Etymology and origin of the Romanian word doză
doză1 dose
- Confidence
- Established
- Formation
- Borrowing
- First attested
- 1816 a text by Maior, as dosă
- Borrowed from
- French dose
- Ultimate origin
- Ancient Greek δόσις
Forms
doză f (plural doze)[1]
Etymology
The word for a dose is borrowed from French dose, which comes through Medieval Latin dosis from Ancient Greek δόσις (dósis, “a giving; a dose”), the action noun of δίδωμι (dídōmi, “to give”).[2][3][4][5] DELR also names German Dose as a model.[2] The old variant ⟨dosis⟩ comes from Modern Greek δόσις (dósis) or New Latin dosis, and ⟨dozis⟩ from the same Neo-Latin word or Dosis.[2] Tiktin also compared Italian dose.[6]
Earliest recorded meaning
DELR's first record is of 1816, in the spelling dosă, in a work by Maior;[2][6] Tiktin also dates it 1816.[2][6] It meant a measured quantity of a medicine, and Negulici in 1848 glossed dosă as a measure of medicine, or a quantity of anything.[2][7]
Semantic evolution
From medicine the word passed to any substance that enters a mixture in a set proportion, and then to quantity in general, often figurative: o mare doză de răutate “a good dose of malice”.[8][4] Physics added the dose of radiation.[9] In slang it means a shot of spirits or a dose of a drug.[10] A family of French loans followed: doza (1854), dozaj (1852, as dosagiu), dozabil (1896), dozimetrie and dozimetru (1932), while dozator (1939) was formed on doza after the French word.[2]
Timeline
- 1816 – dosă in a work by Maior, the first record.[2][6]
- 1848 – dosă in Negulici's dictionary of neologisms.[7]
- 1852 – the derivative dozaj, as dosagiu.[2]
- 1854 – the verb doza.[2]
- 1932 – dozimetrie and dozimetru.[2]
Meanings
Noun
- A dose: a set quantity of a medicine, substance or material that produces an effect or goes into a mixture; often figurative: o doză de curaj.[4][11][1]
- (physics) The quantity of radiation received or absorbed.[12]
Word family
- doza
- dozabil
- dozaj
- dozator
- dozimetrie
- dozimetru
doză2 junction box; can
- Confidence
- Established
- Formation
- Borrowing
- First attested
- 1877 the newspaper Românul
- Borrowed from
- German Dose
- Ultimate origin
- Middle Low German dōse
Forms
doză f (plural doze)[1]
Etymology
The word for a box or can is borrowed from German Dose (“box, tin”), which spread from Middle Low German dōse and probably goes back to Medieval Latin dosis (“dose”): the shift would have been from a dose of medicine to the small box that held it.[2][4][13][14][15] The regional forms ⟨toză⟩, ⟨tozlă⟩ and ⟨toznă⟩, meaning a snuffbox, are variants of the same word.[2]
Earliest recorded meaning
DELR's first record is in the newspaper Românul of 1877, in the sense “container”; the electrical sense follows in 1920, in Viitorul.[2] MDA2's first record is a customs lexicon of 1929.[11]
Semantic evolution
Its general sense of a box or container, and in Transylvania a snuffbox, is now old or regional.[2] In technical use it names the insulated box that protects connections in electrical installations and, as doză de redare, the pickup of a record player.[4][2] The can for beer or soft drinks, doză de bere, is the everyday sense today;[2][13][11] DELR and the DLR put it under this word, while MDA2 lists it under the medical doză.[2][13][11]
Timeline
- 1877 – “container” in the newspaper Românul, the first record.[2]
- 1920 – the electrical sense, in Viitorul.[2]
- 1929 – recorded in a customs lexicon.[11]
Meanings
Noun
Usage notes
DEX numbers the two words doză¹ “dose” and doză² “junction box; pickup”.[4]
References
- ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v 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. doză
- ^ 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. doză
- ^ a b c d e f g h DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1, 329
- ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
- ^ 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. doză
- ^ a b Negulici, I. D. (1848), Vocabular romînesc de toate vorbele streine întroduse pînă acum în limba romînească și de toate cuvintele ce s-ar mai putea introduce încă, București, p. s.v. dosă
- ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 2, 159
- ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. doză
- ^ Volceanov, George (2007), Dicționar de argou al limbii române, București: Niculescu, p. s.v. doză
- ^ 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, 750
- ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. doză
- ^ a b c d Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. doză
- ^ Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter
- ^ Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
Related etymologies
Cite this entry
“Doză.” Etymologically, 12 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/ro/doz%C4%83. Accessed 12 Nov. 2026.
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