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Etymology and origin of the Romanian word val

val1 wave

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1551–1553 a Gospel book, at Matthew 14:24
Borrowed from
Old Church Slavonic валъ
Ultimate origin
Proto-Slavic *valъ

Forms

val n (plural valuri)[1]

Etymology

The word for the wave is borrowed from Old Church Slavonic валъ (valŭ, “wave”).[2][3][4][5][1] MDA2 compares Bulgarian вал (val) and Serbo-Croatian val.[2] The Slavonic word belongs with валити (valiti, “to roll”), and Proto-Slavic *valъ is traced to Proto-Indo-European *welH- (“to revolve”).[4][1][6] BER, under the Bulgarian word for a roller, counts the Romanian word for the wave among its borrowings.[7]

The Slavic word has cognates across the family, among them Russian вал (val), and Ciorănescu also names Albanian valë (“wave”).[5][8] For the sense “barrier, rampart” Ciorănescu compares German Wall, and finds Candrea's direct German source uncertain.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is a Gospel book of 1551–1553, at Matthew 14:24.[4] MDA2 dates it to Coresi's Carte de învățătură (1581).[2] A psalter of 1651 has „toate undele tale și toate valurile tale trecură preste mine” “all your billows and your waves passed over me” (Jonah 2:4).[4]

Semantic evolution

Already in the 17th century the waves became an image of trouble: valurile lumii are the storms of the world, and val meant care, vexation.[4][5] The old phrases a face val cuiva “to trouble someone” and a avea val “to be troubled” are recorded in a document of 1630 and in the chroniclers.[4] The 17th-century Slavonic–Romanian lexicons gloss Slavonic words for tumult and confusion with val.[9]

A second group of senses, from the Slavic word's meaning “roll, cylinder”, covers a roll of cloth (val de pânză), the roller of a printing press and the roller of a well.[3][4][10] Later the word was used for anything that comes in a mass, a wave of blood or of people.[4][3] Recent press phrases are val seismic “tsunami” and a fi pe val “to be on a roll”.[11]

Timeline

  • 1551-1553 – val “wave” in a Gospel book, at Matthew 14:24, the first record.[4]
  • 1581 – in Coresi's Carte de învățătură.[2]
  • 1589 – valurile in the psalter of 1589, Psalm 41:10.[12]
  • 1630 – a face val “to trouble someone” in a document.[4]
  • 1649 – valul “the wave” in Mardarie's lexicon.[9]
  • 1688 – val and valurile in the Bucharest Bible.[13]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A wave: a moving ridge of water on the surface of the sea, a lake or a river; a talaz.[3][2][1]
  2. Something that comes or moves in a mass, like waves: un val de oameni.[3]
  3. (figurative, old and popular) Hardship, trouble: valurile vieții “the trials of life”.[3][4]
  4. A roll of cloth wound on a cylinder; a vălătuc.[3]
  5. (printing) A metal cylinder of a printing or folding press.[3]
  6. (regional) A roller; the beam of a well, on which the chain is wound.[3]

Word family

  • vălui
  • învălui
  • învăluială
  • văluros
  • vălătuc
  • vălășag

val2 earth rampart

Confidence
Probable
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1833 Bojincă's Anticile romanilor
Borrowed from
Latin vallum
Ultimate origin
Latin vallum
Etymology tree of val2
inherited borrowed derived
Latin vannus
English fan
German Fan
Italian fan
Romanian fan
Latin vāllus
Latin vāllum
English wall
Romanian val
From the same root · val2
Latin vatillum ← vannus
Latin intervallum ← vāllum
Latin vallō ← vāllum
English firewall ← wall
English stonewall ← wall
English wallpaper ← wall

Forms

val n (plural valuri)[1]

Etymology

The word for the earth rampart is borrowed from Latin vallum (“palisade, rampart”), a learned word of the 19th century.[3][2][14][10] DEX compares German Wall and Italian vallo, and Marcu gives all three as sources.[3][15] Tiktin takes it from German, while noting the Slavic forms that go back to the Latin word.[16]

The Latin word is the collective of vallus (“stake”).[17][18] Schrijver's link with Ancient Greek ἧλος (hêlos, “nail”) is possible but not compelling for de Vaan.[19] The German word and English wall are early loans of the Latin word.[20]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Damaschin Bojincă's Anticile romanilor (second volume, 1833), a book on Roman antiquities: the light troops camped „dinaintea valului” “in front of the rampart”.[2][14] Tiktin dates it to Asachi (1855), who wrote of valul lui Traian.[16][14]

Semantic evolution

The word was taken up for the Roman earthworks of the region, the valul lui Traian “Trajan's Wall” of Dobruja and southern Bessarabia, already named by Cantemir and the chroniclers in Latin and Romanian.[16][14][10] From the Roman rampart it widened to any long earthwork marking a boundary, a natural ridge of earth and a dike.[2]

Timeline

  • 1833 – valului in Bojincă's Anticile romanilor.[2][14]
  • 1855 – valul lui Traian in Asachi.[16][14]

Meanings

Noun

  1. An earth rampart, usually with a ditch on its outer side, used as a fortification in antiquity and later.[3][2][1]
  2. A long earthwork marking the boundary of a territory; a natural ridge of earth; a dig.[2]
  • înveli
  • năvăli
  • prăvăli
  • valma
  • talaz

Usage notes

A third val, a geological term for a synclinal valley in Jurassic relief, was borrowed from French and English val.[21][22][2] Val-vârtej means “in great haste”, and în valuri or valuri-valuri “one after another, in abundance”.[3]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 1408
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1181
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. val 1
  5. ^ a b c d 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. val
  6. ^ Vasmer, Max (1964–1973), Ètimologičeskij slovar' russkogo jazyka, transl. and suppl. by O. N. Trubačev, 4 vols., Moskva: Progress, p. s.v. вал
  7. ^ Georgiev, Vladimir I. et al. (eds.) (1971–), Bălgarski etimologičen rečnik, Sofija: Izdatelstvo na Bălgarskata akademija na naukite, p. 1, 113
  8. ^ Demiraj, Bardhyl (1997), Albanische Etymologien: Untersuchungen zum albanischen Erbwortschatz, Amsterdam / Atlanta: Rodopi (Leiden Studies in Indo-European 7), p. 407
  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. val
  10. ^ a b c Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1, 1389
  11. ^ Dimitrescu, Florica (1997), Dicționar de cuvinte recente, 2nd ed., București: Logos (with the 3rd ed., 2013, in CLRE), p. s.v. val
  12. ^ Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Ungureanu, Mădălina; Moruz, Alexandru et al., roPsalt: Re-evaluating the Sixteenth Century Romanian Psalters (aligned corpus), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. Ps 41:10
  13. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Ieșirea 15:8
  14. ^ 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. val 2
  15. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. val
  16. ^ a b c d Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. val 2
  17. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  18. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. vallum
  19. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  20. ^ Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 969
  21. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. val
  22. ^ Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. val 3

Related etymologies

  • prea · also from Old Church Slavonic
  • înșela · also from Old Church Slavonic
  • pară · also from Old Church Slavonic
  • somn · also from Old Church Slavonic
  • veste · also from Old Church Slavonic
  • coș · also from Old Church Slavonic
  • lin · also from Old Church Slavonic
  • râs · also from Old Church Slavonic
Cite this entry

“Val.” Etymologically, 12 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/ro/val. Accessed 12 Nov. 2026.

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