500–401 BC

Romanian words from Latin words first recorded in the 5th century BC

50 Romanian words inherited from a Latin word whose earliest known written record dates from the 5th century BC, earliest Latin record first.

avea
451 BC–450 BC

from Latin habeo

It is inherited from Latin habeō (“to have, hold”), a verb found in all the Romance languages. Wiktionary traces the Latin verb to a Proto-Italic form and, more doubtfully, to Proto-Indo-European…
duce
451 BC–450 BC

from Latin duco

1. The verb for carrying and leading is inherited from Latin dūcō (“to lead, conduct”). It survives in all four branches: Aromanian duc, Megleno-Romanian duc and Istro-Romanian duce. Few Romance…
eu
451 BC–450 BC

from Latin eo

It is inherited from Late Latin eo (“I”), the Late Latin form of egō with the loss of /g/ found in every Romance language except Sardinian. Candrea and Densusianu called the loss of /g/ still…
femeie
451 BC–450 BC

from Latin familia

It is inherited from Latin familia (“household, family”). Romanian familie is a later learned borrowing of the same Latin word. Wiktionary notes that the word has nothing to do with Latin femella or…
fiu
451 BC–450 BC

from Latin filius

It is inherited from Latin fīlius (“son”). DER cites Pușcariu, Candrea and Densusianu and the REW for this etymology. It survives in all four branches: Aromanian hilj, Megleno-Romanian il'u and…
frupt
451 BC–450 BC

from Latin fructus

It is inherited from Latin frūctus (“enjoyment, produce, fruit”), used in Romanian in the general sense “produce”. It survives as Istro-Romanian frupt. The Aromanian word for “fruit”, frut, has a…
frânge
451 BC–450 BC

from Latin frango

It is inherited from Latin frangō (“to break”). The Latin verb has a nasal infix in the present and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *bʰreg- (“to break”). The verb survives south of the Danube…
fugi
451 BC–450 BC

from Latin fugio

It is inherited from Latin fugiō (“to flee”), in its popular form with the infinitive in ⟨-īre⟩ instead of classical ⟨-ere⟩. The Latin verb goes back to Proto-Indo-European *bʰewg-. It survives in…
furt
451 BC–450 BC

from Latin furtum

It is inherited from Latin fūrtum (“theft”), from fūr (“thief”). Ciorănescu follows Pușcariu, Candrea and Densusianu and the REW. It survives in Aromanian furtu. Its Romance cognates are Italian…
fuște
451 BC–450 BC

from Latin fustis

It is inherited from Latin fustis (“stick, cudgel”). The word survives south of the Danube: Aromanian fuște “blows with a stick” and Megleno-Romanian fușt “the rods of a loom”. Its Romance cognates…
jude
451 BC–450 BC

from Latin iudex

It is inherited from Latin iūdex (“judge”). The singular continues the Latin nominative, while the old plural ⟨judeci⟩ continues iūdicēs, as in cap with its plural ⟨capete⟩; a singular ⟨judec⟩ was…
limbă
451 BC–450 BC

from Latin lingua

It is inherited from Latin lingua (“tongue, language”). The word survives in all four branches: Aromanian limbã, Megleno-Romanian limbă and Istro-Romanian limbę. Its Romance cognates include Italian…
muri
451 BC–450 BC

from Latin morior

It is inherited from Latin morior (“to die”). Romanian continues the fourth-conjugation infinitive ⟨morīrī⟩, which Plautus, Ennius and Terence use beside the classical ⟨morī⟩. The word survives in…
oaste
451 BC–450 BC

from Latin hostis

It is inherited from Latin hostis (“stranger, enemy”), in its accusative hostem. Pușcariu, Candrea and Densusianu and the REW give the same source. The Latin word first meant a stranger, then a…
om
451 BC–450 BC

from Latin homo

It is inherited from Latin homō (“human being, man”); the plural continues hominēs. Pușcariu compares the plural with Italian uomini. De Vaan derives the Latin word from Proto-Indo-European…
perete
451 BC–450 BC

from Latin paries

It is inherited from Latin pariēs (“wall”), from the popular accusative ⟨parētem⟩ for classical ⟨parietem⟩. Of the sister branches, the sources give Istro-Romanian parete. The Romance cognates are…
rade
451 BC–450 BC

from Latin rado

It is inherited from Latin rādō (“to scrape, shave”). The Latin verb goes back to Proto-Italic *razdō, with Celtic cognates such as Welsh rhathu (“to scrape”); since the family is found only in…
rupe
451 BC–450 BC

from Latin rumpo

It is inherited from Latin rumpō (“to break, burst”). The Latin verb goes back to Proto-Indo-European *Hru-n-p- (“to break”), a present with a nasal infix. The word survives in all four branches…
soare
451 BC–450 BC

from Latin sol

It is inherited from Latin sōl (“sun”). The Latin word goes back to Proto-Indo-European *sóh₂wl̥ (“sun”). The word survives in all four branches: Aromanian soare, Megleno-Romanian soari and…
sui
451 BC–450 BC

from Latin subeo

It is inherited from Latin subeō (“to go under; to go up, approach”). The Latin verb is formed from sub- (“under”) and eō (“to go”). The verb survives in Megleno-Romanian as sui. Its Romance…
tăia
451 BC–450 BC

from Latin talio

It is inherited from Late Latin tāliō (“to cut”). MDA2 gives the Latin verb as a reconstruction. It survives in all four branches: Aromanian talj, Megleno-Romanian tal'u and Istro-Romanian talʼå…
un
451 BC–450 BC

from Latin unus

It is inherited from Latin ūnus (“one”). The Latin numeral continues Old Latin oinos, from Proto-Indo-European *h₁óynos. The word survives in all four branches: Aromanian un, Megleno-Romanian un…
unu
451 BC–450 BC

from Latin unus

It is inherited from Latin ūnus (“one”). The Latin word, Old Latin oinos, comes from Proto-Indo-European *h₁óynos (“one, single”). Wiktionary explains the final ⟨-u⟩ of the numeral: the counting…
vindeca
451 BC–450 BC

from Latin vindico

It is inherited from Latin vindicō (“to claim; to set free; to avenge”). It survives as Aromanian vindic “to heal”. Elsewhere the Latin verb means “to avenge”: Italian vendicare, French venger…
adinte
450 BC

from Latin ad

It is probably inherited from Latin ad (“to”) + ante (“before”). DELR, following the DA, has the group develop into *adânte and then take its ⟨i⟩ from *inte, the form from ab + ⟨ante⟩ that underlies…
aiest
450 BC

from Latin ad

It is inherited from Latin ad (“to”) + istum (“this”). DELR explains the initial ⟨a-⟩ of the word as the ⟨a-⟩ of deictic words, taken over from compounds of eccum such as acolo and acum. The…
al
450 BC

from Latin ille

It is inherited from Latin ille (“that”), in its accusative forms illum and illam, used as an article standing before the noun. Ciorănescu traces it through the stage of the pronoun el, ea, which…
aur
450 BC

from Latin aurum

It is inherited from Latin aurum (“gold”), the Latin word for the metal. The Latin word goes back to Proto-Italic *auzom and to Proto-Indo-European *h₂é-h₂us-o- (“glow”), a derivative of *h₂ews-…
ca
450 BC

from Latin quam

1. The word for “as, like” is inherited from Latin quam (“how, as, than”). It survives in all four branches as Aromanian ca, Megleno-Romanian ca and Istro-Romanian ca, and in Old Italian, Sardinian…
cam
450 BC

from Latin quam

It is probably inherited from Latin quam (“how, as”), the source of ca as well. DELR gives can as the oldest form: Latin final /m/ became /n/ in monosyllables, as in French rien from rem, Italian…
cap
450 BC

from Latin caput

1. The word for the head is inherited from Latin caput (“head”), a word kept by all the Romance languages. Pușcariu and Ciorănescu start from a popular form *capum, remade as a noun of the second…
cu
450 BC

from Latin cum

It is inherited from Latin cum (“with”). The Latin preposition comes from Proto-Indo-European *ḱóm (“next to, at, with”). The preposition survives in all four branches: Aromanian cu…
când
450 BC

from Latin quando

It is inherited from Latin quandō (“when”), a word kept throughout Romance. It survives as Aromanian cãndu, Megleno-Romanian cǫn and Istro-Romanian căn, and its Romance cognates include Italian…
de
450 BC

from Latin de

1. The word for the preposition is inherited from Latin dē (“from, down from, about”). In Latin it first marked a movement from above downwards, and Late Latin made it the general preposition of…
dor
450 BC

from Latin dolus

It is inherited from Late Latin dolus (“pain, grief”), a back-formation from doleō (“to feel pain”). DELR adds that ⟨dolus⟩ may have been remade from ⟨dolorum⟩, the genitive plural of dolor…
el
450 BC

from Latin ille

It is inherited from Latin ille (“that”), the demonstrative of distance, which became the third-person pronoun in all the Romance languages in place of classical is. The masculine form comes from…
ghindă
450 BC

from Latin glans

It is inherited from Latin glāns (“acorn”), probably through *glanda, with a change of declension. Ciorănescu follows Pușcariu, Candrea–Densusianu, the REW and the DA in this, but thinks a start…
lung
450 BC

from Latin longus

It is inherited from Latin longus (“long”). Wiktionary takes the Latin word back to Proto-Indo-European *dl̥h₁gʰós (“long”). De Vaan reconstructs *dlongʰos for Latin and Germanic and notes that the…
muiere
450 BC

from Latin mulier

It is inherited from Latin mulier (“woman”), from its oblique form mulierem. Ciorănescu cites Rosetti for the shift of stress. The word survives in all four branches: Aromanian muljari…
mână
450 BC

from Latin manus

It is inherited from Latin manus (“hand”). Wiktionary and Pușcariu set up a Vulgar Latin *mana in between, with the feminine ending -a, and Pușcariu found it in Tuscan, southern Italian, Old…
nici
450 BC

from Latin neque

It is inherited from Latin neque (“and not, nor”). Old Romanian wrote it ⟨nece⟩, as Scriban and Șăineanu note. The Latin word is nē (“not”) with -que (“and”). It continues Proto-Indo-European *nékʷe…
parte
450 BC

from Latin pars

It is inherited from Latin pars (“part, piece, share”), from its accusative partem. De Vaan follows Schrijver in taking the Latin noun from the stem of pariō (“to bring forth”), with an original…
pe
450 BC

from Latin per

It is inherited from Latin per (“through”), through the older form pre. MDA2, the DLR and DEX give Latin super (“over, above”) as well as ⟨per⟩, and Ciorănescu notes that the Romanian word has the…
popor
450 BC

from Latin populus

Pușcariu, the REW, Tiktin and MDA2 take it as inherited from Latin populus (“people”). Its Romance cognates include Italian popolo, Catalan poble, Occitan poble, French peuple, Spanish pueblo and…
se
450 BC

from Latin se

It is inherited from Latin sē (“himself, herself, themselves”), which every Romance language kept. The pronoun survives as Aromanian se. Its Romance cognates include Italian si, French se, Occitan…
sine
450 BC

from Latin se

It is inherited from Latin sē (“himself, herself, themselves”), remodelled on mine and tine so that the stressed form would not be a monosyllable. Ciorănescu compares Latin sēsē and Spanish consigo…
să
450 BC

from Latin si

It is inherited from Latin sī (“if”). The vowel /ə/ comes from the Latin long /iː/ in an unstressed position, as in vecin from vīcīnus. The word survives south of the Danube as Aromanian si…
tu
450 BC

from Latin tu

It is inherited from Latin tū (“you (singular)”). Wiktionary takes the Latin word from Proto-Italic and Proto-Indo-European *túh₂; de Vaan reconstructs the Proto-Indo-European nominative as *ti(H)…
voi
450 BC

from Latin vos

It is inherited from Latin vōs (“you (plural)”), and the dative vouă continues vōbīs. The Latin pronoun comes from Proto-Italic *wōs, an old accusative form. The word survives in all four branches…
ăla
450 BC

from Latin ille

In the traditional view of the dictionaries it is inherited from Latin ille (“that”), in the accusative illum and the feminine illa. Wiktionary analyses it as the short demonstrative ăl with the…

All Romanian words inherited from Latin, by century →