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Etymology and origin of the Romanian word sorb

sorb1 wild service tree

Confidence
Probable
Formation
Inherited
First attested
1703
Inherited from
Latin sorbus
Ultimate origin
Latin sorbus
Etymology tree of sorb1
inherited borrowed derived
Latin sorbus
Italian sorbo
Romanian sorb

Forms

sorb m (plural sorbi)[1]

Etymology

The word for the wild service tree is inherited from Latin sorbus (“service tree”), as Cihac, Tiktin, the REW, DEX and MDA2 give it.[2][3][4][5][1] Ciorănescu notes that its popular character is not certain, that is, whether it was handed down in speech.[2] The Romance cognates include Italian sorbo, Occitan sorba, French sorbe, Spanish serba and Portuguese sorva.[2][6] The Latin word has no etymology; de Vaan thinks it may share a non-Indo-European word for “berry” with Russian and Lithuanian berry names.[7] Scriban took a Modern Greek name of the tree from Romanian.[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1703, in the sense “wild service tree”.[3] Klein's dictionary of 1801 glosses it with Latin sorbus.[9]

Semantic evolution

The tree is Sorbus torminalis, a small tree of the hill forests whose hard wood is prized by turners.[10][5] DEX 2009 gives the botanical name Sorbus aria (the whitebeam).[4] Regionally the name also covers the rowan and the service tree, which are otherwise called scoruș.[5][3] The Lexicon de la Buda of 1825 distinguishes a garden sorbu and a wild one, de pădure or sălbatic.[11]

Timeline

  • 1703 – first record of sorb “wild service tree”.[3]
  • 1801 – sorb glossed Latin sorbus in Klein's dictionary.[9]
  • 1825 – sorbu with its garden and wild kinds in the Lexicon de la Buda.[11][5]
  • 1886 – Barcianu gives sorb de pădure for the wild service tree.[12]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The wild service tree (Sorbus torminalis), a tree of the rose family with lobed leaves, white flowers and fleshy fruit;[5][4][1] DEX gives Sorbus aria.[5][4][1]
  2. (regional) The rowan (Sorbus aucuparia) or the service tree (Sorbus domestica).[5][10]

sorb2 whirlpool

Confidence
Established
Formation
Back-formation
First attested
1470 a Slavonic-Romanian document
Ultimate origin
Latin sorbeō
Etymology tree of sorb2
inherited borrowed derived
Romanian sorbi
Romanian sorb

Forms

sorb n (plural sorburi)[1]

Etymology

The word for the whirlpool is a back-formation from Romanian sorbi (“to sip, suck in”), as DEX, Tiktin, Șăineanu and Wiktionary state.[4][13][14][1] The verb sorbi continues Latin sorbeō (“to suck in, swallow”).[15][6] Pușcariu and Cihac compare Spanish sorbo and Portuguese sorvo “a sip”.[15][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1470, from the Romanian words in Slavonic-language documents.[13] MDA2 gives Budai-Deleanu's lexicon (about 1818) as the first record, in the sense “whirlpool”.[5]

Semantic evolution

The word names water that sucks things down: a whirlpool with a deep centre, and a place where a river disappears underground, typical of karst country.[4][5] Folk belief gives it a cosmic scale: sorbul mărilor is the great vortex in the middle of the sea where all the waters gather and ships are swallowed, and also a being that drinks the waters;[5][13][16] sorbul pământului is the sea that divides this world from the other.[5][13][16] It also names a whirlwind.[4][8] In technical use it is the strainer at the end of a pump's suction pipe, and by extension the pipe itself.[4][17] Regional senses are “a sip” in Prahova, a wicker gate in the fences of fishponds, and “rainbow”, the bow imagined as drinking water from a stream.[8][18][19]

Timeline

  • 1470 – first record, in the Slavonic-Romanian documents.[13]
  • c. 1818 – sorb “whirlpool” in Budai-Deleanu's lexicon.[5]
  • 1870 – Costinescu defines it as a whirlpool in the sea with a hollow at its centre.[20]
  • 1886 – Barcianu adds the sense “suction pump”.[12]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A whirlpool with a deep eye at its centre; a place where a river sinks underground and flows on below the surface.[4][5][1]
  2. A strong wind that moves as a whirlwind.[4][17]
  3. (technology) The perforated strainer at the end of a pump's suction pipe; by extension a suction pipe.[4][5][1]
  4. (folklore) sorbul mărilor, the vortex where the waters of the earth gather;[5][16] sorbul pământului, the sea between this world and the next.[5][16]
  5. (regional) A rainbow.[18][19]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ 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. sorb
  3. ^ a b c d Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. sorb 1
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1034
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 935
  6. ^ a b c Cihac, A. de (1870), Dictionnaire d'étymologie daco-romane I: Éléments latins comparés avec les autres langues romanes, Frankfurt am Main, p. 257
  7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  8. ^ a b c Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1223
  9. ^ a b Gáldi, László (ed.) (1944), Samuel Klein: Dictionarium valachico-latinum. Primul dicționar al limbii române, Budapest: Királyi Magyar Pázmány Péter Tudományegyetemi Román Intézet (Klein's dictionary of 1801, with Gáldi's etymological study), p. 446
  10. ^ a b Panțu, Zach. C. (1929), Plantele cunoscute de poporul român. Vocabular botanic cuprinzând numirile române, franceze, germane și științifice, 2nd ed., București: Editura Casei Școalelor, p. 283
  11. ^ a b 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. 656
  12. ^ a b Barcianu, Sava Popovici (1886), Dicționar român-germân și germân-român, revised by D. P. Barcianu, part I: român-germân, Sibiu: Institut tipografic, p. 596
  13. ^ a b c d e Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. sorb 2
  14. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 604
  15. ^ a b Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 146
  16. ^ a b c d Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 4, 176
  17. ^ a b Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. sorb
  18. ^ a b Marin, Maria; Mărgărit, Iulia, Glosar dialectal. Muntenia, București: Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti”, p. s.v. sorb
  19. ^ a b Stati, Vasile (2003), Dicționar moldovenesc-românesc, Chișinău, p. s.v. sorb
  20. ^ Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 536

Related etymologies

  • apă · also from Latin
  • bun · also from Latin
  • unde · also from Latin
  • veni · also from Latin
  • noi · also from Latin
  • bine · also from Latin
  • un · also from Latin
  • și · also from Latin
Cite this entry

“Sorb.” Etymologically, 12 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/ro/sorb. Accessed 12 Nov. 2026.

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