Etymologically

Etymology and origin of the Romanian word îngrijire

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
1705 Corbea's psalter More words from the 18th century
Ultimate origin
Bulgarian грижа
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Romanian grijă
Romanian îngriji
Romanian îngrijire
From the same root
Romanian îngrijora ← grijă
Romanian îngrijorare ← grijă

Forms

îngrijire f (plural îngrijiri)[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian îngriji + -re, the long infinitive of the verb “to look after”.[2][3][1] The verb was made on grijă (“care, worry”) with the prefix în-. [4][5] MDA2 derives the noun from Bulgarian грижа (griža).[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is Corbea's psalter of 1705.[7] MDA2 cites a passage of Beldiman as its first record.[3] The verb îngriji is older: Tiktin dates it to about 1600.[8]

Semantic evolution

The noun has the senses of the verb: care given to a person or thing, attention, and in older use worry or fear.[2][9] Cu îngrijire “carefully” is in Tiktin and Costinescu.[7][10] Pontbriant's dictionary of 1862 already has the care of a sick person.[11] MDA2 lists medical care and treatment as separate senses, and the phrase a da primele îngrijiri “to give first aid”.[3] The sense “worry” is marked as old and rare.[2][9]

Timeline

  • 1705 – îngrijire in Corbea's psalter, the first record.[7]
  • 1862 – Pontbriant gives the care of a sick person.[11]
  • 1870 – Costinescu records cu îngrijire “carefully”.[10]

Meanings

Noun

  1. care given to a being or a thing; solicitude.[2] Personal de îngrijire: the cleaning staff of an institution.[2][3]
  2. Medical care; treatment.[3] A da primele îngrijiri: to give first aid.[3][2]
  3. Attention, carefulness: a lucra cu îngrijire “to work carefully”.[2][7]
  4. (dated) Worry, fear.[2][9]

Word family

  • neîngrijire

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 549
  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, 1236
  4. ^ 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. îngriji
  5. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1235
  6. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1023
  7. ^ a b c d Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. îngrijire
  8. ^ Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. îngriji
  9. ^ a b c Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 2, 641
  10. ^ a b Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 1, 593
  11. ^ a b Pontbriant, Raoul de (1862), Dictiunaru romano-francesu, Bucuresci: A. Ulrich / Göttingen: Dieterich, p. 353
Cite this entry

“Îngrijire.” Etymologically, 12 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/ro/%C3%AEngrijire. Accessed 12 Nov. 2026.

Last edited on . ·