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prosti

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Etymology and origin of the Romanian word prosti

prosti1 to fool, make stupid

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
1703
Ultimate origin
Old Church Slavonic простъ
Etymology tree of prosti1
inherited borrowed derived
Romanian prost
Romanian prosti
From the same root · prosti1
Romanian prostesc ← prost
Romanian prostie ← prost

Pronunciation

Forms

prosti (third-person singular present prostește, past participle prostit) 4th conjugation[1]

Etymology

The verb for “to make stupid, to fool” is formed from Romanian prost + -i, on the adjective prost “stupid”.[2][3][4][1] The adjective is from Old Church Slavonic простъ (prostŭ, “simple”), whose first senses in Romanian were “simple, plain, common”.[5] Ciorănescu lists the verb among the adjective's derivatives and sets it beside its older homograph prosti2, from Slavonic “to forgive”, as a doublet.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1703, with the sense “to make stupid, dull”.[4] MDA2 and the DLR take their first record from the Lexicon de la Buda of 1825.[3][6]

Semantic evolution

The first sense is causative: to make someone stupid, to dull the mind; the reflexive a se prosti is to lose one's wits.[6][4] Eminescu has „Maistre Ruben, te-ai prostit rău de când nu ne-am mai văzut”, “Master Ruben, you have grown very stupid since we last met”.[7][4] Weaker senses followed: to lose one's composure, to be flustered, and of things, to lose quality and no longer serve their purpose.[6][2] The Lexicon de la Buda also recorded the rare sense “to grow ugly”.[6]

The colloquial sense “to deceive, to fool” is quoted from Rebreanu, Camil Petrescu and Preda: „Cucoana ne prostește cu vorba”, “the lady is fooling us with talk”.[6] The reflexive “to put on airs, to act affectedly” is colloquial too; the slang dictionaries add “to perform below one's ability”.[6][8] A rare sense “to disguise oneself” occurs in Conachi's poems.[6]

Timeline

  • 1703 – the first record Tiktin gives, “to make stupid”.[4]
  • 1825 – in the Lexicon de la Buda, “to make stupid” and “to grow ugly”.[3][6]
  • 1857 – the reflexive “to become stupid” in Polizu's dictionary.[6]
  • 1862 – Pontbriant glosses it French hébéter, and the reflexive s'abrutir.[9]

Meanings

Verb

  1. (reflexive) To lose one's power of thought, to become stupid;[2][3] (reflexive and transitive) to lose or make someone lose their composure, to fluster.[2][3]
  2. (transitive) To make someone stupid, to stupefy.[3][10]
  3. (reflexive, colloquial) To behave affectedly, to put on airs.[2][6]
  4. (reflexive, of things) To lose quality or value, to no longer serve its purpose.[2][3]
  5. (transitive, colloquial) To fool, to deceive, to lead on with talk: Nu mă mai prosti! “Stop fooling me!”[2][8]

prosti2 to beg for alms

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1626 a charter in the Documenta Romaniae Historica
Borrowed from
Old Church Slavonic простити
Ultimate origin
Old Church Slavonic простити

Pronunciation

Forms

prosti (third-person singular present prostește, past participle prostit) 4th conjugation[1]

Etymology

The verb for “to beg for alms” is borrowed from Old Church Slavonic простити (prostiti, “to forgive”).[2][3][4][6][5][1] The Slavonic verb meant “to set free, release” and “to forgive, pardon”, and with the reflexive pronoun “to give up an office”;[11] it is formed on Proto-Slavic *prostъ with *-iti.[1] Tiktin connects the begging sense with bogdaproste, the beggars' thanks for alms,[4] which Ciorănescu derives from a Slavonic formula meaning “may God forgive (your dead)”.[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is a charter of 1626.[4] He also quotes a charter in which an abbot was to keep his office for a full year and then step down before the synod: „să să prostească dennaintea săborului”.[4] The sense “to forgive, spare a punishment” is found in Dosoftei's Molitvelnic: „Tu, părinte, mă prostește”, “you, father, absolve me”.[6][3]

Semantic evolution

Old Romanian used the verb in the senses of the Slavonic original: to forgive, to grant a dispensation from a rule (in the Pravila of Govora, eating fish in Lent with the confessor's leave), and reciprocally to be reconciled.[6][4] The reflexive a se prosti de dregătorie meant “to resign an office”, used of a sultan's abdication and a vizier's dismissal in Văcărescu's history, and “to withdraw to a place”, as in a note of 1761 by a monk who retired to the Secu monastery.[6][4] All of these are obsolete; only the popular intransitive sense “to beg” survives, recorded by Pamfile in his collection of children's games and in the dictionaries since Șăineanu.[6][13]

Timeline

  • 1626 – să să prostească “to step down (from office)” in a charter.[4]
  • 1761 – “to withdraw” to the Secu monastery in a monk's note.[6]
  • 1929 – Șăineanu gives the sense “to beg”.[13]

Meanings

Verb

  1. (intransitive, popular) To beg for alms; a synonym of cerși.[2][3]
  2. (transitive, obsolete) To forgive someone, to spare them a punishment; to allow something forbidden.[3][6]
  3. (reciprocal, obsolete) To be reconciled.[3][6]
  4. (reflexive, obsolete) To resign an office, to abdicate; to withdraw to a place.[3][4]

Usage notes

DEX numbers the two verbs prosti¹ “to make stupid; to fool” and prosti² “to beg”, and MDA2 gives them separate articles.[2][3] A regional variant prosta exists beside the first verb.[3][6]

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 DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 887
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 574
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. prostí
  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. prost
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. prosti
  7. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 605
  8. ^ a b Volceanov, George (2007), Dicționar de argou al limbii române, București: Niculescu
  9. ^ Pontbriant, Raoul de (1862), Dictiunaru romano-francesu, Bucuresci: A. Ulrich / Göttingen: Dieterich, p. 593
  10. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional
  11. ^ Kurz, Josef; Hauptová, Zoe (eds.) (1958–1997), Slovník jazyka staroslověnského / Lexicon linguae palaeoslovenicae, 4 vols. + supplements, Praha: Academia; digital ed. gorazd.org
  12. ^ 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. bogdapróste
  13. ^ a b Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 520

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

“Prosti.” Etymologically, 12 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/ro/prosti. Accessed 12 Nov. 2026.

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