Etymologically
Log in

cineva

History Permalink

Etymology and origin of the Romanian word cineva

Confidence
Established
Formation
Compound
First attested
1570 Coresi's Psalter More words from the 16th century
Ultimate origin
Latin quis
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Romanian cine
Romanian cineva
Derivations
From the same root
Romanian oricine ← cine

Pronunciation

  • /t͡ʃi.neˈva/[1]

Forms

cineva (genitive-dative cuiva)[2] Old texts also have ceneva: „Se va afla ceneva” “someone will be found”.[3][4] The old cinevași has the particle -și: „Nici cu putință este cuivași în lume” “nor is it possible for anyone in the world”.[5][6]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian cine + -va, the second part being the third person singular present of vrea “to want”.[6][3][2][5] The DA compares careva and ceva.[3] cine continues Vulgar Latin *quene, from Latin quem, the accusative of the Latin interrogative.[6][7]

The compound has counterparts in Aromanian țineva and Istro-Romanian cireva.[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Coresi's Psalter of 1570, at Ps 87:12.[8] Tiktin cites the same verse in the Psaltirea Scheiană, and DELR dates the word to 1573–1583, with the variant cireva.[5][6] MDA2's first record is later, Varlaam's Cazania of 1643: „Au luat cu strâmbul de la cineva” “has unjustly taken from someone”.[4][3]

Semantic evolution

The pronoun usually refers to one person; old texts sometimes use it for several.[3] In familiar speech, when stressed, it means “someone important”.[2][4]

Romanian built further pronouns on it: altcineva “someone else” (1581), cinevași (1688) and the popular cinevașilea (1906).[6]

Timeline

  • 1570 – the first record, in Coresi's Psalter.[8]
  • 1573–1583 – cineva and the variant cireva.[6]
  • 1581 – altcineva “someone else” in Coresi's Gospel homilies.[6]
  • 1643 – cineva in Varlaam's Cazania.[4]
  • 1688 – cinevași.[6]
  • 1906 – the popular cinevașilea.[6]

Meanings

Pronoun

  1. someone, somebody: a person who is not known or not named: Te-a căutat cineva.[2][4]
  2. (colloquial, stressed) somebody important: Vrea să ajungă cineva.[2][4]

Word family

Usage notes

The genitive-dative is cuiva.[2][5] DEX lists cinevași as a synonym.[2]

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ 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. 185
  3. ^ a b c d e 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. cineva
  4. ^ 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, 399
  5. ^ 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. cineva
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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. cine
  7. ^ 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. cine
  8. ^ 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 87:12
Cite this entry

“Cineva.” Etymologically, 11 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/ro/cineva. Accessed 12 Nov. 2026.

Last edited on . ·