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corabie

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Etymology and origin of the Romanian word corabie

Confidence
Probable
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
c. 1500–1520 Psaltirea Hurmuzaki More words from the 15th century
Borrowed from
Old Church Slavonic корабль
Ultimate origin
Ancient Greek κάραβος

Forms

corabie f (plural corăbii)[1] Old texts also have curabie and corabe.[2][3] Dosoftei writes „Apropiară curabiile la vad” “they brought the ships up to the ford”.[4][3] Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon of 1649 uses corabiei in the phrase for a ship's sail.[5]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old Church Slavonic корабль (korablĭ, “ship”).[2][6][7][8][1] The Old Church Slavonic texts also have a form without /l/, корабь (korabĭ).[9] The Slavic word, Proto-Slavic *korabľь, is usually traced to Ancient Greek καράβιον (karábion), a diminutive of κάραβος (kárabos, “crayfish; light boat”).[2][10][1] Vasmer counts it an old loan because it has /b/, not /v/.[10] Wiktionary's Proto-Slavic entry doubts the Greek source and suggests a Slavic word for bark or for cutting.[1]

The same Greek word gave Late Latin carabus (“a wicker boat covered with hide”) and through it the Romance names of the caravel, among them French caravelle, from which Romanian has caravelă.[6][11][10] Slavic cognates include Bulgarian кораб (korab) and Russian корабль (korablʹ).[12][10]

The word survives south of the Danube as Megleno-Romanian curabie, also from Slavic.[13] Aromanian cãravi was taken directly from Modern Greek καράβι (karávi).[14][15]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century, at Psalm 106:23.[2][16] Tiktin's first date is 1521, Neacșu's letter.[3] The DA also quotes it from the Codicele Voronețean.[4]

Semantic evolution

The sense “sailing ship” has stayed central from the psalters to the modern language.[4][7] The Bible of 1688 uses it often, as in Jonah, where the storm threatens to break the ship.[3][17] Corabia lui Noe is Noah's ark.[3] With the steamship, the word came to mean a sailing ship of the past.[7]

The ironic phrase a i se îneca corăbiile “to have one's ships sunk” means to be gloomy and out of sorts;[3][7] Tiktin quotes it from Alecsandri.[3][7] Aromanian and Megleno-Romanian have the same phrase.[14][13]

Regional senses come from the shape of a ship: the dish or sieve on which the wedding gifts are collected, a big, ugly boot, a large, lean horse, and in slang a hulking person.[8][2][6] The Bulgarian etymological dictionary takes the regional sense “trough for carrying grapes” from Bulgarian, where кораб (korab) has this sense too.[18]

Timeline

  • c. 1500–1520 – corabie in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki, the first record.[2][16]
  • 1521 – in Neacșu's letter.[3]
  • 1563–1583 – corabnic “sailor” in the Codicele Voronețean.[2]
  • 1592–1604 – corăbiar “ship's master, sailor”.[2]
  • 1648 – in the New Testament of 1648.[8][4]
  • 1691–1697 – the verb corăbia “to sail” in Teodor Corbea's dictionary.[2]
  • c. 1840 – corăbiasca, a peasant dance, in Merișescu.[2]
  • 1885 – the diminutive corăbea.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A sailing ship of the past, used for transport and in war.[7][8]
  2. a i se îneca (cuiva) corăbiile (ironic) to be gloomy and out of sorts, as if one's ships had sunk.[7][8]
  3. A toy shaped like a ship.[8]
  4. (regional) A vessel in which the bridegroom collects the wedding gifts.[8][2]
  5. (regional) A large, ugly boot.[8]
  6. (regional) A large, lean horse.[8]
  7. (slang) A hulking person.[8]

Word family

  • corabnic
  • corăbea
  • corăbiasca
  • corăbier
  • corăbierie
  • corăbioară
  • corăbiuță
  • caravelă
  • Old Church Slavonic корабль (korablĭ)

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ 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. corabie
  3. ^ 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. corabie
  4. ^ a b c d 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. corabie
  5. ^ Ungureanu, Mădălina; Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Moruz, Alexandru (eds.), eRomLex: The First Romanian Bilingual Dictionaries (17th century), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. s.v. corabiei
  6. ^ 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. corabie
  7. ^ 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. 235
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 506
  9. ^ Kurz, Josef; Hauptová, Zoe (eds.) (1958–1997), Slovník jazyka staroslověnského / Lexicon linguae palaeoslovenicae, 4 vols. + supplements, Praha: Academia; digital ed. gorazd.org
  10. ^ a b c d Vasmer, Max (1964–1973), Ètimologičeskij slovar' russkogo jazyka, transl. and suppl. by O. N. Trubačev, 4 vols., Moskva: Progress
  11. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  12. ^ Georgiev, Vladimir I. et al. (eds.) (1971–), Bălgarski etimologičen rečnik, Sofija: Izdatelstvo na Bălgarskata akademija na naukite
  13. ^ a b Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 88
  14. ^ a b Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 272
  15. ^ Pascu, Giorge (1925), Dictionnaire étymologique macédoroumain, 2 vols. (I: Les éléments latins et romans; II: Les éléments grecs, turcs, slaves, albanais, germaniques, magyars, néologismes, créations immédiates, obscurs), Iași: Cultura Națională, p. 2, 25
  16. ^ 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 106:23
  17. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Jon 1:4
  18. ^ Georgiev, Vladimir I. et al. (eds.) (1971–), Bălgarski etimologičen rečnik, Sofija: Izdatelstvo na Bălgarskata akademija na naukite, p. 2, 627

Related etymologies

  • prea · also from Old Church Slavonic
  • înșela · also from Old Church Slavonic
  • pară · also from Old Church Slavonic
  • somn · also from Old Church Slavonic
  • veste · also from Old Church Slavonic
  • coș · also from Old Church Slavonic
  • lin · also from Old Church Slavonic
  • râs · also from Old Church Slavonic
Cite this entry

“Corabie.” Etymologically, 12 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/ro/corabie. Accessed 12 Nov. 2026.

Last edited on . ·