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Etymology and origin of the Romanian word cel

Confidence
Established
Formation
Clipping
First attested
c. 1500 More words from the 15th century
Ultimate origin
Vulgar Latin *eccum ille
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Romanian acel
Romanian cel
Derivations
From the same root
Romanian acela ← acel

Pronunciation

Forms

cel m or n (feminine singular cea, masculine plural cei, feminine/neuter plural cele)[1]

Etymology

It is a reduced form from Romanian acel (“that”), which lost its initial ⟨a-⟩ in unstressed position before the noun.[2][3][4][1] The Academy dictionary also explains it as a variant of the longer form that arose in the flow of speech.[5] Pușcariu already compared it with the longer form.[6] The longer form survives as Aromanian ațel.[7]

The longer form is *eccum ille, from Latin eccum (“behold, here he is”) and ille (“that”);[8][7][1] DELR prefers this to a compound with ecce, which Ciorănescu and DEX accept.[8][7][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR dates the article and pronoun to about 1500.[3] The Psaltirea Hurmuzaki (c. 1500–1520) already has the whole paradigm: cel, cea, cei, cele, celui and celor.[9][10][11]

Semantic evolution

As a demonstrative before a noun, “that”, the word is now popular: cea lume “the other world”.[4][2] Its main use is as the adjectival article, which links a noun with its adjective or numeral (Ștefan cel Mare “Stephen the Great”, cele trei fete “the three girls”) and forms the relative superlative with mai: cel mai bun “the best”.[4] Ciorănescu notes that the article at first set a noun apart from others of the same kind, as in Varlaam's părintele vostru cela din ceriu “your Father which is in heaven”, a nuance since lost.[2]

Added after a noun or used alone, the forms take a final -a: cela, ceea (from cea + -a, pronounced ceia).[5] Old texts stressed the oblique forms on the last syllable, and some dialects still do.[5] The Codicele Voronețean has ceaia and ceale;[5] ceale is still regional.[5]

Timeline

  • c. 1500 – first record of the article and pronoun.[3]
  • c. 1500–1520 – cel, cea, cei and the oblique forms in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.[9]
  • c. 1563–1583 – ceaia and ceale in the Codicele Voronețean.[5]
  • 1688 – celoră in the Bucharest Bible.[5]

Meanings

Determiner

  1. (popular) that: points to someone or something farther away in space or time: adu cea găleată “bring that bucket”.[4][1]

Article

  1. The adjectival article: stands before an adjective that follows an articled noun or a personal name: Ștefan cel Mare “Stephen the Great”.[4][1]
  2. Stands before a numeral: cei doi frați “the two brothers”.[4]
  3. With mai, forms the relative superlative: cel mai înalt “the tallest”;[4] cel puțin “at least”, cel mult “at most”.[4]
  4. Turns the adjective it precedes into a noun: cei săraci “the poor”.[4]

Pronoun

  1. The one: someone or something relatively far from the speaker: cel de lângă ușă “the one by the door”;[4][1] Cel de sus is Dumnezeu.[4][1]
  2. cel ce: he who, the one who.[4]

Word family

  • cela

Usage notes

Celălalt “the other” joins cel with alalt;[2] Pușcariu derived it straight from a Latin *illum illum alter, but Ciorănescu thinks the compound was made in Romanian.[2] The medical suffix -cel “tumour, hernia” is a separate French learned element.[12]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e 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. cel
  3. ^ a b c 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. cel
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 167
  5. ^ a b c d e f g 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. cel
  6. ^ Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 28
  7. ^ a b c 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. acel
  8. ^ a b 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. acel
  9. ^ 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 9:25
  10. ^ 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 10:4
  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 3:7
  12. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. cel
Cite this entry

“Cel.” Etymologically, 11 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/ro/cel. Accessed 11 Nov. 2026.

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