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Etymology and origin of the Romanian word roman

roman1 novel

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1799 a text in Gaster's chrestomathy (before 1799)
Borrowed from
French roman
Ultimate origin
Latin Rōma
Etymology tree of roman1
inherited borrowed derived
French roman
German Roman
Romanian roman

Pronunciation

Forms

roman n (plural romane)[1] Older forms were romans, romant, romanț and romanță, with the plural romanuri.[2][3] Mumuleanu writes „Romanțuri ce le smintesc” “novels that lead them astray”.[4]

Etymology

The word for the novel is borrowed from French roman.[5][3][1] The old form ⟨romanț⟩ follows Italian romanzo, and ⟨romans⟩ follows Russian романс (romans).[3][6][2] The French word comes from Old French romanz, a story in the vernacular as opposed to Latin, which goes back to Vulgar Latin *rōmānicē (“in the Roman way”), from rōmānus.[6][7][8] Ciorănescu counts it among the learned doublets of român.[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

MDA2 and Tiktin date the first record to 1799, in a text printed in Gaster's chrestomathy that speaks of the Italians' delight in reading a short comic romance.[2][3][4] The word then meant an invented story; a text of the early 19th century explains that it means nothing more than a made-up tale.[4]

Semantic evolution

In the first half of the 19th century the forms with -ț and -s after Italian and Russian competed with roman.[4][6] Scriban (1939) still thought romanț the better form, though by then it was used only in jest.[6] The neuter plural romane won over romanuri.[4][10]

The modern sense is the long prose narrative with many characters.[5][2] The word also names the medieval narrative works in prose or verse written in a Romance language.[5] In a figurative use it means a series of events that seem too strange to be true, and colloquially a love affair.[5][11] Compounds such as roman-cronică “chronicle novel” appear in the press from the 1960s on.[12]

Timeline

  • before 1799 – roman “invented story” in a text of Gaster's chrestomathy, the first record.[2][3]
  • 1825 – romanțuri “novels” in Mumuleanu.[4]
  • 1870 – Costinescu defines the roman as a fictional story of adventures.[13]
  • 1939 – Scriban notes that romanț is used only ironically.[6]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A novel: a long work of narrative fiction with a complex plot and many characters.[5][2]
  2. A romance: a medieval narrative in prose or verse written in a Romance language.[5]
  3. (figurative) A string of events that seem unbelievable;[11] (colloquial) a love affair.[5][11]

roman2 Roman

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
c. 1660–1680 a text in Gaster's chrestomathy
Borrowed from
Latin romanus
Ultimate origin
Latin Rōma
Etymology tree of roman2
inherited borrowed derived
Latin Rōma
Romanian roman
From the same root · roman2
Latin Rōmānus ← Rōma

Pronunciation

Forms

roman m or n (feminine singular romană, masculine plural romani, feminine/neuter plural romane)[1]

Etymology

The word for “Roman” is borrowed from Latin rōmānus (“of Rome, Roman”), with French romain and Italian romano as models.[5][2][3][1] Nocentini notes that it was transmitted by learned channels.[14] It is in turn formed from Latin Rōma + -ānus.[15][1]

The same Latin word was inherited as român “Romanian”, older rumân, with Aromanian armãn and Istro-Romanian rumăr.[9][1] Ciorănescu also counts the novel and the plant name of the same spelling among its doublets.[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

MDA2 dates the first record to between 1660 and 1680, in a text printed in Gaster's chrestomathy: „Acolo lângă Turda, sus în coastă, au fost un oraș foarte frumos al romanilor” “there, near Turda, up on the hillside, there was a very fine city of the Romans”.[2][4] Tiktin also dates it to about 1660.[3]

Semantic evolution

The noun first named the citizens of ancient Rome and of its empire.[4][2] It was used for the Romans of Dacia in the national history of the 19th century, as in Bălcescu.[4] MDA2 also records it for the people of the Holy Roman Empire and for the inhabitants of modern Rome.[2]

The adjective took on the sense “Catholic” in biserica romană “the Catholic Church”, and cifre romane are Roman numerals.[5][2] A newspaper of 1848 already speaks of litere romane “Latin letters”.[4] The feminine romana became the name of a quadrille that turned into a folk dance; in Transylvania roman names the dance of the călușari.[4][2] Costinescu (1870) also gives the printers' litere romane, upright type as opposed to italics.[13]

Timeline

  • c. 1660–1680 – romanilor “of the Romans” in a text of Gaster's chrestomathy, the first record.[2][4]
  • 1825 – Romanu “Roman” in the Lexicon de la Buda, with Latin Romanus.[16]
  • 1848 – litere romane “Latin letters” in Curierul românesc.[4]
  • 1870 – biserică romană “Catholic Church” in Costinescu.[13]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Roman: of ancient Rome or of the empire it founded; of the city of Rome.[5][2]
  2. cifre romane Roman numerals;[17] biserica romană the Catholic Church.[5][2]

Noun

  1. A citizen of ancient Rome or of the Roman Empire.[5][2]
  2. An inhabitant of Rome.[5]
  3. (feminine, articled: romana) A kind of quadrille that became a folk dance.[2][4]
  • român
  • aromân
  • romanic
  • romaniță
  • Latin rōmānus

Usage notes

MDA2 has a third roman, a regional name of camomile and of related plants, also romon, borrowed from Ukrainian роман (roman).[2] Tiktin dates it to 1783 and traces it through Slavic to Latin rōmānus, as in the German name römische Kamille.[3] The Bulgarian etymological dictionary links the Slavic plant names to Latin anthemis rōmāna.[17] The diminutive is romaniță.[3]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 722
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. roman
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. roman
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 960
  6. ^ a b c d e Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1135
  7. ^ Gabinschi, Marcu (2001), Dicționar de dublete etimologice ale limbii române, 2nd ed., Chișinău: Litera, p. 154
  8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. roman
  9. ^ 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. român
  10. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 769
  11. ^ a b c Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. roman
  12. ^ Dimitrescu, Florica (1997), Dicționar de cuvinte recente, 2nd ed., București: Logos (with the 3rd ed., 2013, in CLRE), p. s.v. roman
  13. ^ a b c Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 449
  14. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  15. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  16. ^ 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. 593
  17. ^ a b Georgiev, Vladimir I. et al. (eds.) (1971–), Bălgarski etimologičen rečnik, Sofija: Izdatelstvo na Bălgarskata akademija na naukite, p. 6, 316

Related etymologies

  • cap · also from French
  • dura · also from French
  • pur · also from French
  • pană · also from French
  • pat · also from French
  • masă · also from French
  • lac · also from French
  • primar · also from French
Cite this entry

“Roman.” Etymologically, 12 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/ro/roman. Accessed 12 Nov. 2026.

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