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oricum

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Etymology and origin of the Romanian word oricum

Confidence
Established
Formation
Compound
First attested
1599 a Romanian document More words from the 16th century
Ultimate origins
Latin *voletProto-Italic *kʷoi,*medo-
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Romanian ori
Romanian oricum
From the same root
Romanian orice ← ori
Romanian oricine ← ori
Romanian uneori ← ori

Pronunciation

Etymology

It is a compound from Romanian ori + cum, formed in Romanian.[2][3][4][1] DELR explains the first part as the disjunctive conjunction ori, older veri, originally the form “you want” of vrea.[2] An old variant was vericum.[2] A popular variant is orișicum, recorded from 1820.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR dates the first record to 1599, in a document, with the sense “no matter how, in any way”.[2] The Moldavian law code of Vasile Lupu has „oricum va fi voia giudețului” “however the judge pleases”.[5][3]

Semantic evolution

The adverb kept the sense “in whatever way”: Neculce writes that at the divan one should seem to understand things somehow, „oricum”.[5] In the 19th century it also came to mean “anyway, in any case”, as in Alexandrescu's „Oricum, îmi e cam frică” “anyway, I am rather afraid”.[5][1] Creangă's proverb „oricum ar fi, tot îs mai aproape dinții decât părinții” “whatever happens, one's teeth are closer than one's parents” uses it in the concessive phrase oricum ar fi “be that as it may”.[5]

Timeline

  • 1599 – the first record, in a document.[2]
  • 1688 – twice in the Bucharest Bible (Luke 23:17; 1 Corinthians 9:22).[6]
  • 1820 – the popular variant orișicum.[2]

Meanings

Adverb

  1. No matter how, in any way; orișicum: Fă-o oricum, numai fă-o.[4][3]
  2. anyway, in any case, even so: Oricum, nu mai contează.[1][5]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g 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. cum
  3. ^ a b c Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 225
  4. ^ a b DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 751
  5. ^ a b c d e Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. oricum
  6. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Lk 23:17
Cite this entry

“Oricum.” Etymologically, 11 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/ro/oricum. Accessed 12 Nov. 2026.

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