 – a Slavonic–Romanian lexicon glosses Slavonic заклепи “close!” with it.[16]
  • 1688 – închide, închis throughout the Bucharest Bible.[17]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To close, to shut a door, window or lid, to lock, to close off a room or space.[15][3][1]
  2. To bring together the edges or parts of something: to close the eyes, the mouth, the hand, and (reflexive, of a wound) to heal over.[15][3]
  3. To close an institution or shop at the set hour, to bring a meeting or session to an end.[15][14]
  4. To switch off a device or machine.[15][1]
  5. To shut someone in, to imprison, and (reflexive) to withdraw, to shut oneself away.[15][1]
  6. To enclose a yard or piece of land, to block a road.[15][14]
  7. (reflexive) Of the sky, to cloud over, and of colours, to grow darker.[15][2]

Word family

  • închidere
  • închis
  • închisoare
  • închizătoare
  • închizător
  • reînchide

Usage notes

The present is închid, regionally închiz.[3] The past participle închis is also an adjective, “closed, dark (of colours), reserved”.[2]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. închide
  3. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1208
  4. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București
  6. ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 711
  7. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 15
  8. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  9. ^ Graur, Alexandru (1980), Cuvinte înrudite, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică, p. 30
  10. ^ 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 67:33
  11. ^ 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 30:10
  12. ^ 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. închide
  13. ^ a b Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. închide
  14. ^ a b c Breban, Vasile (1980), Dicționar al limbii române contemporane de uz curent, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică
  15. ^ a b c d e f g h i DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 539
  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. închide
  17. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Facerea 7:16

Related etymologies

  • apă · also from Latin
  • 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
Cite this entry

“Închide.” Etymologically, 11 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/ro/%C3%AEnchide. Accessed 11 Nov. 2026.

Last edited on . ·