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Etymology and origin of the Romanian word deal

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1392 place name in a charter More words from the 14th century
Borrowed from
Old Church Slavonic дѣлъ
Ultimate origin
Proto-Slavic *dělъ

Pronunciation

Forms

deal n (plural dealuri)[1] The old plural was dealure: „Printre aceaste dealure ... sânt sate dease și frumoase” “among these hills there are thick and beautiful villages”, in a text of 1660–1680.[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old Church Slavonic дѣлъ (dělŭ, “part, division”), from Proto-Slavic *dělъ.[4][5][3][6][7][1][8] DELR explains the sense through an intermediate “dividing line, boundary”, as with the verb дѣлити (děliti, “to divide”): from it came a landform that separates two valleys.[5] The same development is seen in Bulgarian дял (djal), which also means a watershed peak, and in Serbo-Croatian and Ukrainian words for “mountain”.[5][9] DELR compares other words that went from “boundary” to “forest”, which explains the old and regional sense “forest” of the Romanian word.[5]

The word is also Aromanian deal.[4] According to Miklosich, Ukrainian діл (dil, “mountain ridge”) was borrowed from Romanian.[4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first records are place names: Tiktin cites one of 1392 and DELR one of 1411, and the monastery of Dealu is named in 1431.[6][5] As a common noun it appears in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century, where dealul Domnului is “the hill of the Lord”.[5][10]

Semantic evolution

Old and regional texts use it for a forest, and in Oltenia and Muntenia for a field or arable land; in other regions it means a vine-growing area.[5][7] Paired with vale “valley” it forms many idioms: la deal “uphill”, dă la deal, dă la vale “he tries every way”, ce mai la deal, la vale “why argue further”.[7][6] In slang it has meant “prison”.[4]

Derivatives followed early: the place name Deleni, from delean “hill dweller”, is recorded in 1491, the diminutive delucan about 1650, and delișor about 1832.[5]

Timeline

  • 1392 – a place name, the first record cited by Tiktin.[6]
  • 1411 – a place name, DELR's first record.[5]
  • 1431 – the monastery of Dealu.[6]
  • 1491 – the place name Deleni, from delean.[5]
  • c. 1500–1520 – dealul “the hill” in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.[10][5]
  • 1660–1680 – the plural dealure.[2][3]
  • 1843 – delos “hilly”.[5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A hill: a rounded landform of moderate height, lower than a mountain.[7][3][1]
  2. (regional) A vineyard area; also the zone of the ploughed fields.[7][5]
  3. (archaic, regional) A forest.[5]
  4. (slang) prison.[4]

Word family

  • deleancă
  • delencuță
  • deli
  • deluleț
  • deluros
  • delușor
  • deluț

Usage notes

Deal cu deal se întâlnește, dar om cu om “hill does not meet hill, but man meets man” is said at an unexpected meeting.[7]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. deal
  3. ^ a b c d Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 612
  4. ^ 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. deal
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o 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. deal
  6. ^ 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. deal
  7. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 274
  8. ^ Kurz, Josef; Hauptová, Zoe (eds.) (1958–1997), Slovník jazyka staroslověnského / Lexicon linguae palaeoslovenicae, 4 vols. + supplements, Praha: Academia; digital ed. gorazd.org
  9. ^ Georgiev, Vladimir I. et al. (eds.) (1971–), Bălgarski etimologičen rečnik, Sofija: Izdatelstvo na Bălgarskata akademija na naukite, p. 1, 472
  10. ^ 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 23:3

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

“Deal.” Etymologically, 12 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/ro/deal. Accessed 12 Nov. 2026.

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