Etymologically

Etymology and origin of the Romanian word iulie

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1522 Slavonic–Romanian charter More words from the 16th century
Borrowed from
Old Church Slavonic июлии
Ultimate origin
Latin Iūlius

Pronunciation

Forms

iulie m (uncountable)[1] A variant iuliu, newer and rarer, is taken from Latin.[2][3] In Bukovina and Transylvania the form iuli was used, after German Juli.[4][5] An almanac of 1733 has „La Iulie cald și frumos” “in July, warm and fine”.[4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old Church Slavonic июлии (ijulii), the month name of the Slavonic church calendar.[5][6][1][7] Ciorănescu and Tiktin add Greek as a source beside the Slavonic.[2][8] The Slavonic word comes from Byzantine Greek Ἰούλιος (Ioúlios), from Latin Iūlius (“(the month) of Julius”).[1] Scriban explains the Latin name as the month named after Julius Caesar.[3] Pascu derives Aromanian iul'u from the same Greek word.[9] The Romance languages kept the Latin word: Italian luglio, French juillet, Spanish julio and Portuguese julho.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the word to 1522, a record in the Slavonic–Romanian documents, and Ciorănescu to the 16th century.[8][2] MDA2's first record in a Romanian book is the Paraclis of 1639, and Ureche's chronicle dates events to the first day of July.[5][4]

Semantic evolution

The word has always named the seventh month of the year.[6][4] The popular name for the same month is cuptor “oven”, and the dictionaries from Șăineanu and CADE on give both.[6][10][11] The Lexicon de la Buda of 1825 glosses it with cuptoriu and with Hungarian Szent Jakab hava and German Heumonath.[12]

Timeline

  • 1522 – a Slavonic–Romanian document.[8]
  • 1639 – the Paraclis, the first record in a Romanian book.[5]
  • 1733 – „La Iulie cald și frumos” in an almanac.[4]
  • 1825 – the Lexicon de la Buda, with cuptoriu.[12]

Meanings

Noun

  1. July, the seventh month of the year; popularly cuptor.[6][5]

Usage notes

The word does not change for case: the genitive is lui iulie.[13] It is abbreviated iul.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c 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. iulie
  3. ^ a b c Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 665
  4. ^ a b c d e Academia Română (1913–1949), Dicționarul limbii române (DA), ed. Sextil Pușcariu, tom I (A–B, C, D–De) and tom II (F–I, J–Lojniță), București: Socec / Universul / Monitorul Oficial și Imprimeriile Statului; page scans at cflr-scans.solirom.ro, p. s.v. iulie
  5. ^ a b c d e Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1172
  6. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 527
  7. ^ Kurz, Josef; Hauptová, Zoe (eds.) (1958–1997), Slovník jazyka staroslověnského / Lexicon linguae palaeoslovenicae, 4 vols. + supplements, Praha: Academia; digital ed. gorazd.org, p. s.v. июлии
  8. ^ a b c Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. iulie
  9. ^ Pascu, Giorge (1925), Dictionnaire étymologique macédoroumain, 2 vols. (I: Les éléments latins et romans; II: Les éléments grecs, turcs, slaves, albanais, germaniques, magyars, néologismes, créations immédiates, obscurs), Iași: Cultura Națională, p. 2, 55
  10. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 345
  11. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. iulie
  12. ^ 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. 331
  13. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. iulie

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

“Iulie.” Etymologically, 12 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/ro/iulie. Accessed 12 Nov. 2026.

Last edited on . ·