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duminică

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Etymology and origin of the Romanian word duminică

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
1551–1553 Slavonic–Romanian Gospel More words from the 16th century
Inherited from
Latin dominica
Ultimate origin
Latin dominus

Pronunciation

  • /duˈminikə/[1]

Forms

duminică f (plural duminici)[1] The older form is duminecă, and old texts also have dumenecă.[2][3] The Codex Sturdzanus writes dumineacă: „Praznicele svinte ale tale și a șapte zi svânta dumineacă ei nu o păzescu” “they do not keep your holy feasts and the seventh day, holy Sunday”.[2] In Muntenia and Oltenia the word is also stressed on the first syllable, dúminică.[3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin dominica (“(the day) of the Lord”), short for the Christian Latin diēs Dominica, a phrase modelled on Ancient Greek κυριακή (kuriakḗ).[3][4][5][1] The adjective comes from dominus (“lord, master”), an old derivative of domus (“house”).[3] The phrase replaced the pagan diēs Sōlis (“day of the Sun”) from about AD 200.[1]

The word survives in all four branches: Aromanian dumãnicã, Megleno-Romanian duminică and Istro-Romanian dumireke.[4][3][6][7] It has cognates in every Romance language: Italian domenica, French dimanche, Spanish domingo and Portuguese domingo, the last two continuing the masculine diēs Dominicus.[3][4][8] Graur explained the regional stress ⟨dúminică⟩ by the initial stress of the other names of the days of the week.[3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR's first record is the Slavonic–Romanian Gospel of 1551–1553, in the form duminecă.[3] Tiktin cites a heading in the Codicele Voronețean (Acts 20:16), and MDA2 dates the word to the same codex.[2][9] The sense is the Christian day of rest.[2]

Semantic evolution

Many feasts are named after the Sunday on which they fall: Duminica Floriilor or a Stâlpărilor “Palm Sunday”, Duminica Paștilor “Easter Sunday”, Duminica Tomii “St Thomas's Sunday”, the first after Easter, and Duminica Mare “Pentecost”.[9][2] Folk usage had duminica tânără, the first Sunday after the new moon.[2][9] In fairy tales Sunday is personified as Sfânta Duminică, and Apa Duminicii is the river that, in folk belief, flows round paradise.[2] Haine de duminică are one's best clothes.[5]

Oxen and cows born on a Sunday were named Duman and Dumană, clipped from the word with a suffix used for cattle names.[3] The adjective duminical was borrowed from French and Italian and shaped after duminică.[3] The day also gave the personal names Duminică and Dumenecă.[10]

Timeline

  • 1551–1553 – duminecă in the Slavonic–Romanian Gospel, the first record.[3]
  • c. 1563–1583 – the Codicele Voronețean.[9][2]
  • 1660 – duminecă in the Slavonic–Romanian lexicons, glossing the Greek-derived Slavonic word for Sunday.[11]
  • 1688 – duminecă in the Bucharest Bible.[12]
  • 1825 – the plant name dumineceá.[3]
  • 1839 – the adjective duminical.[3]
  • 1881 – duman, the name of an ox born on a Sunday.[3]
  • 1893 – the plant name duminiță “creeping jenny”.[3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Sunday, the last (or first) day of the week, a day of rest and worship in Christian countries: Duminica mergem la bunici.[5][1]
  2. De duminică: of clothes, worn on holidays; best, of good quality.[5]

Adverb

  1. On Sunday, this coming Sunday; with the article, duminica, every Sunday.[5]

Word family

  • duminecit
  • duminicuță
  • duminical
  • duminicică
  • duminiță
  • Aromanian dumãnicã
  • Latin dominica

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ 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. duminică
  3. ^ 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. duminică
  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. duminică
  5. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 336
  6. ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 420
  7. ^ Saramandu, Nicolae (coord.) et al. (2010–), Dicționarul dialectului meglenoromân, general și etimologic, fascicles in Fonetică și dialectologie XXIX–, p. 182
  8. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier, p. s.v. domenica
  9. ^ 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, 771
  10. ^ Constantinescu, N. A. (1963), Dicționar onomastic romînesc, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. s.v. duminică
  11. ^ 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. duminecă
  12. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Rev 1:10

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Duminică.” Etymologically, 11 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/ro/duminic%C4%83. Accessed 12 Nov. 2026.

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