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Etymology and origin of the Romanian word rus

rus1 Russian

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1451 place name Ruși in a Slavo-Romanian document
Borrowed from
Russian русь
Ultimate origin
Russian русь

Pronunciation

Forms

rus m (plural ruși, feminine equivalent rusoaică)[1]

Etymology

The word for a person from Russia is borrowed from Russian русь (rusʹ).[2][3][1] Tiktin derives it from Old Church Slavonic instead.[4] Ciorănescu does not treat it separately: he lists the noun “Russian”, together with the sense “cockroach”, among the derivatives of rus2 “red-haired”.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the place name Ruși “Russians” in a document of 1451.[4] MDA2's first record of the common noun is in Nicolae Costin's chronicle of Moldavia.[3]

Semantic evolution

Besides the person and the adjective “Russian”, the feminine rusă came to name the Russian language.[2][3] In Bessarabia the noun once also meant a servant or farmhand.[4] The feminine noun is rusoaică in the west and colloquially ruscă in the east.[6][4]

Timeline

  • 1451 – the place name Ruși.[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A Russian: a person of the main population of Rusia or one born there.[2][3]
  2. (feminine, rusă) The Russian language.[2][3]

Adjective

  1. Of or belonging to Russia or the Russians: literatura rusă.[2][7]

Word family

  • rusesc
  • rusește
  • rusifica
  • rusoaică
  • rusnac

rus2 red-haired

Confidence
Probable
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
c. 1670 Anonymus Caransebesiensis
Borrowed from
Old Church Slavonic роусъ
Ultimate origin
Proto-Slavic *rusъ

Pronunciation

Forms

rus m or n (feminine singular rusă, masculine plural ruși, feminine/neuter plural ruse)[1]

Etymology

The word for “red-haired, ruddy” is borrowed from Old Church Slavonic роусъ (rusŭ, “fair, reddish”), from Proto-Slavic *rusъ.[5][1][8] MDA2 and the DLR name Bulgarian рус (rus) and Serbo-Croatian rus as the source.[3][9] The Bulgarian word means “fair, light-haired”.[10]

Pușcariu and the REW derived it from Latin russus (“red”) instead, the source of Italian rosso and French roux.[11][12] Ciorănescu and Tiktin reject this, since the Latin word gave roșu.[5][8] The word survives south of the Danube: Aromanian arus and Megleno-Romanian rus.[5][13]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Romanian–Latin glossary known as the Anonymus Caransebesiensis, of about 1670, with the sense “red”.[8][3]

Semantic evolution

The word stayed old and regional, said above all of the reddish-brown hair of animals: an official notice of 1878 describes a young buffalo „în păr rus” “with reddish hair”.[8][9] The expression a fi rus was said of a man with a red face and red hair.[3][9] Ciorănescu glosses it “blond”, Scriban “reddish brown”.[5][6]

Timeline

  • c. 1670 – rus “red” in the Anonymus Caransebesiensis.[8][3]
  • 1878 – în păr rus “with reddish hair”, of a buffalo.[8]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. (obsolete, regional) red, ruddy, especially of an animal's hair.[3][8]
  2. (regional) blond, fair.[5]

Usage notes

Rus also names an insect, the German cockroach (Blatta germanica), and in places a beetle and a fish, the gudgeon; it is first recorded in Marian's book on insects (1903).[3][9] MDA2 and the DLR leave this word's origin unknown.[3][9] Tiktin and Wiktionary list it under rus “Russian”, and Tiktin glosses it with German Russe as well as Schabe.[4][1] Ciorănescu derives it from rus “red”.[5]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 968
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 738
  4. ^ 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. rus 2
  5. ^ a b c d e f g 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. rus
  6. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1143
  7. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. rus
  8. ^ a b c d e f g Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. rus 1
  9. ^ a b c d e Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. rus
  10. ^ Georgiev, Vladimir I. et al. (eds.) (1971–), Bălgarski etimologičen rečnik, Sofija: Izdatelstvo na Bălgarskata akademija na naukite, p. 6, 348
  11. ^ Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 133
  12. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 7466
  13. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 157

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Rus.” Etymologically, 12 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/ro/rus. Accessed 12 Nov. 2026.

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