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
From the same root
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
- A magazine or journal: a periodical with articles, studies and reviews in various fields or in one specialty.[4][5]
- (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]
- A variety show of dances, songs and comic sketches on current subjects; a revue.[4][12]
Related words
- 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
- ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ 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
- ^ 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
- ^ 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
- ^ 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
- ^ a b c Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 548
- ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier, p. s.v. rivista
- ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1124
- ^ a b c Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. revistă
- ^ a b c Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 443
- ^ a b Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. revistă
- ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. revistă
- ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. revistă
Related etymologies
Cite this entry
“Revistă.” Etymologically, 12 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/ro/revist%C4%83. Accessed 12 Nov. 2026.
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