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Etymology and origin of the Romanian word por

por1 pore

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1705 Cantemir's Istoria ieroglifică
Borrowed from
French pore
Ultimate origin
Ancient Greek πείρω
Etymology tree of por1
inherited borrowed derived
Ancient Greek πόρος (póros)
Latin porus
English pore
Spanish poro
Romanian por
From the same root · por1
Ancient Greek ἔμπορος (émporos) ← πόρος
Ancient Greek πορεύομαι (poreúomai) ← πόρος
Ancient Greek πορεύω (poreúō) ← πόρος
English porous ← πόρος
Latin porōsus ← porus
Spanish poroso ← poro

Forms

por m (plural pori)[1]

Etymology

The word for the pore is borrowed from French pore, also directly Latin porus (“passage, channel in the body”), as DEX, DN and MDN give it, a neologism with several sources.[2][3][4] MDA2 adds Modern Greek πόρος (póros), Italian poro and German Pore.[5] Tiktin gives Greek or Latin, and Scriban Latin alone.[6][7]

The Latin word is from Ancient Greek πόρος (póros, “passage, ford, strait”),[8][1] which is formed on πείρω (peírō, “to pierce, run through”).[1][9] The French word comes from the Late Latin one, first in the late 13th century.[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin and MDA2 date the first record to Cantemir's Istoria ieroglifică of 1705.[6][5]

Semantic evolution

The word first named the tiny openings in the skin through which sweat passes;[11] Negulici's dictionary of 1848 defines it so.[11] The 19th-century dictionaries extend it to the minute gaps in any body, glass, wood, metal or plants.[12][13] Botany uses it for the openings in plant cell walls and in the tubes of some fungi.[5]

Timeline

  • 1705 – in Cantemir's Istoria ieroglifică.[6][5]
  • 1848 – in Negulici's dictionary of neologisms.[11]
  • 1870 – also of the pores of glass, wood and metals.[12]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A small opening in the skin, the outlet of a sweat gland or sebaceous gland: porii pielii.[2][1]
  2. (botany) An opening in the wall of a plant cell through which water, gases and nutrients pass.[2][5]
  3. A tiny empty space inside a solid body.[2][4]

por2 leek

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
1688
Inherited from
Latin porrum
Ultimate origin
Latin porrum
Etymology tree of por2
inherited borrowed derived
Latin porrum
Romanian por
Romanian pur

Forms

por m (plural pori)[1] Variant: pur, the form MDA2 and Tiktin use as headword, with the regional forms por and poriu.[14][15]

Etymology

The word for the leek is inherited from Latin porrum (“leek”) (also porrus), and Ciorănescu calls it certainly inherited.[16][17][1] MDA2 and Tiktin give the same etymon for the variant pur, whose /u/ Tiktin finds surprising.[14][15] Its Romance cognates include Italian porro, Catalan porre, Spanish puerro and Portuguese porro.[17][18] The Latin word is related to Ancient Greek πράσον (práson, “leek”).[19][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates pur to 1688, from Pașca's study of personal names;[14] MDA2's first record is the Lexicon de la Buda of 1825.[15][14]

Semantic evolution

The word is popular and regional;[1] Ciorănescu records it in Dâmbovița, and the standard word for the leek is praz.[16][1] It names several kinds of Allium: the garden leek, wild garlics and the shallot.[16][14] Tiktin also records pur for the great mullein.[15]

Timeline

  • 1688 – pur, in a record from Pașca's study of names.[15]
  • 1825 – pur in the Lexicon de la Buda.[14]
  • 1870 – por and pur in Cihac's dictionary of the Latin element.[20]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (popular) The leek (Allium porrum).[16][1]
  2. (popular) Wild garlic, the sand leek (Allium scorodoprasum); the shallot (Allium ascalonicum).[16][1]

Usage notes

MDA2 records two minor homographs: por “small haystack” in Bucovina and Transylvania, compared with porșor and porcan, and por as a variant of poară.[5] Tiktin also records Por, King Porus of the Alexander romance, as a byword for riches.[21]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 850
  3. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. por
  4. ^ a b Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. por
  5. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 470
  6. ^ 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. por 3
  7. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1018
  8. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  9. ^ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  10. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. pore
  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. por
  12. ^ a b Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 322
  13. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 497
  14. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 602
  15. ^ a b c d e Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. pur 1
  16. ^ a b c d e 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. por
  17. ^ a b Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 118
  18. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6670
  19. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  20. ^ Cihac, A. de (1870), Dictionnaire d'étymologie daco-romane I: Éléments latins comparés avec les autres langues romanes, Frankfurt am Main, p. 212
  21. ^ Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. por 2

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Por.” Etymologically, 11 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/ro/por. Accessed 12 Nov. 2026.

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