Etymologically
Log in

război

History Permalink

Etymology and origin of the Romanian word război

Romanian has two nouns spelled război: the word for war and the word for the loom;[1][2][3][4][5] DEX, MDA2, the DLR, Tiktin and Scriban give each its own article.[1][2][3][4][5] Both go back to the same Slavic derivative of the verb meaning “to break up, smash”, but they reached Romanian by different routes: the first through Church Slavonic, the second through the South Slavic languages of the Balkans.[6]

război1 war

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
c. 1500–1520 Psaltirea Hurmuzaki
Borrowed from
Old Church Slavonic разбои
Ultimate origin
Proto-Slavic *orzbojь

Pronunciation

Forms

război n (plural războaie)[7] The verb is reflexive: a se război (present mă războiesc, third-person singular se războiește, past participle războit), 4th conjugation.[7][4] Old prints spell the word răsboiu or resboi, and an old plural războiure is recorded beside războaie.[3][2]

Etymology

The word for war is borrowed from Old Church Slavonic разбои (razboi, “crime, murder”), a word of the Old Church Slavonic texts.[3][2][4][7][8] MDA2 and the DLR gloss the Slavonic source as “killing, plunder”, and DEX gives the same sense.[2][3][1] The Slavonic noun continues Proto-Slavic *orzbojь, a deverbal noun from *orzbiti (“to smash, break up”).[6][7] The BER records the Romanian loan with the sense “war; battle”, after Domaschke and Mihăilă.[6] Scriban traces the Slavonic noun to бои (boi, “blow, fight”), from the verb “to beat”, and links it with Romanian răzbi.[5]

Cognates show a range of meanings around violence: Serbo-Croatian razboj (“warfare, combat”) (also “battlefield”), Russian разбой (razboj, “robbery”) and Slovene razboj (“battle”).[7][6] Wiktionary compares Aromanian arãzboi.[7] The reflexive verb “to wage war” was formed on the noun in Romanian, as MDA2, DEX and Tiktin state.[2][1][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The roPsalt index records război in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century (Psalm 67:34).[9] Tiktin dates the word to the Psaltirea Scheiană (Psalm 17:35), where it means “battle”.[4] MDA2 cites the Codicele Voronețean (c. 1563–1583) as its first record; there războie renders the “strife” of the Epistle of James (3:16): „Iuo sântu zavistire și războie” “where there are envy and strife”.[2][3] The New Testament of 1648 has mânia “anger” at that place, and the Bible of 1688 prigonire “persecution”.[3]

Semantic evolution

In the old texts the word meant first a battle, a single fight: Tiktin's quotations from the Bible of 1688 and the chroniclers speak of “giving battle” (a da război) and “making war” (a face război).[4][3] The old language had other words for a whole war, oaste among them, and the biblical război rendered Ancient Greek πόλεμος (pólemos), which covered both battle and war.[4] By the 17th century the chronicles of Ureche, Costin and Neculce used it for war between states.[3] The DLR also records the old senses “inner struggle, turmoil” (Coresi) and “quarrel, enmity” (the Codicele Voronețean, Dosoftei), and a figurative “fight” against the waters or with one's teachers.[3] An obsolete sense is “manner of fighting, tactics”, recorded in 1645.[3][2]

Modern set phrases include război civil, război mondial, război rece “Cold War” and război psihologic.[1][2] Recent press usage extends it to any confrontation, as in a “war” between rival transport companies, and coins terms after English ones such as război asimetric after asymmetric war.[10] The reflexive verb a se război means “to wage war, to fight one another”, also figuratively of the elements.[3][4]

Timeline

  • c. 1500-1520 – război in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.[9]
  • c. 1563-1583 – războie “strife” in the Codicele Voronețean.[2][3]
  • c. 1573-1578 – “battle” in the Psaltirea Scheiană.[4]
  • c. 1642-1647 – war between states in Grigore Ureche's chronicle.[3]
  • 1645 – “manner of fighting” in a chronograph.[3]
  • c. 1670 – the reflexive verb a se război in the Anonymus Caransebesiensis.[4]
  • 1688 – războiul and războaie throughout the Bucharest Bible.[11][4]
  • early 18th century – s-au războit in a text published in the Magazin istoric, MDA2's first record for the verb.[2][3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. war: a lasting armed conflict between states, nations or groups.[1][2][7]
  2. război civil: a civil war;[1][2] război rece: a cold war, a state of hostility between states without open fighting;[1][2] stare de război: a state of war, beligeranță.[1][2]
  3. (figurative) A quarrel, a feud or bitter rivalry.[1]
  4. (obsolete) A battle; a way of fighting, tactics.[4][2]

Verb

  1. (reflexive) To wage war, to fight (with someone); also figuratively.[1][2][7]

Word family

  • războire

război2 loom

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1703
Borrowed from
Bulgarian разбой
Ultimate origin
Proto-Slavic *orzbiti

Pronunciation

Forms

război n (plural războaie)[7]

Etymology

The word for the loom is borrowed from Bulgarian разбой (razboj, “loom”) or Serbo-Croatian razboj, as DEX, the DLR and MDA2 state;[1][3][2][4][5] Tiktin and Scriban compare the same Serbian and Bulgarian words.[1][3][2][4][5] The BER records the Bulgarian dialect word for the household loom across Macedonia, Thrace and western Bulgaria, and the same sense in Serbo-Croatian; it explains them as a South Slavic derivative of Proto-Slavic *orzbiti (“to break up”), formed beside the older Slavic *stanъ, and names the Romanian loom word among its loans, after Mihăilă.[6] The same Balkan word is Aromanian arãzboi (“loom”).[12][6]

The sources keep this word apart from the word for war, which entered Romanian from Church Slavonic with the sense of violence; the loom word reached Romanian from the living South Slavic languages.[1][3][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record of the loom sense is from 1703.[13] MDA2 and the DLR cite first Polizu's Romanian–German dictionary of 1857.[2][3]

Semantic evolution

The word is the Wallachian and Transylvanian name of the household loom;[13][5] Moldavia says stative instead.[13][5] Tiktin lists the parts named in Romanian, from the breast beam (sulul de dinainte) to the treadles (iepele).[13] With weaving mills it came to mean the mechanical loom too.[14][1]

Regional senses extend it to other wooden frames: a frame for drying tobacco in Oltenia and Muntenia, the frame of a window or icon, the roof truss, the carriage of a water-driven saw and a part of the windmill.[2][3][15] In Maramureș it is also the frame on which hides are stretched for scraping.[16] In Moldavia Tiktin records it as the name of a tune played at weddings while the bride's dowry is carried to the groom's house.[13]

Timeline

  • 1703 – the first record of the loom sense.[13]
  • 1857 – război “loom” in Polizu's dictionary.[2][3]
  • 1955–1957 – the DLRLC adds the industrial weaving machine.[14]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A loom: a machine for weaving cloth from textile fibres.[1][2][7]
  2. A household hand loom;[1][2] (regional) stative.[1][2]
  3. (regional) A wooden frame or support: for drying tobacco, of a window, of a roof, of a sawmill.[2][3]
  • războinic
  • răzbi
  • Old Church Slavonic разбои (razboi)
  • Aromanian arãzboi

Usage notes

DEX gives the reflexive verb as a third headword, război³, formed on război¹ “war”.[1] The proverb după război mulți viteji se arată “after the war many heroes appear” mocks those who are brave once the danger is over.[14][4]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1, 921
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 651
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. război
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. război
  5. ^ a b c d e f g Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1, 1102
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Georgiev, Vladimir I. et al. (eds.) (1971–), Bălgarski etimologičen rečnik, Sofija: Izdatelstvo na Bălgarskata akademija na naukite, p. 6, 148
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  8. ^ Kurz, Josef; Hauptová, Zoe (eds.) (1958–1997), Slovník jazyka staroslověnského / Lexicon linguae palaeoslovenicae, 4 vols. + supplements, Praha: Academia; digital ed. gorazd.org
  9. ^ a b Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Ungureanu, Mădălina; Moruz, Alexandru et al., roPsalt: Re-evaluating the Sixteenth Century Romanian Psalters (aligned corpus), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. Ps 67:34
  10. ^ Dimitrescu, Florica (1997), Dicționar de cuvinte recente, 2nd ed., București: Logos (with the 3rd ed., 2013, in CLRE), p. s.v. război
  11. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Ex 1:10
  12. ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net)
  13. ^ 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. răzbói 2
  14. ^ a b c Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 689
  15. ^ Marin, Maria; Mărgărit, Iulia, Glosar dialectal. Muntenia, București: Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti”, p. 365
  16. ^ Ștef, Dorin (2011), Dicționar de regionalisme și arhaisme din Maramureș, Baia Mare: Ethnologica, p. s.v. război

Related etymologies

  • da · also from Bulgarian
  • lin · also from Bulgarian
  • grijă · also from Bulgarian
  • ciudat · also from Bulgarian
  • ba · also from Bulgarian
  • grozav · also from Bulgarian
  • păstra · also from Bulgarian
  • bolnav · also from Bulgarian
Cite this entry

“Război.” Etymologically, 11 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/ro/r%C4%83zboi. Accessed 12 Nov. 2026.

Last edited on . ·