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Etymology and origin of the Romanian word odată

Confidence
Established
Formation
Compound
First attested
1592–1604 Floarea darurilor More words from the 16th century
Ultimate origin
Romanian o,dat
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
French date
Romanian dată
Romanian odată
Derivations
From the same root
Romanian niciodată ← dată

Pronunciation

Etymology

It is a compound from Romanian o (“one”) + dată (“time”), literally “one time”, written as one word.[2][3][1] The second part, meaning “time, occasion”, is the feminine past participle from Romanian da (“to give”) used as a noun;[4] Tiktin takes it directly from Latin data.[4] DELR lists the compound in the family of that noun with altădată, niciodată and câteodată.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR dates the adverb to 1592–1604, in the Floarea darurilor, with the sense “once, formerly”.[3] MDA2 cites the Moldavian law code of Vasile Lupu, in a modern edition.[2]

Semantic evolution

DELR gives the senses “formerly” and “at the same time as”, and a regional “for the time being”.[3] With verbs in the past it means “once, formerly”, the sense of the folk-tale opening a fost odată “once upon a time”; with the future it means “one day, some time”.[5][6] Popular speech uses it for “at once, suddenly” and “at last”.[5][2] Creangă first used it as an invariable adjective meaning “a real, a fine one”: Asta-i casă odată! “That's a real house!”.[2][6]

Timeline

  • 1592-1604 – “formerly” in the Floarea darurilor.[3]
  • c. 1642-1647 – in Grigore Ureche's chronicle.[6]
  • 1688 – frequent in the Bucharest Bible.[7]
  • 1890 – the adjective “a real, fine” in Creangă's tales.[2]

Meanings

Adverb

  1. once, formerly, at some time in the past.[5][2][1]
  2. One day, some time in the future: Odată o să-mi dai dreptate.[5][1]
  3. odată și odată: long ago; sooner or later.[5][2]
  4. (popular) At once, immediately; suddenly.[5][1]
  5. At last, finally;[5][1] (informal) expressing impatience: already.[5][1]

Adjective

  1. (popular, invariable) A real, a fine (one): om odată “a real man”.[5][2][1]

Usage notes

A regional form is hodată.[2][6] Odată is written as one word for the adverb;[1] o dată in two words means “one time, a single time” and is a numeral phrase.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 195
  3. ^ a b c d e 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. dată
  4. ^ a b 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. dată
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1, 735
  6. ^ a b c d Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. odată
  7. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Ex 19:8
Cite this entry

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

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