Romanian words from German
15 Romanian words with German in their history, whether borrowed directly or passed on through other languages.
arie
1. The word for the threshing floor is inherited from Latin ārea (“open space, threshing floor”). It survives south of the Danube too: Aromanian arye and Megleno-Romanian aryie. The Romance cognates…
casă
1. The word for a house is inherited from Latin casa (“hut, cottage”). The DA notes that in Vulgar Latin the word took the general sense of house, replacing domus and aedes. The origin of the Latin…
control
It is borrowed from French contrôle, the source that DEX, Marcu & Maneca's DN, Marcu's MDN, DILF, MDA2, Tiktin, Ciorănescu and DELR all name. The feminine variant controlă of Transylvania and…
fus
1. The word for the spindle is inherited from Latin fūsus (“spindle”). The origin of the Latin word is unknown. The word survives in all four branches: Aromanian fus, Megleno-Romanian fus and…
lac
1. The word for “lake” is inherited from Latin lacus (“lake, pond”). It survives in all four branches: Aromanian lac, Megleno-Romanian lac and Istro-Romanian lǫc. Its Romance cognates include…
laț
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *laceus, the popular form of Latin laqueus (“loop of rope, noose, snare”). Ciorănescu and the Academy dictionary give the classical form itself, citing Diez…
must
It is inherited from Latin mustum (“new wine, must”). Candrea and Densusianu give the same etymon. It survives south of the Danube as Aromanian mustu and Megleno-Romanian most. Albanian mušt is also…
pa
It is borrowed from Hungarian pá (“bye”), perhaps also borrowed from German pa, the Viennese children's word. DEX, MDA2, NODEX and Wikționar name both, the DLR compares both, and Wiktionary gives…
pas
1. The word for “step, pace” is inherited from Latin passus (“step, pace”). Its Romance cognates include Italian passo, French pas, Spanish paso and Portuguese passo, and Albanian pas (“fathom”)…
perfect
It is a learned borrowed from Latin perfectus (“completed, perfect”) of the early 19th century, with borrowed from German perfekt as a second model in DEX, MDA2 and DLR. DER and Tiktin give the…
polițist
It is borrowed from German Polizist (“policeman”). Wiktionary notes that it can also be analysed as poliție plus the suffix -ist. The German word is the agent noun of Polizei (“police”), which goes…
rest
It is borrowed from German Rest, French reste and Modern Greek ρέστο (résto) according to MDA2 and the DLR, a loan with several models that the dictionaries rank differently: DEX gives Greek and…
rută
It is borrowed from French route (“road, way”), a neologism. The DLR, NODEX and MDA2 add a second source, borrowed from German Rutte. The French word continues Vulgar Latin *rupta, the noun use of a…
spital
It is a loan with several sources, all going back to Latin. DEX and the neologism dictionaries take it borrowed from German Spital, and Wiktionary adds that German explains above all the variant…
telefon
It is borrowed from French téléphone, the source that Ciorănescu, DEX and the neologism dictionaries give, and according to MDA2 and the DLR it is also borrowed from German Telefon. Wiktionary gives…