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
From the same root
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
- To close, to shut a door, window or lid, to lock, to close off a room or space.[15][3][1]
- 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]
- To close an institution or shop at the set hour, to bring a meeting or session to an end.[15][14]
- To switch off a device or machine.[15][1]
- To shut someone in, to imprison, and (reflexive) to withdraw, to shut oneself away.[15][1]
- To enclose a yard or piece of land, to block a road.[15][14]
- (reflexive) Of the sky, to cloud over, and of colours, to grow darker.[15][2]
Word family
- închidere
- închis
- închisoare
- închizătoare
- închizător
- reînchide
Related words
Usage notes
The present is închid, regionally închiz.[3] The past participle închis is also an adjective, “closed, dark (of colours), reserved”.[2]
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ 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
- ^ 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
- ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
- ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București
- ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 711
- ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 15
- ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
- ^ Graur, Alexandru (1980), Cuvinte înrudite, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică, p. 30
- ^ 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
- ^ 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
- ^ 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
- ^ 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
- ^ a b c Breban, Vasile (1980), Dicționar al limbii române contemporane de uz curent, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică
- ^ 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
- ^ 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
- ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Facerea 7:16
Related etymologies
Cite this entry
“Închide.” Etymologically, 11 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/ro/%C3%AEnchide. Accessed 11 Nov. 2026.
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