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Etymology and origin of the Romanian word ton

ton1 tuna

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1926 Candrea's dictionary (CADE)
Borrowed from
French thon
Ultimate origin
Ancient Greek θύννος

Forms

ton m (plural toni)[1]

Etymology

The word for the tuna is borrowed from French thon.[2][3][1][4] Marcu and Maneca also name Italian tonno.[5] The French word goes back to Latin thunnus, from Ancient Greek θύννος (thúnnos).[6][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

MDA2's first record is Candrea's dictionary (CADE), for the large sea fish related to the bonito.[3]

Semantic evolution

The word names the sea fish Thunnus thynnus, a predator related to the pălămidă that can reach several metres in length.[2][7] DLRLC notes that it is rare in the Black Sea.[7] MDA2 records a rare older name for the fish, pețudă.[3]

Timeline

  • 1926 – first record, in Candrea's dictionary (CADE).[3]
  • 1955–1957 – DLRLC describes it as a sea fish like the bonito, rare in the Black Sea.[7]

Meanings

Noun

  1. tuna, tunny: a large predatory sea fish related to the bonito (Thunnus thynnus).[2][3][1]

ton2 tone

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1757
Borrowed from
French ton
Ultimate origin
Ancient Greek τόνος
Etymology tree of ton2
inherited borrowed derived
Ancient Greek τείνω (teínō)
Ancient Greek τόνος (tónos)
Latin tonus
French ton
English ton
Romanian ton
The journey of ton2
From the same root · ton2
Ancient Greek ταινία (tainía) ← τείνω
Ancient Greek τονικός (tonikós) ← τόνος
English tonal ← τόνος
English tonnage ← ton

Forms

ton n (plural tonuri)[1]

Etymology

The word for the tone is borrowed from French ton.[8][1][9] DEX names French and Latin as joint sources, the latter being borrowed from Latin tonus (“tension; tone”), and DLR and MDA2 compare the Latin word;[2][3][8] Tiktin takes it from the New Latin form alone.[10] The Latin noun is from Ancient Greek τόνος (tónos, “stretching, tension; pitch”), from the root of τείνω (teínō, “to stretch”).[11][12][13] The same Latin word survives as the inherited tun “cannon”, of which this word is a learned doublet.[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is from 1757.[10] MDA2's is from 1829, in a periodical.[3] Tiktin illustrates the sense “tone of voice” with a passage from Petru Maior: „Venere ... răspunse cu un ton drăgălaș” “Venus answered in a charming tone”.[10]

Semantic evolution

The word was used from the start both in music and of the voice.[10][8] The musical senses are a musical sound, the interval of a whole tone and the key of a piece; from a da tonul “to give the opening notes” came the figurative sense “to set the fashion, to lead”, illustrated in DLR with Ibrăileanu and Oprescu.[8][3] Of the voice it means the rise and fall of speech and the manner in which something is said, as in the saying tonul face muzica “it's not what you say but how you say it”.[2][3] Șăineanu (1929) already lists the senses of a writer's style and of the shade of a colour in painting.[14] In older Romanian it also meant the stress accent, and a-și da ton meant “to put on airs”.[2][3]

Timeline

  • 1757 – Tiktin's first record.[10]
  • 1829 – MDA2's first record, in a periodical.[3]
  • 1870 – Costinescu defines the inflexion of the voice, the tone of a style and the musical interval.[15]
  • 1886 – Barcianu records a da tonul “to set the tone”.[16]
  • 1929 – Șăineanu lists the senses in painting, the shade of a colour.[14]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (music, physics) A simple sound produced by a source vibrating sinusoidally; the interval of a major second between two notes, a whole tone.[2][3][1]
  2. (music) The key of a piece of music: a da tonul “to give the opening notes; to set the tone, to lead”.[2][3]
  3. The rise and fall of the voice in speech; the manner in which something is said, intonație: Nu-mi place tonul cu care îmi vorbești.[2][3]
  4. (phonetics) The pitch at which a syllable is pronounced;[2][3] (obsolete) the stress accent.[2][3]
  5. The prevailing character of a literary work, of someone's style or speech.[2][3]
  6. A shade of a colour; its degree of brightness.[2][3]

Usage notes

A third, regional ton (plural tonuri or toane, also toană) means “small barrel, keg” in Maramureș and Transylvania and “mill race” in the Banat; it is German Tonne and is recorded from 1788.[8][10][17] The tuna has the plural toni, the tone tonuri.[2]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1130
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 1238
  4. ^ 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. ton
  5. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. ton
  6. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. thon
  7. ^ 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, 452
  8. ^ 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. ton
  9. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. ton
  10. ^ 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. ton
  11. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. tonus
  12. ^ Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας, p. 1492
  13. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1329
  14. ^ a b Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 657
  15. ^ Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 622
  16. ^ Barcianu, Sava Popovici (1886), Dicționar român-germân și germân-român, revised by D. P. Barcianu, part I: român-germân, Sibiu: Institut tipografic, p. 650
  17. ^ Ștef, Dorin (2021), Dicționar de regionalisme și arhaisme din județul Maramureș, 3rd ed., Baia Mare, p. s.v. ton

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Ton.” Etymologically, 12 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/ro/ton. Accessed 12 Nov. 2026.

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