Etymology and origin of the Romanian word pluton
pluton1 platoon
- Confidence
- Established
- Formation
- Borrowing
- First attested
- 1830
- Borrowed from
- French peloton
- Ultimate origin
- Latin pila
Forms
pluton n (plural plutoane)[1] Older texts use peloton: „un foc înfricoșat de peloton” “a fearful platoon volley” (Barițiu); a popular variant ploton also occurs.[2][3]
Etymology
The word for the platoon is borrowed from French peloton, with Italian plotone as a second model.[3][2][4][5] The DN puts Italian first and compares the French, and Wiktionary sees Polish ploton as a partial intermediary.[6][1] The Italian word is itself from the French; it is recorded once in the 17th century and became current only in the 19th.[7][8] The French word is formed on pelote (“ball of thread”), from Latin pila (“ball”).[7]
Earliest recorded meaning
Tiktin and MDA2 date the first record to 1830, in the sense of a military subunit.[4][5] The form peloton is used in 1846.[2]
Semantic evolution
The military sense, a subunit smaller than a company, is the original one;[5][9] pluton de execuție is a firing squad.[5][9] By analogy it came to mean any organized group of people with a common occupation, and rarely a flock of birds.[5][3] In sport it is the compact group of competitors in a race, as in cycling.[3][6] Șăineanu notes that a company then had two platoons.[10]
Timeline
- 1830 – the first record, of a military subunit.[4][5]
- 1846 – the form peloton.[2]
- 1875 – plutonu in Antonescu's dictionary.[11]
Meanings
Noun
pluton2 body of magmatic rock
- Confidence
- Established
- Formation
- Borrowing
- First attested
- 1957 Lexiconul tehnic român
- Borrowed from
- French pluton
Forms
pluton m (plural plutoni)[1]
Etymology
The word for the body of rock is borrowed from French pluton, a term of geology.[3][2][5][12][1]
Earliest recorded meaning
MDA2's first record is the Lexiconul tehnic român of 1957.[5]
Timeline
- 1957 – in the Lexiconul tehnic român, the first record.[5]
Meanings
Noun
References
- ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ a b c d e f Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. pluton
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 836
- ^ a b c Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. plutón
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 430
- ^ a b Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România
- ^ a b Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
- ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
- ^ a b Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 4, 474
- ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 490
- ^ Antonescu, G. M. (1875), Dictionariu romanu-francesu, Bucuresci: Typografia Curții (Lucrători Associați), p. 234
- ^ Costăchescu, Adriana; Dincă, Daniela; Dragoste, Ramona; Popescu, Mihaela; Scurtu, Gabriela (2009–2010), Dicționar de împrumuturi lexicale din limba franceză (DILF), 2 vols., Craiova: Universitaria
Related etymologies
Cite this entry
“Pluton.” Etymologically, 12 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/ro/pluton. Accessed 12 Nov. 2026.
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