Etymologically

cumpărătură

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
inherited borrowed derived
Latin pār
Italian paio
Italian pari
Spanish par
Dutch paar
English par
Romanian par
Latin compār
Latin comparō
Romanian cumpăra
Romanian cumpărătură
Romanian compara
From the same root
English umpire ← pār
Latin dispār ← pār
Latin impār ← pār
Latin paritās ← pār
Latin pariter ← pār
Latin comparābilis ← comparō
Latin comparātiō ← comparō
Latin comparātīvus ← comparō
Romanian cumpărător ← comparō

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

  1. The act of buying, a purchase.[2][3][1]
  2. A thing bought;[2][3] (mostly plural) the shopping, the goods bought in shops.[2][3]

References

  1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 260
  3. ^ 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
  4. ^ 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
  5. ^ 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
  6. ^ 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
  7. ^ a b Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Neemia 10:31
  8. ^ 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
  9. ^ 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
  10. ^ 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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