Etymology and origin of the Romanian word porter
porter1 dark beer
Etymology tree of porter1
Forms
porter n (uncountable)[1]
Etymology
The word for the beer is borrowed from English porter, as DLR and MDA2 give it.[2][3] DEX and Wiktionary also name the French porter beside the English word.[4][1]
Earliest recorded meaning
The first record is Heliade's 1847 translation of Byron's Don Juan: „Ar fi preferat o oală de porter” “he would have preferred a pot of porter”.[2][3]
Semantic evolution
Costinescu (1870) explained it as a kind of English beer.[5] Negruzzi has a breakfast of cutlets with a glass of porter instead of chocolate.[2] The DLRLC of the 1950s labels the word dated.[6]
Timeline
- 1847 – Heliade's Don Juan, the first record.[2][3]
- 1870 – Costinescu glosses it as a kind of English beer.[5]
- 1955–1957 – labelled dated in the DLRLC.[6]
Meanings
Noun
porter2 carrier
Etymology tree of porter2
From the same root · porter2
Forms
porter m (plural porteri)[3][7]
Etymology
The word for the carrier is borrowed from French porteur, according to MDA2, DN and MDN.[3][7][8]
Earliest recorded meaning
MDA2's first record is the third edition of the Dicționar de neologisme (1978), in the sense of someone who carries loads on his back.[3]
Meanings
Noun
Usage notes
DEX 2009 lists only the beer;[4][3][8] MDA2 has both words as separate headwords, and MDN numbers the carrier porter¹.[4][3][8]
References
- ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ a b c d Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. porter
- ^ 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, 475
- ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 852
- ^ a b Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 321
- ^ a b Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 507
- ^ a b c Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. porter
- ^ a b c Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. porter
Related etymologies
Cite this entry
“Porter.” Etymologically, 12 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/ro/porter. Accessed 12 Nov. 2026.
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