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oricine

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Etymology and origin of the Romanian word oricine

Confidence
Established
Formation
Compound
First attested
1688 the Bucharest Bible More words from the 17th century
Ultimate origin
Latin *volet,*quene
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Romanian ori
Romanian oricine
From the same root
Romanian orice ← ori
Romanian oricum ← ori
Romanian uneori ← ori

Pronunciation

  • /orʲˈt͡ʃi.ne/[1]

Etymology

It is a compound, from Romanian ori + cine, meaning “whoever, anyone”.[2][3][4][1] DELR explains ori as the old disjunctive conjunction veri, in origin the verb form meaning “you want”.[2] The same element forms oricare and orice.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR dates it to 1688, the Bucharest Bible, which uses it nineteen times, for instance in Matthew 5:32 and Mark 3:35.[2][6] MDA2 takes its first record from the Moldavian law code of Vasile Lupu's time.[4]

Semantic evolution

The pronoun means “any person, no matter who”, which also came to mean “someone” and “each one”.[4][3] Used disparagingly it means a person of no importance, a nobody: nu e oricine “he is not just anybody”.[3][4] Old texts had the form oricene, and popular speech says orcine;[4][3] orișicine is a popular synonym.[4][3]

Timeline

  • 1688 – oricine in the Bucharest Bible, the first dated record.[2][7]
  • 1940 – the regional oricineva “someone or other”.[2]

Meanings

Pronoun

  1. anyone, anybody, no matter who: Oricine poate învăța să înoate.[3][1]
  2. Someone; each one.[4]
  3. (disparaging) A person of no importance, a nobody.[3][4]

Usage notes

The genitive-dative is oricui.[3][4]

References

  1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ 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. cine
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 751
  4. ^ 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, 225
  5. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună
  6. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Matthew 5:32
  7. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Mark 3:35
Cite this entry

“Oricine.” Etymologically, 11 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/ro/oricine. Accessed 12 Nov. 2026.

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