Etymology and origin of the Romanian word august
Romanian has two words spelled august: the name of the month, áugust, and the adjective augúst “majestic”; both go back to Latin augustus.[1][2]
august1 August (the month)
Etymology tree of august1
From the same root · august1
Pronunciation
- /ˈaw.ɡust/[3]
Forms
august m (uncountable)[3]
Etymology
The word for the month is a learned borrowed from Latin augustus, from the name of the emperor Octavian Augustus.[2][1][4][3] DELR adds that its stress follows the older form ⟨ávgust⟩, which comes from Old Church Slavonic авъгоустъ (avŭgustŭ) and Modern Greek Αύγουστος (Ávgoustos).[2][5] The Latin month name is short for ⟨mensis Augustus⟩, the month Sextīlis renamed after the emperor; the title itself is the adjective meaning “majestic, venerable”.[3][6] The DA explains the choice of this month by the emperor's appointment as pontifex maximus in it.[4]
The popular name of the month is the inherited doublet agust, from Vulgar Latin *agustus, which survives in all four branches and has Romance cognates such as Italian agosto and French août.[5][6][7] A cross with it gave the regional variant ⟨augustru⟩.[2] The folk name gustar is formed on the short form ⟨gust⟩ of ⟨agust⟩;[6][5] Ciorănescu adds that speakers linked it with gusta “to taste”, the month of tasting the new fruit.[6][5]
Earliest recorded meaning
Tiktin dates the first record to 1400, in a Slavonic document of the Romanian lands;[8][2] DELR's first Romanian record is the form avgust in a document of 1593.[8][2] The sense has always been the eighth month of the year.[2]
Semantic evolution
The old texts write avgust, also stressed avgúst, avgost and agost; the reading au-gust came with the Latin spelling of the 19th century.[8][4] Costinescu's dictionary of 1870 still spells it Augustŭ.[9] Regional speech has augustru, aust and ogust.[2][4] The folk calendar uses gustar and secerar “harvest month” for August.[10][4]
Timeline
- 1400 – first record, in a Slavonic document.[8]
- 1593 – avgust in a Romanian document.[2]
- 1870 – Augustŭ in Costinescu's dictionary.[9]
- 1872 – avgust in Negruzzi.[10][4]
- 1881 – the folk name gustar.[6]
Meanings
Noun
august2 majestic
Etymology tree of august2
From the same root · august2
Pronunciation
- /awˈɡust/[3]
Forms
august m or n (feminine singular augustă, masculine plural auguști, feminine/neuter plural auguste)[3]
Etymology
The word for “majestic” is a learned borrowed from Latin augustus (“majestic, venerable”),[2][8][4] and in its modern use also borrowed from French auguste.[1][10][3] The old form ⟨avgust⟩ comes from Modern Greek αύγουστος (ávgoustos).[2] The Latin adjective first meant “consecrated by favourable auguries”;[2] DELR derives it from the stem of augur and augurium, from augeō (“to increase, strengthen”).[2][12] It became the title of the emperor Octavian.[2][13]
Earliest recorded meaning
DELR's first record is avgust in the Hronograf of about 1660, as a title of the Roman emperors;[2][8] Tiktin's is from Dosoftei's Lives of the Saints of 1683.[2][8]
Semantic evolution
From the title of the Roman emperors the word passed to emperors in general and then to the members of a ruling family: Augustă Doamnă! is addressed to a princess in a document of 1774.[4][10] Cantemir derived avgustesc “imperial” from it in 1717–1723.[2] In poetic and literary use it means majestic, imposing: Alecsandri wrote of the “august image” of heroic times.[14][11] As a title of monarchs the DLRLC of 1955 calls it obsolete, used only ironically.[11]
Timeline
- c. 1660 – avgust, a title of the Roman emperors, in the Hronograf.[2]
- 1683 – in Dosoftei's Lives of the Saints.[8]
- 1717–1723 – avgustesc “imperial” in Cantemir.[2]
- 1774 – augustă as a title of a princess.[10][4]
Meanings
Adjective
- An epithet of monarchs and members of ruling families: exalted, glorious.[1][10]
- (figurative) majestic, grand, imposing.[1][3]
Noun
Related words
Usage notes
The month is stressed on the first syllable, the adjective on the second.[1] The month is written with a small letter and does not change for case: lui august.[16]
References
- ^ a b c d e f g DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 74
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s 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. august
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. august
- ^ a b c d 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. agust
- ^ a b c d e 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. agust
- ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 786
- ^ a b c d e f g h Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. august
- ^ a b Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 1, 84
- ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 128
- ^ a b c Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1, 166
- ^ Graur, Alexandru (1980), Cuvinte înrudite, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică
- ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
- ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 44
- ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. august
- ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. august
Related etymologies
Cite this entry
“August.” Etymologically, 12 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/ro/august. Accessed 12 Nov. 2026.
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