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popă

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Etymology and origin of the Romanian word popă

Confidence
Probable
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1435 Slavonic charters More words from the 15th century
Borrowed from
Old Church Slavonic попъ
Ultimate origin
Ancient Greek πάππας

Pronunciation

Forms

popă m (plural popi)[1] MDA2 lists the old variant pop, the regional feminine poapă (plural poape), the old genitive popei and the vocative popo.[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old Church Slavonic попъ (popŭ, “priest”), a word of the Slavonic church.[3][4][2][1] MDA2 also names the Slavonic form попа (popa).[2] Ciorănescu, following Miklosich and Cihac, traces the Slavonic word to Byzantine Greek πάπας (pápas) and compares Bulgarian поп (pop) and Polish pop.[3] Wiktionary traces it to Ancient Greek πάππας (páppas, “daddy, papa”), a word of children's speech.[1] Vasmer instead takes the Slavic word from Old High German pfaffo (“priest”), because it is found in West Slavic too.[5] Gabinschi thinks Romanian most likely took it from Serbo-Croatian pop.[6]

Scriban derived it from Latin popa (“sacrificial attendant”), and Wiktionary mentions a Latin origin as an alternative.[7][1] South of the Danube, Aromanian popã and Megleno-Romanian popă are Bulgarian loans, according to Papahagi and Capidan.[8][9] papă “pope” is a doublet.[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is from the Slavonic charters of 1435.[10] In Romanian texts MDA2 dates it to Coresi's book of homilies of 1581.[2] A Coresi print quoted by Tiktin says the priest should speak the word of God in the language the people speak.[10]

Semantic evolution

In old texts popă was the ordinary word for a priest: the Bucharest Bible of 1688 calls the chief priests mai marii popilor.[10] Today it is popular or familiar, often slighting, beside the neutral preot.[4][11] Many sayings use it: a plăti ca popa “to pay in full”, a da ortul popii “to die”, and a i se duce vestea ca de popă tuns “to cause a great stir”, like a defrocked priest.[4][10]

The word also names the king in a pack of cards and the largest pin in skittles.[4][10] In Transylvania and Maramureș it is the sheaf set on top of a stack, and in Bukovina it means a fast.[3][12] Plant names use it too: barba popii is the wild carrot.[10]

Timeline

  • 1435 – first record, in the Slavonic charters.[10]
  • 1581 – popă in Coresi's book of homilies.[2]
  • 1660 – popă glosses Slavonic “priest” in a Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.[13]
  • 1688 – popilor “of the priests” in the Bucharest Bible.[10]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (popular, familiar) A priest, especially an Orthodox one;[4][2][1] popa satului.[4][2][1]
  2. (playing cards) The king;[4][10][1] popa de treflă;[4][10][1] popa prostul, a card game lost by the player left with the king.[4][10][1]
  3. The largest pin in popice, set in the middle.[4][14]
  4. (regional) The sheaf placed on top of a stack of grain.[3][12][14]

Word family

  • popesc
  • popește
  • popi
  • popie
  • popime
  • răspopi
  • răspopă

Usage notes

The card sense, popă “king”, is a sense of the same word.[4][1] Common expressions are a-și găsi popa “to meet one's match” and uite popa, nu e popa, said of someone who keeps changing their mind.[4]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 466
  3. ^ 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. popă
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 849
  5. ^ Vasmer, Max (1964–1973), Ètimologičeskij slovar' russkogo jazyka, transl. and suppl. by O. N. Trubačev, 4 vols., Moskva: Progress
  6. ^ Gabinschi, Marcu (2001), Dicționar de dublete etimologice ale limbii române, 2nd ed., Chișinău: Litera, p. 143
  7. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1016
  8. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 872
  9. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 229
  10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. popă
  11. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 499
  12. ^ a b Ștef, Dorin (2021), Dicționar de regionalisme și arhaisme din județul Maramureș, 3rd ed., Baia Mare, p. s.v. popă
  13. ^ Ungureanu, Mădălina; Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Moruz, Alexandru (eds.), eRomLex: The First Romanian Bilingual Dictionaries (17th century), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. s.v. popă
  14. ^ a b Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. popă

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

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

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