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Etymology and origin of the Romanian word pompă

pompă1 pump

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1835 a text by Drăghici
Borrowed from
French pompe
Ultimate origin
Middle Dutch pompe

Pronunciation

Forms

pompă f (plural pompe)[1]

Etymology

The word for the pump is borrowed from French pompe, as DEX, MDN, DILF and Wiktionary give it.[2][3][4][1] DN adds Italian pompa, and Tiktin names the Italian and French words and German Pumpe as sources together.[5][6] MDA2 and DLR give the French word with Latin pompa beside it, and DLR takes the old form pumpă from the German word.[7][8] Ciorănescu treats the pump and the pomp under one headword, with the French word as the source.[9] The French word comes from Middle Dutch pompe (“device for raising water, pump”).[1] Scriban suggested that the French word might be the same as the French word for pomp, in the sense “a sending”; that is his own view.[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin and DLR date the first record to 1835, in Drăghici, where sailors went down into the hold of a ship and began bailing the water out „cu pompe” “with pumps”.[6][8] MDA2 cites the same passage.[7]

Semantic evolution

In 1848 Negulici explained the word with the older Ottoman loan tulumbă and Latin antlia.[11] Costinescu (1870) defines it as a machine for throwing water and refers to the form pumpă, which DLR finds in the same years in Stamati: „pumpa sau tulumba pneumatică” “the air pump”.[12][8] The fire pump, pompă de incendiu, took the place of the tulumbă.[13][2] From the water pump of a well the word passed to the street tap worked by a handle, and to household objects: the sink plunger and a rubber bulb for enemas.[2][7]

Timeline

  • 1835 – pompe “pumps” in Drăghici, the first record.[6][8]
  • 1848 – Negulici explains it with tulumbă.[11]
  • 1870 – Costinescu: a machine for throwing water, with a cross-reference to pumpă.[12]
  • 1929 – Șăineanu: a tulumbă or machine for raising water, and the fire pump.[14]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A pump: a machine that moves or compresses a fluid, often a cylinder with a piston worked by hand or by a motor;[2][7] pompă de incendiu “fire pump”.[2][7]
  2. A pump fitted to a well; by extension a street water tap worked by pressing a handle.[2][7]
  3. A rubber plunger for unblocking sinks.[7]

Word family

pompă2 pomp

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1688 preface of the Bucharest Bible
Borrowed from
Latin pompa
Ultimate origin
Ancient Greek πομπή
Etymology tree of pompă2
inherited borrowed derived
Ancient Greek πέμπω (pémpō)
Ancient Greek πομπή (pompḗ)
Latin pompa
English pomp
Romanian pompă
Spanish pompa
The journey of pompă2
From the same root · pompă2
English pompous ← πομπή
Latin pompōsus ← pompa

Pronunciation

Forms

pompă f (plural pompe)[1]

Etymology

The word for pomp is borrowed from Latin pompa (“procession, pomp”) and French pompe, as DEX gives it.[2] DLR and MDA2 add borrowed from Modern Greek πομπή (pompí), and Tiktin calls it an indirect borrowing of the Latin and Greek words.[8][7][6] Tamás calls it an international wandering word: in Transylvania it may have come through the Latin of Hungary, in modern times mostly from French, and in Axinte's chronicle a Latin word used in Poland is the likely source.[15] Ciorănescu dates the Latin sense to the 18th century.[9] The Latin word is from Ancient Greek πομπή (pompḗ, “a sending, solemn procession”), from πέμπω (pémpō, “to send”).[1][16] The old form pombă follows the Greek pronunciation, according to Scriban.[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the preface of the Bucharest Bible of 1688, which says that Constantine the Great did not want to boast of „ceale lumești biruințe și pompe” “worldly victories and pomps”.[8][6][7] The same Bible uses the word twice in the books of Maccabees.[17]

Semantic evolution

The 18th-century chroniclers use it for the solemn entry of a prince or a wedding, mostly in the phrase cu mare pompă “with great pomp”;[8] R. Greceanu writes cu pombă mare.[8] Axinte describes Prince Nicolae entering Iași „cu alaiu și cu pompă domnească” “with a retinue and princely pomp”.[6] From the splendid procession the sense widened to display and splendour in general.[2][7] Old uses include a face pompă de ceva “to make too much of something” and the protocol a dignitary had to keep.[7] The plural pompe funebre, the funeral services, has its own sense;[2][12] Costinescu (1870) already gives pompă funebră for the funeral ceremony.[2][12]

Timeline

  • 1688 – pompe in the preface of the Bucharest Bible, the first record.[8][6]
  • 18th century – cu mare pompă in the chronicles, and cu pombă mare in R. Greceanu.[8]
  • 1825 – the Lexicon de la Buda glosses it with Latin pompa, solennitas and German Pomp, Prunk.[18]
  • 1848 – Negulici: a great ceremony.[11]
  • 1870 – Costinescu: pompă funebră “funeral ceremony”.[12]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A retinue or procession full of splendour; by extension pomp, display, splendour: nunta s-a făcut cu mare pompă.[2][7]
  2. pompe funebre (plural): the undertakers, a firm that arranges funerals.[2]

Word family

  • pompos

Usage notes

DEX numbers the pump pompă¹ and pomp pompă².[2] Only the pump has the plural used in every sense; for pomp the plural is limited to pompe funebre.[2]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 847
  3. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. pompă
  4. ^ Costăchescu, Adriana; Dincă, Daniela; Dragoste, Ramona; Popescu, Mihaela; Scurtu, Gabriela (2009–2010), Dicționar de împrumuturi lexicale din limba franceză (DILF), 2 vols., Craiova: Universitaria, p. s.v. pompă
  5. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. pompă
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. pompă
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 461
  8. ^ 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. pompă
  9. ^ 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. pompă
  10. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1014
  11. ^ a b c Negulici, I. D. (1848), Vocabular romînesc de toate vorbele streine întroduse pînă acum în limba romînească și de toate cuvintele ce s-ar mai putea introduce încă, București, p. s.v. pompă
  12. ^ a b c d e Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 317
  13. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 495
  14. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 495
  15. ^ Tamás, Lajos (1966), Etymologisch-historisches Wörterbuch der ungarischen Elemente im Rumänischen, Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, p. 629
  16. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  17. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. 2 Macc 6:7
  18. ^ 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. 522

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Pompă.” Etymologically, 12 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/ro/pomp%C4%83. Accessed 12 Nov. 2026.

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