Etymology and origin of the Romanian word rută
- Confidence
- Established
- Formation
- Borrowing
- First attested
- 1955–1957 DLRLC More words from the 20th century
- Borrowed from
- French route
- Ultimate origin
- Latin rumpō
From the same root
Pronunciation
- /ˈru.tə/[1]
Forms
rută f (plural rute)[1]
Etymology
It is borrowed from French route (“road, way”), a neologism.[2][3][4][1] The DLR, NODEX and MDA2 add a second source, borrowed from German Rutte.[5][6][7] The French word continues Vulgar Latin *rupta, the noun use of a phrase with via (“way”), “a way broken open”, from the past participle of rumpō (“to break”).[8][1]
Earliest recorded meaning
The DLRLC lists the word in the 1950s, and the DLR quotes it from the newspaper Scînteia of 1960, of an air route from Bucharest to Warsaw.[9][5]
Timeline
Meanings
Noun
- A route: the way followed by a vehicle; the line of a means of transport between two places.[2][5][1]
- direction.[5][4]
Related words
- rutier
- rutină
Usage notes
A separate rută (DEX rută²) is the plant rue (Ruta graveolens), also called virnanț.[2][1] Tiktin's first record of the plant name is the New Testament of 1648: „zeciuiți minta și ruta” “you tithe mint and rue” (Luke 11:42).[10][11] DEX derives it from Latin rūta, and Ciorănescu calls it a learned borrowing of the 17th century, neither inherited nor taken from Slavonic or Hungarian.[2][12] Tamás instead takes it as a wandering plant name that came into Romanian mainly from Hungarian, where Drăganu had thought of rutafű.[13]
References
- ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 968
- ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. rută
- ^ a b Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. rută
- ^ 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. rută
- ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. rută
- ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 740
- ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. route
- ^ a b Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 792
- ^ Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. rută
- ^ Costinescu, Mariana; Georgescu, Magdalena; Zgraon, Florentina (1987), Dicționarul limbii române literare vechi (1640–1780): termeni regionali, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică, p. 1, 252
- ^ 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. rută
- ^ Tamás, Lajos (1966), Etymologisch-historisches Wörterbuch der ungarischen Elemente im Rumänischen, Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, p. 679
Related etymologies
Cite this entry
“Rută.” Etymologically, 11 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/ro/rut%C4%83. Accessed 11 Nov. 2026.
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