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Etymology and origin of the Romanian word papă

papă1 food (children's word)

Confidence
Probable
Formation
Inherited
First attested
c. 1670 the Anonymus Caransebesiensis glossary
Inherited from
Latin pappa
Ultimate origin
Latin pappa
Derivations · papă1

Forms

papă f (uncountable)[1]

Etymology

The word for food in children's speech is inherited from Latin pappa (“food (a child's word)”), itself a nursery word.[2][3][4][5] Ciorănescu calls it an expressive creation that may come straight from the Latin word or may have been formed again in Romanian.[6] It is shared south of the Danube: Aromanian pãpã and Megleno-Romanian papă.[7][8][1] Its Romance cognates include Italian pappa, Catalan papa, Spanish papa and Portuguese papa.[7]

The verb păpa “to eat” belongs with it: Ciorănescu lists it as a derivative, while Pușcariu and Candrea–Densusianu take it from Latin pappō (“to eat”).[6][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the Romanian–Latin glossary of the Anonymus Caransebesiensis, of about 1670 according to Tiktin;[4][3] MDA2 dates it 1650–1700.[4][3] Its sense is “food” in children's speech, especially milk porridge.[4]

Semantic evolution

Besides the nursery word for any food, the old and popular language used it for a soft porridge for small children, made of milk or water with flour or semolina.[3][10] Regionally it names several dishes thickened with flour or maize meal, an omelette in northern Moldavia and Bukovina, a shepherds' dish of fried cheese, and even royal jelly.[10][11] The compound papa-găinii “hen's food” is a regional name of the dandelion.[2][3]

Timeline

  • c. 1670 – first record, in the Anonymus Caransebesiensis glossary.[4][3]
  • 1825 – the Lexicon of Buda glosses it “children's food” and “porridge”.[12]
  • 1865 – Pisone defines it as children's food.[13]
  • 1870 – Costinescu: the word children say when they want to eat.[14]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (children's speech, or adults speaking to children) Food: Hai la papă! “Come and eat!” The regional compound papa-găinii is the dandelion.[2][1]
  2. (regional) An omelette.[2][11]

Word family

  • papanaș

papă2 pope

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1564 Coresi's Cazania
Borrowed from
Old Church Slavonic папа
Ultimate origin
Ancient Greek πάππας
Etymology tree of papă2
inherited borrowed derived
Latin pāpa
English pope
Italian papa
Romanian papă
From the same root · papă2
Latin pāpālis ← pāpa
Latin papatia ← pāpa

Forms

papă m (plural papi)[1]

Etymology

The word for the pope is borrowed from Old Church Slavonic папа (papa), partly borrowed from Latin pāpa, the title of the bishop of Rome.[2][3][10] The Slavonic word renders Byzantine Greek πάπας (pápas) in the old texts, and the Latin one was borrowed from the same Greek word, which comes from Ancient Greek πάππας (páppas, “papa, daddy”).[15][1] Ciorănescu gives the Latin nursery word as its source and dates the word to the 17th century, but Tiktin and the DLR have 16th-century records.[6][4]

Dosoftei also uses a form ⟨papij⟩, which Tiktin takes from Polish papież.[4] The word is a doublet of popă “priest”.[1] Papahagi takes the Aromanian papa from Italian.[8][16]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is Coresi's Cazania of 1564.[4] Coresi's Evanghelie cu învățătură of 1581 names among the patriarchs of the council „Silivestru, papa den Roma” “Sylvester, the pope of Rome”.[10][3]

Semantic evolution

The meaning has stayed the head of the Roman Catholic Church, and in modern times of the Vatican state as well.[2][10] The chronicles of the 17th and 18th centuries speak of the pope in the context of the councils and of Polish politics.[10]

Its derivatives came by other routes: papistaș “Catholic” is from Hungarian pápistás, papal from French, and papalitate was formed after French papauté.[6] Papistaș passed into Bulgarian as папищаш (papištaš), recorded from 1860.[17]

Timeline

  • 1564 – first record, in Coresi's Cazania.[4]
  • 1581 – papa den Roma in Coresi's Evanghelie cu învățătură.[10][3]
  • c. 1650 – the Disputation of the most blessed pope Sylvester with Zambri in a manuscript.[10]
  • 1682–1686 – the form papij in Dosoftei.[4][10]
  • 1698 – the commemoration of Agathon, pope of Rome, in a text of that year.[10]
  • 1860 – Bulgarian папищаш “Catholic”, from Romanian papistaș.[17]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The pope: the head of the Roman Catholic Church and of the Vatican state, regarded as the vicar of Christ and successor of Saint Peter, elected for life.[2][18][1]

Word family

  • papal
  • papalitate
  • papistaș

Usage notes

The phrase a fi mai catolic decât papa “to be more Catholic than the pope” means to be more zealous than those directly concerned.[19] The two words are distinguished by gender: the food word is feminine and has no plural, the pope is masculine with the plural papi.[2][1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ 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. 770
  3. ^ 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, 259
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. papă
  5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ a b c d 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. papă
  7. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București, p. s.v. papă
  8. ^ a b Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 815
  9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6214
  10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. papă
  11. ^ a b Bulgăr, Gheorghe; Constantinescu-Dobridor, Gheorghe (2002), Dicționar de arhaisme și regionalisme, 2 vols., București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. papă
  12. ^ 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. 481
  13. ^ Pisone, Domițian (1865), Dictionariu românescu, latinescu, germanescu și francescu, lucrat după sistemul Lexiconului de Buda, București: Typografia Ioann Weiss, p. 276
  14. ^ Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 240
  15. ^ Kurz, Josef; Hauptová, Zoe (eds.) (1958–1997), Slovník jazyka staroslověnského / Lexicon linguae palaeoslovenicae, 4 vols. + supplements, Praha: Academia; digital ed. gorazd.org, p. s.v. папа
  16. ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 783
  17. ^ a b Georgiev, Vladimir I. et al. (eds.) (1971–), Bălgarski etimologičen rečnik, Sofija: Izdatelstvo na Bălgarskata akademija na naukite, p. 5, 52
  18. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. papă
  19. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 316

Related etymologies

  • prea · also from Old Church Slavonic
  • înșela · also from Old Church Slavonic
  • pară · also from Old Church Slavonic
  • somn · also from Old Church Slavonic
  • veste · also from Old Church Slavonic
  • coș · also from Old Church Slavonic
  • lin · also from Old Church Slavonic
  • râs · also from Old Church Slavonic
Cite this entry

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

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