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Etymology and origin of the Romanian word leu

leu1 lion

Confidence
Disputed
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1519 personal name in a document cited by Tiktin
Borrowed from
Latin leo
Ultimate origin
Ancient Greek λέων
Etymology tree of leu1
inherited borrowed derived
Ancient Greek λέων (léōn)
Latin leō
English Leo
Romanian leu
The journey of leu1
From the same root · leu1
Ancient Greek χαμαιλέων (khamailéōn) ← λέων
English chameleon ← λέων
English leopard ← λέων
Latin lea ← λέων
Latin leōpardus ← leō

Pronunciation

Forms

leu m (plural lei)[1]

Etymology

The word for the lion is borrowed from Latin leō (“lion”), according to Ciorănescu a learned loan, which he dates to the 17th century.[2] Inheritance is hard on the sound: Latin short /e/ would have given ⟨*ieu⟩, as in iepure from lepus.[2][3][1] Tiktin adds that Romanian alone among the Romance languages would then continue the Latin nominative, while the others go back to the oblique stem; he too treats it as a loan, as in Slavic and Germanic.[3][1] Pușcariu and others derived it directly from Latin, and MDA2 also gives the Latin word as its source.[2][4] Wiktionary leaves open whether it is inherited or borrowed.[1] The Latin word is from Ancient Greek λέων (léōn, “lion”).[5][1]

Ciorănescu doubts that the river name Lăune continues the Latin oblique case, and rejects a derivation from Old Church Slavonic львъ (lĭvŭ).[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the personal name Leu or Leul in a document of 1519.[3] The animal appears in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki in the early 16th century, in Psalm 7:2 and 16:13, where the persecutor is likened to a lion lying in wait.[6] MDA2 dates its first record to the Codicele Voronețean.[4]

Semantic evolution

Figurative senses come from the lion's strength: a brave man, but also a fierce or cruel one; in religious texts the lion can stand for the devil or for Christ.[4][7] Folk tales have the huge leu-paraleu, and the phrase a se face leu-paraleu “to fly into a rage” is in Ispirescu;[7] Alecsandri used leu paraleu for a ladies' man, a salon lion.[3] Partea leului “the lion's share” is the largest part, taken by the strongest.[7][3] The constellation and the fifth sign of the zodiac are Leul.[7][8] The feminine forms leoaie and leoaică and the old diminutive leiță “lioness” were formed in Romanian;[6] Pușcariu derived leoaie from a Latin *leonia.[2]

Timeline

  • 1519 – the personal name Leu(l).[3]
  • early 16th century – leu and leul in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.[6]
  • c. 1563–1583 – the Codicele Voronețean.[4]
  • 1570 – leilor in Coresi's psalter.[9]
  • 1649 – Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.[10]
  • 1688 – „Tăriia leului și glasul leoaiei” “the strength of the lion and the voice of the lioness” in the Bucharest Bible.[3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. lion, the large carnivore of the cat family, with a short tawny coat and, in the male, a thick mane (Panthera leo): Leul este numit regele animalelor.[7][1]
  2. (figurative) A strong, brave man;[7][11] pui de leu “a lion cub”, a brave young man.[7][11]
  3. Leul: the constellation Leo; the fifth sign of the zodiac, between Cancer and Virgo, from 22 July to 23 August.[7]

Word family

  • leoaie
  • leoaică
  • leiță

leu2 currency unit

Confidence
Probable
Formation
Semantic loan
First attested
1651 before 1651, Gaster's chrestomathy
From
Dutch leeuwendaalder
Ultimate origin
Ancient Greek λέων

Pronunciation

Forms

leu m (plural lei)[1]

Etymology

The word for the currency is leu1, the lion, used as a semantic loan for a coin with a lion on it, probably a coin minted in the Netherlands, from Dutch leeuwendaalder (“lion thaler”), which circulated in the Romanian principalities in the 17th century.[1] The Bulgarian etymological dictionary records the same coin, a Dutch silver thaler of the 17th and 18th centuries with a lion on both sides, under Bulgarian лев (lev), with the synonyms аслан (aslan) and аслан-горуш (aslan-goruš).[12] Tiktin, MDA2 and Cihac also compare German Löwentaler.[3][4][13]

Ciorănescu, Tiktin, Cihac and the DEX explain the sense instead as a calque of Turkish, where the word for the lion, Ottoman Turkish آرسلان (arslan), gave a name for the piastre with a lion.[2][3][13][7][1] MDA2 gives both models.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

MDA2's first record of the money sense is a text from before 1651 printed in Gaster's chrestomathy.[4] Ciorănescu says that a coin of this name, worth 120 bani, circulated in the 17th century.[2]

Semantic evolution

Before the reform of 1867 the leu, later called leu vechi “old leu”, was a silver piastre of 40 parale and the usual money of account; the value of the ducat in lei varied.[3][4] Klein's dictionary of 1801 glosses the word as “florin” besides “lion”, and the Lexicon de la Buda of 1825 says that in Wallachia it means a florin.[14][15] In 1867 the leu became Romania's official unit, divided into 100 bani; the Republic of Moldova adopted it in 1993.[7][4] In 2005 Romania redenominated it: from 1 July 10,000 old lei became one leu nou, which the press also called leul greu “the heavy leu”.[16]

In the plural lei also means money in general, and by extension wealth.[4] The currency name passed into neighbouring languages: Russian and Ukrainian лей (lej), Polish lej and Bulgarian лея (leja) are loans from Romanian.[1]

Timeline

  • before 1651 – the first record of the money sense.[4]
  • 17th century – a coin of 120 bani called leu.[2]
  • 1801 – Klein's dictionary: “florin”.[14]
  • 1825 – the Lexicon de la Buda: a florin in Wallachia.[15]
  • 1867 – the leu becomes Romania's official currency, worth 100 bani.[7][4]
  • 1993 – the leu becomes the currency of the Republic of Moldova.[7]
  • 2005 – the redenomination: 10,000 old lei make one new leu.[16]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The leu, the official currency unit of Romania since 1867 and of the Republic of Moldova since 1993, divided into 100 bani: Cartea costă cincizeci de lei.[7][1]
  2. A coin or banknote worth one leu.[4]
  3. (historical) The old leu, a silver coin of 40 parale current in the Romanian lands until 1867.[4][3]
  4. (in the plural) Money; by extension, wealth.[4]

Usage notes

MDA2 and the DLR record a separate regional neuter noun leu “funnel”, plural leie, from a Hungarian dialect word.[4][17] The plural of both leu “lion” and leu “currency” is lei.[7]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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. leu
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. leu
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1353
  5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ a b c 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 16:13
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 587
  8. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. leu
  9. ^ 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 21:22
  10. ^ 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. leu
  11. ^ a b Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. leu
  12. ^ Georgiev, Vladimir I. et al. (eds.) (1971–), Bălgarski etimologičen rečnik, Sofija: Izdatelstvo na Bălgarskata akademija na naukite, p. 3, 336
  13. ^ a b Cihac, A. de (1870), Dictionnaire d'étymologie daco-romane I: Éléments latins comparés avec les autres langues romanes, Frankfurt am Main, p. 142
  14. ^ a b Gáldi, László (ed.) (1944), Samuel Klein: Dictionarium valachico-latinum. Primul dicționar al limbii române, Budapest: Királyi Magyar Pázmány Péter Tudományegyetemi Román Intézet (Klein's dictionary of 1801, with Gáldi's etymological study), p. 390
  15. ^ 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. 351
  16. ^ a b Dimitrescu, Florica (1997), Dicționar de cuvinte recente, 2nd ed., București: Logos (with the 3rd ed., 2013, in CLRE), p. s.v. leu
  17. ^ Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. leu

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Leu.” Etymologically, 11 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/ro/leu. Accessed 12 Nov. 2026.

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