Etymologically

Etymology and origin of the Romanian word revistă

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1825 Lexicon de la Buda More words from the 19th century
Borrowed from
Italian rivista
Ultimate origin
Italian rivedere
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin videō
French voir
Italian vedere
Romanian vedea
Spanish ver
Latin revideō
Spanish rever
Italian rivedere
Italian rivista
Romanian revistă
The word's journey
From the same root
English video ← videō
French entrevoir ← videō
French revue ← videō
French vue ← videō
Italian provvedere ← videō
Latin ēvidēns ← videō
Latin invideō ← videō
Latin pervideō ← videō
Latin praevideō ← videō
Latin prōvideō ← videō
Latin vidēlicet ← videō
Latin vīsibilis ← videō
Latin vīsiō ← videō
Latin vīsum ← videō
Latin vīsus ← videō
Romanian evident ← videō
Romanian vedere ← videō
French revoir ← voir
Italian visto ← vedere
Romanian prevedea ← vedea
Romanian revedea ← vedea
Spanish prever ← ver
Latin revīsiō ← revideō
Italian arrivederci ← rivedere

Pronunciation

  • [reˈvi.stə][1]

Forms

revistă f (plural reviste)[1] Before it, Tiktin records the French-based răviue in Budai-Deleanu (about 1800): „au vrut să facă, precum să zice, răviue, adecă cercetare de oștile țiganești” “he wanted to hold, as they say, a review, that is an inspection of the Gypsy troops”.[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Italian rivista.[3][4][1] DEX and MDA2 compare French revue, and MDA2 and Tiktin also Spanish revista; Șăineanu saw the word as modelled on the French one.[4][5][2][6] The Italian noun is formed on the past participle of rivedere (“to see again, revise”); its senses “inspection of troops” and “periodical” follow the French word, which owes the second to English review.[7][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the word to Budai-Deleanu, about 1800, where the older form răviue means a military review.[2] The form revistă is first recorded in the Lexicon de la Buda of 1825.[5][9]

Semantic evolution

The military sense, an inspection of troops, appears in Bălcescu, and the phrase a trece în revistă “to review” is old: Costinescu in 1870 has it both for troops and figuratively, “to examine in order to criticize”.[2][10] The sense “periodical” is in Alecu Russo, who speaks of spending months among the gazete, reviste of Paris and Iași.[2][9] Costinescu notes it as the title of periodical works.[10] By 1929 the word also named a stage show passing the events of the year in review; today it is a variety show.[6][4] Aromanian revistã was borrowed from Italian through Romanian.[1]

Timeline

  • c. 1800 – răviue “military review” in Budai-Deleanu.[2]
  • 1825 – revistă in the Lexicon de la Buda.[5][9]
  • 1870 – “inspection”, “review of troops”, a trece în revistă and periodical titles in Costinescu.[10]
  • 1929 – a theatre revue of the year's events, in Șăineanu.[6]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A magazine or journal: a periodical with articles, studies and reviews in various fields or in one specialty.[4][5]
  2. (military) A review of troops;[4][11] trecere în revistă is the ceremony of an officer passing along the front of a unit that salutes.[4][11]
  3. A variety show of dances, songs and comic sketches on current subjects; a revue.[4][12]
  • Aromanian revistã
  • French revue

Usage notes

A trece în revistă means “to examine one by one, to go over”: a trecut în revistă toate propunerile.[4][13]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ 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. revistă
  3. ^ 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. revistă
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 952
  5. ^ a b c d Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 703
  6. ^ a b c Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 548
  7. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier, p. s.v. rivista
  8. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1124
  9. ^ a b c Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. revistă
  10. ^ a b c Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 443
  11. ^ a b Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. revistă
  12. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. revistă
  13. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. revistă

Related etymologies

  • casă · also from Italian
  • la · also from Italian
  • fugă · also from Italian
  • vioară · also from Italian
  • abate · also from Italian
  • arie · also from Italian
  • cameră · also from Italian
  • special · also from Italian
Cite this entry

“Revistă.” Etymologically, 12 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/ro/revist%C4%83. Accessed 12 Nov. 2026.

Last edited on . ·