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vânzător

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Etymology and origin of the Romanian word vânzător

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
1561 Coresi's Gospel book More words from the 16th century
Ultimate origin
Latin vēndō
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin vēnum
Latin vendō
French vendre
Italian vendere
Romanian vinde
Romanian vânzător
Spanish vender
From the same root
Latin vēnālis ← vēnum
Latin vendibilis ← vendō
Latin venditio ← vendō
Latin vendito ← vendō
Latin vēnditor ← vendō

Forms

vânzător m (plural vânzători, feminine equivalent vânzătoare)[1] Old texts spell it vîndzătoriu and vânzătoriu: „să plătească vânzătoriul cumpărătoriului toată paguba” “let the seller pay the buyer the whole loss”, in a law code of 1780.[2]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian vinde + -ător, from the verb “to sell”, according to MDA2, DEX, the DLR and Tiktin.[3][4][2][5] The verb continues vēndō (“to sell”).[6] The REW lists the Romanian word beside Italian venditore, French vendeur, Occitan vendedor and Spanish vendedor under vēnditor (“seller”), and Wiktionary names the Latin noun as a possible source.[7][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is Coresi's Gospel book of 1561, at Matthew 21, where Jesus overturns the seats of the sellers of doves in the temple.[5][8] MDA2 dates it from Coresi's Carte de învățătură of 1581.[3]

Semantic evolution

From the start the word had two senses: a seller, and a traitor, one who sells someone, as in Iuda vânzătorul “Judas the betrayer”.[5][3] The 17th-century Slavonic–Romanian lexicons use it to gloss the Slavonic word for “traitor”.[9] As a seller it appears in deeds of sale and law codes of the 17th and 18th centuries, opposed to cumpărător “buyer”.[2] The specific sense of a shop assistant who serves customers is modern.[4][3] As an adjective it meant “for sale”, as in folk verse: „De ți-e negrul vânzător, Eu îți sunt cumpărător” “if your black horse is for sale, I am your buyer”.[5][10] The ironic phrase vânzător de piei de cloșcă “seller of broody-hen skins” is a trader with no goods and no capital.[4]

Timeline

  • 1561 – vânzător in Coresi's Gospel book (Matthew 21:12).[5]
  • 1581 – in Coresi's Carte de învățătură.[3]
  • c. 1660 – “traitor” in the Slavonic–Romanian lexicons.[9]
  • 1673 – vânzătorii “the sellers” sealing a deed.[2]
  • 1688 – vânzători in the Bucharest Bible.[11]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A seller or vendor: a person or company that sells goods, occasionally or regularly; ironically, vânzător de piei de cloșcă, a trader with nothing to sell.[4][3][1]
  2. A shop assistant: someone employed in a shop to sell the goods and serve customers: Vânzătoarea ne-a arătat alte modele.[4][3]
  3. (figurative) A traitor, a deceiver.[4][3][1]

Adjective

  1. (dated) For sale;[4][3] a face vânzător (a property), to put up for sale.[4][3]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. vânzător
  3. ^ 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, 1437
  4. ^ 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. 1188
  5. ^ 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. vânzător
  6. ^ 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. vinde
  7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  8. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Matthew 21:12
  9. ^ a b Ungureanu, Mădălina; Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Moruz, Alexandru (eds.), eRomLex: The First Romanian Bilingual Dictionaries (17th century), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. s.v. vînzător
  10. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 4, 684
  11. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Matthew 25:9
Cite this entry

“Vânzător.” Etymologically, 11 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/ro/v%C3%A2nz%C4%83tor. Accessed 12 Nov. 2026.

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