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Etymology and origin of the Romanian word alt

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
c. 1500 Psaltirea Hurmuzaki More words from the 15th century
Inherited from
Latin *altru
Ultimate origin
Latin alter
Derivations

Pronunciation

Forms

alt m or n (feminine singular altă, masculine plural alți, feminine/neuter plural alte)[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *altru, the Vulgar Latin form of alter (“the other of two”).[2][1][3] The Latin word is formed with a comparative suffix on the root of alius (“other”), and in all the Romance languages it took over its sense.[4][5] It goes back to Proto-Indo-European *h₂élteros.[1]

The word survives in all four branches: Aromanian altu, Megleno-Romanian altu and Istro-Romanian ǫt.[2][4] Its Romance cognates include Italian altro, Sardinian altu, French autre, Catalan altre, Spanish otro and Portuguese outro.[2][6] The /r/ of the Latin word was lost by dissimilation.[7] The DA thinks this happened first in the genitive-dative plural altor, and spread from there to the other forms.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR's first record is the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of about 1500, where the word already means “other”.[4] Inflected forms such as altă and alte occur there and in all the 16th-century psalters.[8] Tiktin's first record is the Codicele Voronețean, and MDA2 cites Dosoftei's lives of the saints (1682–1686).[9][3]

Semantic evolution

Besides “other, different”, the word means “earlier” in altă dată “formerly” and “one more, a new one of the same kind”.[2] The feminine alta is used as a neuter, “something else”, in phrases such as între altele “among other things”, nu de alta “not for any other reason” and una peste alta “all in all”.[2]

Romanian built a series of demonstratives on the word. alalt “the other”, from the article al and alt, is recorded in 1551–1553, celălalt in 1581 (Coresi), cestălalt in 1675, ălălalt in 1682 and aistalalt in 1863.[4] Compounds include altceva “something else”, altcineva “someone else”, altfel “otherwise”, alteori “at other times” and altădată “formerly”.[2]

Timeline

  • c. 1500 – alt in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki, the first record.[4]
  • 1551–1553 – alalt “the other” in a Slavonic–Romanian Gospel.[4]
  • 16th century – alt in the Codicele Voronețean.[9]
  • 1581 – celalalt in Coresi's Gospel commentary.[4]
  • 1675 – cestalalt in Miron Costin.[4]
  • 1682 – alt and ălălalt in Dosoftei's lives of the saints.[3][4]
  • 1863 – aistalalt in Alecsandri.[4]
  • 1881 – ca nealtul “like no one else” in Eminescu.[4]
  • 1937 – the neologism alteritate “otherness”, from Latin and French.[4]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. other, another: not the same as the one already mentioned, present or usual: alt drum “another road”.[10][3][1]
  2. One more of the same kind, a new one: mai bea un alt pahar “have another glass”.[2]
  3. (popular) câte alte “many things”.[10][3]

Pronoun

  1. altul, alta: another person or thing;[9] alta “something else”: nici una, nici alta “neither one thing nor the other”.[2][9]

Word family

References

  1. ^ a b c d e 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. alt
  3. ^ a b c d e Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 45
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2011–), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române (DELR), vol. I: A–B (2011), vol. II: C (2015–2018), București: Editura Academiei Române; continued online at delr.lingv.ro, p. s.v. alt
  5. ^ a b 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. alt
  6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 382
  7. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București
  8. ^ 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 77:7
  9. ^ 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. alt
  10. ^ a b DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 31

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

“Alt.” Etymologically, 11 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/ro/alt. Accessed 12 Nov. 2026.

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