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Etymology and origin of the Romanian word lac

lac1 lake

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
1113
Inherited from
Latin lacus
Ultimate origin
Proto-Indo-European *lókus
Etymology tree of lac1
inherited borrowed derived
Latin lacus
Italian lago
Romanian lac
Spanish lago
From the same root · lac1
Latin lacūna ← lacus

Forms

lac n (plural lacuri)[1]

Etymology

The word for “lake” is inherited from Latin lacus (“lake, pond”).[2][3][4][5][6] It survives in all four branches: Aromanian lac, Megleno-Romanian lac and Istro-Romanian lǫc.[2][7][8][3] Its Romance cognates include Italian lago, Spanish lago, Portuguese lago, Occitan lac and French lac.[2][4]

The Latin word goes back to Proto-Indo-European *lókus (“lake, pool”), and is related to Ancient Greek λάκκος (lákkos, “pond, cistern, pit”).[9][1][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1113, citing Drăganu.[11] The DLR and MDA2 date the word from 1468, in the Slavonic–Romanian documents.[12][5] The plural lacurile is in the early 16th-century Psaltirea Hurmuzaki (Psalm 113:8), and Coresi's Evanghelie cu învățătură of 1581 has „Când se turbură apele, să mă arunce în lac” “when the waters are stirred, to throw me into the pool”.[13][12]

Semantic evolution

The word has meant a natural or artificial body of standing water of any size, from a lake to a puddle; the Bucharest Bible of 1688 uses it for a well or cistern.[12][11] In some regions it has been replaced by iezer, tău or ghiol, and elsewhere it is not distinguished from baltă “pond, marsh”.[14] Figuratively it is a large amount of liquid: lac de sudoare “bathed in sweat”, un lac de sânge “a pool of blood”.[11][5]

Its derivatives include the diminutives lăculeț and lăcușor, recorded by Tiktin, and lăcos “marshy”.[11][2] Ciorănescu also lists lacoviște “marsh”, which the DA and Skok take from Bulgarian локва (lokva, “puddle”) or its Serbo-Croatian counterpart.[2][15]

Timeline

  • 1113 – the first record, according to Tiktin.[11]
  • 1468 – in the Slavonic–Romanian documents.[12][5]
  • early 16th century – lacurile in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki (Psalm 113:8).[13]
  • 1581 – lac “pool” in Coresi's Evanghelie cu învățătură.[12]
  • 1649 – in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.[16]
  • 1688 – lacul “cistern” in the Bucharest Bible.[12]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A lake: a large expanse of standing water enclosed by land, sometimes draining into the sea or a river;[6][5] lac de acumulare “reservoir”.[6][5]
  2. (figurative) A large quantity of water or another liquid: Era lac de sudoare.[6][5]
  3. (regional) A pond, a pool.[5]

Word family

  • lăculeț
  • lăcușor
  • lăcos

lac2 varnish, lacquer

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1788 Molnar's Sprachlehre
Borrowed from
German Lack
Ultimate origin
Sanskrit लाक्षा

Forms

lac n (plural lacuri)[6]

Etymology

The word for “varnish” is borrowed from German Lack, and also borrowed from French laque, as Ciorănescu, Tiktin and the DA give it;[2][17][18][6][19][5] DEX and Marcu name German alone, and MDA2 adds Medieval Latin lacca.[2][17][18][6][19][5] Borcia counts it among the German loans of Transylvania.[20]

The German word was taken in the 16th century from Italian lacca, and the French one is a remodelling of 14th-century Middle French lache; both go back through Arabic لَكّ (lakk) and Persian لاک (lāk) to Sanskrit लाक्षा (lākṣā), the red resin that lac insects draw from trees.[21][22][23] Marcu and Maneca give the Persian word the sense “red colour”.[24]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is 1788, in Molnar's Sprachlehre.[17] Borcia also cites Molnar for it.[20] MDA2 dates it only from Costinescu's dictionary of 1870.[5]

Semantic evolution

The first sense was the shiny black or red resin from the Far East, then any liquid that dries into a protective, glossy film.[18][5] Alecsandri wrote of white kiosks enamelled with shining lacquer.[25] By extension it names patent leather, ghete de lac being boots of patent leather.[18][6]

Its derivatives are lăcui “to varnish” and lăcuitor “varnisher”; the old verb lachirui is from German lakieren.[2]

Timeline

  • 1788 – in Molnar's Sprachlehre, the first record.[17][20]
  • 1862 – in Pontbriant's dictionary.[25]
  • 1870 – in Costinescu's dictionary.[5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. varnish, lacquer: a liquid of resins, oils or other substances dissolved in a volatile solvent, which leaves a hard, glossy film that protects a surface;[6][5][25] lac de unghii “nail polish”.[6][5][25]
  2. patent leather, or an imitation of it.[6][5]
  3. The black or red resin of some Far Eastern trees, and the decorative lacquer made from it.[5]

Word family

  • lăcui
  • lăcuit
  • lăcuitor
  • Aromanian lac

Usage notes

The DLR and MDA2 have a third, obsolete lac “pit”, from Modern Greek λάκκος (lákkos), in Ureche and Dosoftei: „Scurmat-au lacul și l-au săpatu-l” “he dug the pit and hollowed it out”.[26][5] Tiktin treats it as a sense of lac “lake” rendering the Greek word.[11] A sări din lac în puț “to jump from the lake into the well” means to go from bad to worse.[6][5]

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. lac
  3. ^ a b Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 81
  4. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 4836
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1302
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 574
  7. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 613
  8. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 163
  9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  10. ^ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  11. ^ a b c d e f Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. lac 1
  12. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. lac¹
  13. ^ 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 113:8
  14. ^ 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. lac¹
  15. ^ Georgiev, Vladimir I. et al. (eds.) (1971–), Bălgarski etimologičen rečnik, Sofija: Izdatelstvo na Bălgarskata akademija na naukite, p. 3, 461
  16. ^ 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. lac
  17. ^ 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. lac 2
  18. ^ a b c d 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. lac²
  19. ^ a b Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual
  20. ^ a b c Borcia, Ioan (1903–1904), Deutsche Sprachelemente im Rumänischen, Leipzig (in Weigand, Zehnter Jahresbericht des Instituts für rumänische Sprache zu Leipzig)
  21. ^ Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter
  22. ^ Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
  23. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  24. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. lac
  25. ^ a b c d Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. lac²
  26. ^ Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. lac³

Related etymologies

  • casă · also from German
  • pas · also from German
  • rută · also from German
  • arie · also from German
  • laț · also from German
  • must · also from German
  • telefon · also from German
  • spital · also from German
Cite this entry

“Lac.” Etymologically, 11 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/ro/lac. Accessed 12 Nov. 2026.

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