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Etymology and origin of the Romanian word toc

toc1 case, holder; penholder

Confidence
Probable
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1588 an inventory published in Hasdeu's Cuvente den bătrâni
Borrowed from
Hungarian tok

Pronunciation

Forms

toc n (plural tocuri)[1] Moldavian, Transylvanian and Banat speech has tioc or teoc; the Banat plural is teoace.[2][3]

Etymology

The word for the case or holder is borrowed from Hungarian tok (“case, sheath, holder”), according to MDA2, Tamás, Wiktionary and the DLR, which also compares Serbo-Croatian tok.[4][5][1][6] DEX gives Hungarian and Serbian together.[7] Ciorănescu, after Miklosich, Cihac and Conev, derived it from the Old Church Slavonic токъ (tokŭ) and compared the Serbian, Croatian, Slovene and Hungarian forms.[8][9] Tamás rejects the Slavic source for most of the country: the oldest Slavic record is Old Serbian, from the 16th century, and Serbian influence can be assumed at most in the Banat and Oltenia.[5] Scriban too gives Hungarian and Serbian.[3]

The Hungarian word is recorded as “case, holder” from about 1405; its origin is unknown, and it passed into several neighbouring languages, Old Serbian among them.[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is an inventory of 1588: „1 toc cu 12 talgere” “a case with 12 plates”, from the grand logothete.[4][6][2]

Semantic evolution

The first sense is a box or case shaped to hold particular objects: plates and dishes in inventories of 1588 and 1730, pistols, watches and combs in the 19th century.[6] Cantemir used it figuratively in 1705, calling someone tocul minciunilor “the case (store) of lies”.[2] Tamás thinks the senses “wooden vessel”, “pillowcase” and others developed in Romanian.[5]

The toc de condeie “pen case” of Costinescu (1870) became the toc itself, the penholder: Barcianu (1886) glosses it with German Federhalter, and Delavrancea describes schoolchildren learning to wield the pen.[11][12][2] Scriban explains the sense as the holder of the nib.[3] The door and window frame, with stone frames in Odobescu, is a further sense.[2][7] Regional speech keeps the senses “wooden vessel for cheese or milk”, “pillowcase”, “sheath for the scythe's whetstone” and “paper cone”.[4][13]

Timeline

  • 1588 – toc “case” in an inventory, the first record.[4][2]
  • 1705 – tocul minciunilor in Cantemir's Istoria ieroglifică.[2]
  • 1730 – tocuri of tin dishes in a document.[6]
  • 1870 – toc de condeie “pen case” in Costinescu.[11]
  • 1886 – “penholder” in Barcianu.[12]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A case or holder of wood, metal, leather or plastic for keeping weapons, instruments or devices; a sheath for small objects such as glasses or combs;[7][4] (rare) a sword scabbard.[7][4]
  2. A penholder: a stick of wood, bone or metal fitted with a nib, for writing or drawing in ink;[7] toc rezervor “fountain pen”.[7]
  3. A frame of wood or metal in which doors and windows are fixed.[7][8]
  4. (regional) A wooden vessel for cheese, milk or water; a pillowcase; a paper cone.[4][13]

Word family

  • tiocuș

toc2 heel of a shoe

Confidence
Disputed
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1857 Polizu's Romanian–German dictionary
Borrowed from
Bulgarian ток

Pronunciation

Forms

toc n (plural tocuri)[1]

Etymology

The word for the heel of a shoe is borrowed from Bulgarian ток (tok), according to MDA2, DEX and the DLR.[4][7][6] Ciorănescu instead derives it from the interjection (DEX's first homograph, see Usage notes), after the noise heels make, and thinks the Bulgarian form may have come from Romanian.[8] Scriban also takes the Bulgarian word for “heel” from Romanian.[3]

Cihac, Tiktin and Candrea traced it to Italian taccone (“heel”) (beside tacco), through Modern Greek τακούνι (takoúni) or Bulgarian.[8][14] Ciorănescu finds this difficult.[8] Tiktin notes that the vowel ⟨o⟩ seems to point to Slavic mediation.[2] Scriban named Hungarian tak (“sole”), from the Italian word.[3] The Italian word, “patch; heel”, goes back through Old French tacon to Frankish *takko (“point, spike”).[15]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Polizu's Romanian–German dictionary of 1857.[4][2] Costinescu (1870) has toc de cisme “boot heel”, glossed with French talon.[11]

Semantic evolution

The meaning has stayed the same since the first records: the raised part at the back of the sole, under the heel.[7] Literature has the officer who clicks his heels (Vlahuță) and women's shoes with very high heels; folk verse has the slippers pe la toc cu flori “with flowers on the heel”.[6] The diminutive is toculeț.[2]

Timeline

  • 1857 – toc “heel” in Polizu, the first record.[4][2]
  • 1870 – toc de cisme “boot heel” in Costinescu.[11]
  • 1879 – Cihac derives it from Italian.[14]
  • 1886 – Barcianu glosses it “shoe heel”.[12]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The heel of a shoe: the raised part at the back of the sole, under the heel of the foot;[7][4] tocuri înalte “high heels”.[7][4]

Word family

  • toculeț

Usage notes

DEX's toc¹ is an interjection imitating a knock or blow, as in toc, toc at the door; it is onomatopoeic and is recorded from 1852.[7][2] Ciorănescu derives the verb toca “to chop; to beat the semantron” and the noun toacă “semantron” from it, while Pușcariu and Candrea trace the verb to a Latin *toccare.[8][16] In Transylvania toc is also a fish name, the sturgeon, from Hungarian tok (“sturgeon”).[4][17] Klein's dictionary and the Buda Lexicon record it.[4][18] In the Danube plain a da un toc de bătaie means “to give a beating”, and Graur explains it from top de bătaie.[19]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. toc
  3. ^ a b c d e Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1, 1327
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 1232
  5. ^ a b c Tamás, Lajos (1966), Etymologisch-historisches Wörterbuch der ungarischen Elemente im Rumänischen, Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, p. 794
  6. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. toc
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1129
  8. ^ a b c d e f 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. toc
  9. ^ Cihac, A. de (1879), Dictionnaire d'étymologie daco-romane II: Éléments slaves, magyars, turcs, grecs-moderne et albanais, Frankfurt am Main, p. 414
  10. ^ Benkő, Loránd (ed.) (1967–1976), A magyar nyelv történeti-etimológiai szótára, 3 vols., Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, p. 3, 932
  11. ^ a b c d Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 621
  12. ^ a b c Barcianu, Sava Popovici (1886), Dicționar român-germân și germân-român, revised by D. P. Barcianu, part I: român-germân, Sibiu: Institut tipografic, p. 648
  13. ^ a b Ștef, Dorin (2011), Dicționar de regionalisme și arhaisme din Maramureș, Baia Mare: Ethnologica, p. s.v. toc
  14. ^ a b Cihac, A. de (1879), Dictionnaire d'étymologie daco-romane II: Éléments slaves, magyars, turcs, grecs-moderne et albanais, Frankfurt am Main, p. 707
  15. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier, p. s.v. taccone
  16. ^ Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 161
  17. ^ Tamás, Lajos (1966), Etymologisch-historisches Wörterbuch der ungarischen Elemente im Rumänischen, Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, p. 795
  18. ^ 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. 711
  19. ^ Graur, Alexandru (1963), Etimologii romînești, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. s.v. toc

Related etymologies

  • da · also from Bulgarian
  • lin · also from Bulgarian
  • grijă · also from Bulgarian
  • ciudat · also from Bulgarian
  • ba · also from Bulgarian
  • război · also from Bulgarian
  • grozav · also from Bulgarian
  • păstra · also from Bulgarian
Cite this entry

“Toc.” Etymologically, 12 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/ro/toc. Accessed 12 Nov. 2026.

Last edited on . ·