Etymology and origin of the Romanian word urgență
- Confidence
- Established
- Formation
- Borrowing
- First attested
- 1849 Bucovina More words from the 19th century
- Borrowed from
- French urgence
- Ultimate origin
- Latin urgeō
Forms
urgență f (plural urgențe)[1]
Etymology
It is borrowed from French urgence, as DEX 2009, MDA2, NODEX, Marcu and Wiktionary give it.[2][3][4][5][1] Marcu & Maneca add Italian urgenza, and Scriban derives it from urgent, with the French word beside it.[6][7] The French noun is formed on urgent with the suffix -ence; the adjective is borrowed from Late Latin, the present participle of Latin urgeō (“to press, urge”).[1][8] MDA2 records an old variant urgință.[3]
Earliest recorded meaning
MDA2 dates the first record to 1849, in Bucovina, with the sense “the quality of being urgent”.[3]
Semantic evolution
The phrase de urgență “at once, without delay” was in use by the time of Caragiale.[9] Barcianu's dictionary of 1886 has în caz de urgență “in case of urgent need”.[10] Marcu records stare de urgență “state of emergency”.[5]
Timeline
- 1849 – in Bucovina, the first record.[3]
- 1886 – în caz de urgență in Barcianu.[10]
- 1929 – Șăineanu defines it as the character of what is urgent.[11]
- 1931 – a headword in the CADE, marked as a French word.[12]
Meanings
Noun
- urgency: the quality of what is urgent; a situation that needs to be solved at once, an emergency: de urgență “immediately, without delay”.[2][1]
- stare de urgență: a state of emergency declared by the state.[5]
References
- ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ a b DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1175
- ^ a b c d Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 1389
- ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. urgență
- ^ a b c Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. urgență
- ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. urgență
- ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1382
- ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. urgent
- ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 4, 592
- ^ 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. 676
- ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 681
- ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. urgență
Related etymologies
Cite this entry
“Urgență.” Etymologically, 12 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/ro/urgen%C8%9B%C4%83. Accessed 12 Nov. 2026.
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