Etymology and origin of the Romanian word cumpărătură
- Confidence
- Established
- Formation
- Derivation
- First attested
- 1591 a deed of sale More words from the 16th century
- Ultimate origin
- Latin comparō
Etymology tree
From the same root
Forms
cumpărătură f (plural cumpărături)[1]
Etymology
It is formed from Romanian cumpăra + -ătură.[2][3][4][1][5] The verb cumpăra “to buy” continues Latin comparō (“to prepare, procure”), which took the sense “to buy” across the Romance languages.[5][6]
Earliest recorded meaning
The first record is a deed of sale of 1591, which says a property is to be the buyer's „direaptă ocină și cumpărătură în veaci” “rightful patrimony and purchase for ever”.[4][6] MDA2 dates the word to a document of before 1605.[3]
Semantic evolution
In the old documents the word means the act of buying and a property acquired by purchase, beside the inherited ocină.[4][3] The Bucharest Bible of 1688 has the plural cumpărăturile.[7] Klein's dictionary of 1801 and the Lexicon de la Buda (1825) gloss it with Latin emptio “a purchase”, and the Lexicon adds German das Gekaufte “what has been bought”.[8][9] The concrete sense “things bought”, mostly in the plural, is the usual one today, as in a face cumpărături “to go shopping”.[2][4][10]
Timeline
- 1591 – cumpărătură in a deed of sale, the first record.[4][6]
- before 1605 – MDA2's first record.[3]
- 1688 – cumpărăturile in the Bucharest Bible.[7]
- 1801 – Klein glosses it with Latin emptio.[8]
- 1825 – the Lexicon de la Buda: “purchase, what has been bought”.[9]
Meanings
Noun
- The act of buying, a purchase.[2][3][1]
- A thing bought;[2][3] (mostly plural) the shopping, the goods bought in shops.[2][3]
Related words
- cumpăra
- cumpărător
- cumpărare
References
- ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 260
- ^ 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, 571
- ^ a b c d e Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. cumpărătúră
- ^ a b 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. cumpăra
- ^ 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. cumpăra
- ^ a b Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Neemia 10:31
- ^ a b Gáldi, László (ed.) (1944), Samuel Klein: Dictionarium valachico-latinum. Primul dicționar al limbii române, Budapest: Királyi Magyar Pázmány Péter Tudományegyetemi Román Intézet (Klein's dictionary of 1801, with Gáldi's etymological study), p. 344
- ^ a b Lesicon românescu-latinescu-ungurescu-nemțescu quare de mai mulți autori, în cursul a trideci și mai multor ani s-au lucrat (1825), Buda: Typographia Universității (the Lexicon of Buda, ed. Petru Maior et al.), p. 153
- ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 377
Cite this entry
“Cumpărătură.” Etymologically, 12 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/ro/cump%C4%83r%C4%83tur%C4%83. Accessed 12 Nov. 2026.
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