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potrivire

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Etymology and origin of the Romanian word potrivire

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
c. 1563–1583 Codicele Voronețean, as protivire More words from the 16th century
Ultimate origin
Old Church Slavonic противъ
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Romanian potrivi
Romanian potrivire
From the same root
Romanian potrivit ← potrivi

Forms

potrivire f (plural potriviri)[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian potrivi + -re, as the long infinitive of the verb used as a noun.[2][3][4][1] The verb is formed on the noun potrivă “equal, match”,[1][5] which is from Old Church Slavonic противъ (protivŭ, “against”).[5][1] Tiktin connects the oldest sense, “resistance”, with the same noun and with potrivnic “hostile”.[6] The old spelling ⟨protivire⟩ matches the old ⟨protivă⟩ and the Slavonic order of sounds.[4][6][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is from the Codicele Voronețean, the 16th-century Romanian Acts of the Apostles (Acts 24:5), in the form protivire and the old sense “opposition, resistance”.[6][3] MDA2 dates the word to Coresi's book of homilies of 1581.[4]

Semantic evolution

The sense “opposition”, which follows the Slavonic word for “against”, is now obsolete; it was still used by Nicolae Costin.[3][4] The word came to mean likeness and correspondence, then equality: in 19th-century arithmetic the sign = marked a potrivire between two quantities.[3] Pontbriant in 1862 gave “proportion, equality, conformity” and the craft sense of fitting two pieces together.[7] Barcianu recorded singing în potrivirea glasurilor, in unison.[8]

Modern Romanian uses it chiefly for the act of fitting, arranging or adjusting something and for agreement between things or people.[2][9] In popular speech it also means chance and coincidence.[4] The negative nepotrivire “mismatch, discord” was formed from it.[6]

Timeline

  • c. 1563–1583 – protivire “opposition” in the Codicele Voronețean.[6][3]
  • 1581 – in Coresi's homilies.[4]
  • c. 1660–1670 – in a Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.[10]
  • 1801 – in Klein's dictionary.[11]
  • 1825 – in the Lexicon de la Buda.[12]
  • 1862 – Pontbriant: “proportion, equality, conformity”.[7]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The act of fitting, placing or adjusting something, and its result.[2][4]
  2. Agreement, match, correspondence between things or people.[9][1]
  3. Likeness, similarity.[4][3]
  4. (popular) Chance, coincidence.[4]
  5. (obsolete) Opposition, resistance.[4][6]

Word family

  • nepotrivire

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 857
  3. ^ 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. potrivire
  4. ^ 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, 491
  5. ^ a b c 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. potrivă
  6. ^ a b c d e f Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. potrivire
  7. ^ a b Pontbriant, Raoul de (1862), Dictiunaru romano-francesu, Bucuresci: A. Ulrich / Göttingen: Dieterich, p. 570
  8. ^ Barcianu, Sava Popovici (1886), Dicționar român-germân și germân-român, revised by D. P. Barcianu, part I: român-germân, Sibiu: Institut tipografic, p. 492
  9. ^ a b Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 522
  10. ^ 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. potrivire
  11. ^ Gáldi, László (ed.) (1944), Samuel Klein: Dictionarium valachico-latinum. Primul dicționar al limbii române, Budapest: Királyi Magyar Pázmány Péter Tudományegyetemi Román Intézet (Klein's dictionary of 1801, with Gáldi's etymological study), p. 422
  12. ^ 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. 532

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

“Potrivire.” Etymologically, 12 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/ro/potrivire. Accessed 12 Nov. 2026.

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