Etymology and origin of the Romanian word stelar
stelar1 caroler with the star
- Confidence
- Established
- Formation
- Derivation
- First attested
- 1683 Dosoftei's ''Viața și petrecerea sfinților''
- Ultimate origin
- Latin stella
Etymology tree of stelar1
From the same root · stelar1
Forms
stelar m (plural stelari)[1]
Etymology
The word for the caroler with the star is formed from Romanian stea + -ar, from stea (“star”) with the agent suffix.[2][3][1] The DLR, MDA2 and DEX 2009 take the plural stele as its stem, while DEX 1998 and Tiktin give the singular.[4][5][6][7][2] The singular itself comes from stella (“star”).[8]
Earliest recorded meaning
The first record is in Dosoftei's Viața și petrecerea sfinților (1682–1686), in the volume for December, where stelari are named beside vilhovnici “soothsayers” as men who watch a star: the sense there is “astrologer”.[4][5][2]
Semantic evolution
The old sense “astrologer” is rare and has died out.[4][5] The living sense comes from the Christmas custom of going round with the star: Tiktin defines a stelar as one of the three boys who carry the star from house to house at Christmas, and Pamfile wrote that the children who go with the star are called stelari.[2][4] Sadoveanu used the word for such carolers, and the dialect atlases record it.[4][9] DEX labels it rare.[6]
Timeline
- 1683 – stelari “astrologers” in Dosoftei's lives of the saints, the first record.[2][5][4]
- 1939 – Scriban defines stelar as a boy who goes about with the star.[3]
Meanings
Noun
stelar2 stellar
- Confidence
- Established
- Formation
- Borrowing
- Borrowed from
- French stellaire
- Ultimate origin
- Latin stella
Etymology tree of stelar2
From the same root · stelar2
Forms
stelar m or n (feminine singular stelară, masculine plural stelari, feminine/neuter plural stelare)[1]
Etymology
The adjective “stellar” is borrowed from French stellaire.[6][4][11][12][13] MDN gives the Latin adjective beside the French word, and Scriban takes it from Latin alone.[14][3]
The French adjective is from Latin stellāris (“of a star”), a Late Latin derivative of stella (“star”).[15][1] In French the word was first a plant name (1781), from New Latin stellaria, and took up the Latin adjective's senses later: “star-shaped” in 1812, “relating to stars” in 1835.[15]
Earliest recorded meaning
MDA2's first record is in the philosophical works of Vasile Conta, quoted from an undated edition; the DLR quotes his “stellar nebula in which we live”.[5][4] Tiktin also records an stelar “sidereal year” from Stamati's dictionary.[2]
Semantic evolution
The adjective belongs to the language of astronomy: astronomie stelară is the branch that studies the stars, and hartă stelară a map of the constellations.[5][6] It also means “star-shaped”, and in poetry “full of stars”, as in Macedonski's „stelare-adâncuri” “starry depths”.[4][9] A figurative sense “of outstanding worth” appears in the press of 1969.[4][5] Medicine has ganglion stelar, a ganglion of the sympathetic system with star-shaped branches.[14]
Meanings
Adjective
Related words
- stea
- stelat
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. stelar
- ^ a b c Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1240
- ^ 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. stelar
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 984
- ^ 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. 1050
- ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan” (1998), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române, 2nd ed., București: Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1019
- ^ 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. stea
- ^ a b c Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 4, 227
- ^ Bulgăr, Gheorghe; Constantinescu-Dobridor, Gheorghe (2002), Dicționar de arhaisme și regionalisme, 2 vols., București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. stelar
- ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. stelar
- ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. stelar
- ^ Costăchescu, Adriana; Dincă, Daniela; Dragoste, Ramona; Popescu, Mihaela; Scurtu, Gabriela (2009–2010), Dicționar de împrumuturi lexicale din limba franceză (DILF), 2 vols., Craiova: Universitaria, p. s.v. stelar
- ^ a b c Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. stelar
- ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
Related etymologies
Cite this entry
“Stelar.” Etymologically, 12 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/ro/stelar. Accessed 12 Nov. 2026.
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