Romanian words from Latin
1289 Romanian words with Latin in their history, whether borrowed directly or passed on through other languages.
abate
1. The word for the abbot is borrowed from Italian abate. DLRM and MDA2 also name borrowed from Latin abbās, abbātis, while the DA has it borrowed from French abbé: DELR records all three views. The…
abia
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *ad vix (“with difficulty”), made of Latin ad (“to”) and vix (“hardly, with difficulty”). The phrase first gave abi, a form still heard in some dialects, to which…
absolut
It is a learned borrowing borrowed from Latin absolūtus (“complete, unconditional”), with the senses of French absolu. DEX gives both Latin and French and MDA2 Latin alone; Wiktionary takes it from…
aburca
Its origin is uncertain: DEX and NODEX call it of unknown origin and compare urca. DELR, which also leaves it open, gives two Latin explanations. The first, Pușcariu's, accepted by the DA, CADE and…
ac
It is inherited from Latin acus (“needle”). It survives in all four branches: Aromanian ac, Megleno-Romanian ac and Istro-Romanian åc. Its cognates are Dalmatian yuak, Italian ago, Sardinian agu and…
accident
It is borrowed from French accident and directly borrowed from Latin accidēns, as DEX, MDA2 and the neologism dictionaries give it. DELR and Tiktin add Italian accidente, and Ciorănescu names French…
acel
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *eccum ille, a compound of Latin eccum (“see him, here he is”) and ille (“that”). DELR finds this first element more likely than ecce (“behold”), which Diez…
aceră
It is most probably borrowed from Latin aquila (“eagle”), a Latin word taken up by 19th-century scholars and given a Romanian shape. DELR follows Tiktin, Scriban and Ciorănescu's earlier study in…
acest
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *eccum istum, from eccum (“behold him”) and iste (“this, that”). DEX and MDA2 start from ecce (“behold”) with the same pronoun instead. DELR finds the first…
aci
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *eccum hīc, from eccum (“here he is”) and hīc (“here”). Several authors, DELR reports, start from ecce in the first part instead, the source of French and Occitan…
aciua
The origin of the word is uncertain. DELR's probable explanation is that it is inherited from Vulgar Latin *accellāre, a verb formed on cella (“storeroom, small chamber”), as A. Philippide proposed…
acoace
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *eccum hocce, the deictic particle eccum joined to *hocce, a form of hōc (“hither”) with the particle -ce. DELR names Hasdeu, Tiktin, Pușcariu, the DA and…
acolea
Ciorănescu and Wiktionary take it as inherited from Vulgar Latin *eccum illāc (“there, that way”), a phrase of Latin eccum (“here he is, behold”) and illāc (“that way”). DELR gives this as one of…
acolo
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *eccum illōc (“(over) there”), a phrase of Latin eccum and illōc (“(to) there”). DELR explains ⟨illōc⟩, used with verbs of motion, as illō, from the stem of the…
acoperi
It is inherited from Latin cooperiō (“to cover completely”), formed con- and operiō (“to cover”), a verb that survives throughout Romance. Ciorănescu files the word under the shorter coperi, and…
acru
1. The word for the unit of area is borrowed from French acre, a modern loan. Marcu's dictionary of neologisms names English acre beside the French word, and MDA2 adds Latin as a further model, a…
acum
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *eccum modo, a compound of the deictic particle eccum (“here he is”) and modo (“just, only; now”). The Latin adverb is the shortened ablative of modus (“measure…
adânc
It is inherited from Latin aduncus (“hooked, curved”). The Latin adjective is formed from ad- and uncus (“a hook; hooked”). The sense moved from “curved” to “hollow” and then to “deep”. Candrea and…
adăpa
It is inherited from Latin adaquō (“to supply with water, to give to drink”), formed in Latin on aqua (“water”). The Latin verb meant “to water” plants and animals and, in the passive, “to be…
adăsta
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *adastāre (“to stand by, be present”), a Late Latin verb formed with a second ad- on astō (“to stand at, stand by”), itself from the same prefix and stō (“to…
adăuga
It is inherited from Latin adaugeō (“to increase, augment”), formed from ad- and augeō (“to increase”). Romanian continues a form with the stress of the third conjugation, which DEX and the REW give…
adevăr
It is inherited from Latin vērum (“what is true”), inside a Latin adverbial phrase meaning “truly” whose exact shape is disputed. Pușcariu, the REW and Scriban start from ad added to ad vērum. DELR…
adia
Its origin is uncertain, and DELR lists several proposals without choosing between them. DEX and MDA2 take it as inherited from Vulgar Latin *adiliāre, which Candrea traced to the Latin phrase…
adică
Its origin is not settled: DEX and the DA call it of unknown origin, and DELR calls it uncertain. Ciorănescu takes it as inherited from Latin adaequē (“equally, in like manner”), an adverb found in…
adineauri
Its core is inherited from Latin in illā hōrā (“in that hour, at that moment”), to which the prepositions de and a were added, as in many Romanian adverbs. DELR and Tiktin put dē before the phrase…
adins
It is inherited from Latin ad ipsum (“to that very thing”), from ad (“to”) and ipsum (“itself”): so DELR, following Hasdeu, Pușcariu, the DA and Candrea–Densusianu, with Tiktin as a possibility…
adinte
It is probably inherited from Latin ad (“to”) + ante (“before”). DELR, following the DA, has the group develop into *adânte and then take its ⟨i⟩ from *inte, the form from ab + ⟨ante⟩ that underlies…
aduce
It is inherited from Latin addūcō (“to lead to, bring”), formed from ad- and dūcō (“to lead”). It is thus a compound of the same verb as duce. The word survives in all four branches: Aromanian aduc…
adumbri
It is inherited from Latin adumbrō (“to shade, overshadow”), with a change of conjugation. The DA assumes an older first-conjugation verb ⟨*adumbra⟩, which moved to the fourth conjugation under the…
aduna
It is inherited from Late Latin adūnō (“to unite, make one”), formed from ad- and ūnus (“one”). The verb survives in all four branches: Aromanian adun, Megleno-Romanian dun and Istro-Romanian adurå…
aer
It is inherited from Latin āēr (“air”), itself from Ancient Greek ἀήρ (aḗr). Ciorănescu, following Pușcariu, the REW and the DA, takes it directly from Latin. Tiktin points out that old Romanian did…
afâna
Ciorănescu, DELR, DEX and MDA2 take it as inherited from Vulgar Latin *affēnō, from fēnum (“hay”): loosening is what is done to hay to dry it. DELR adds Hasdeu and Candrea–Densusianu for this view…
afară
It is inherited from Latin ad forās (“to the outside”), a phrase of ad (“to”) and forās (“out of doors”). Candrea and Densusianu wrote the Latin group as *afforās. The older Romanian form was…
afin
1. The word for the blueberry shrub is of uncertain origin. Ciorănescu, after Herzog, and Wiktionary take it as inherited from Latin daphne (“laurel”), from Ancient Greek δάφνη (dáphnē, “laurel”)…
afla
It is inherited from Latin afflō (“to blow or breathe upon”), formed from ad- (“to, towards”) and flō (“to blow”). The sense “to find” arose already in Vulgar Latin and survives in several Romance…
agăța
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *accaptiāre (“to catch”), formed with ad- on *captiāre, from captus, the participle of capiō (“to take, seize”). The other Romance languages inherited the simple…
agent
It is borrowed from French agent, also borrowed from Latin agens, the present participle of agō (“to drive, to act”). Ciorănescu names only the French word, Tiktin the French word, comparing German…
ager
It is inherited from Latin agilis (“nimble, quick”), which changed its declension in Romanian. The DA reconstructs an intermediate form *agere, which then changed its declension. Hasdeu found the…
agest
It is inherited from Latin aggestum (“heap, embankment”) (or aggestus (“accumulation”)), from aggerō (“to carry to a place, heap up”), from ad- and gerō (“to carry”). DELR compares, for the sense…
agru
It is inherited from Latin ager (“field, land”), continuing the accusative agrum. The Latin word comes from *h₂éǵros, like Ancient Greek ἀγρός (agrós) and Old English æcer. It survives south of the…
agura
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *agurō (“to foretell”), the popular form of classical augurō (“to foretell by augury”), from augur (“augur”). The /au/ became /a/ by dissimilation before a stressed…
aici
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *ad hīcce (“to here”), from Latin hīc (“here”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰi-ḱe (“this, here”). DELR starts from Latin ⟨hīc(c)e⟩ (a form ⟨ice⟩ is found in a…
aiepta
1. The word for “to throw” is inherited from Latin ēiectō (“to throw out”), the view of the DA, Pușcariu, the REW, Scriban and DELR. Ciorănescu derives it through a Latin *aiectō formed from it…
aiest
It is inherited from Latin ad (“to”) + istum (“this”). DELR explains the initial ⟨a-⟩ of the word as the ⟨a-⟩ of deictic words, taken over from compounds of eccum such as acolo and acum. The…
ainde
It is usually taken as inherited from Latin aliunde (“from elsewhere”), the view of Pușcariu, the REW, Scriban and CADE. Ciorănescu accepts it, but notes that Latin and Slavic are hard to tell apart…
aiurea
It is formed from Romanian aiure + -a, with the adverbial ⟨-a⟩ of aicea and acuma. The older adverb aiure is from Latin aliubi (“elsewhere”), a rare form of alibi made of the stem of alius (“other”)…
ajuna
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *aiūnō (“to fast”), a form of Late Latin ieiūnō (“to fast”), from Latin ieiūnus (“fasting, hungry”). DELR, with Tiktin, Candrea–Densusianu and CADE, derives it from…
ajunge
It is inherited from Latin adiungō (“to join to, add”), formed from ad- and iungō (“to join”), from Proto-Indo-European *yewg-. MDA2 also names Italian aggiungere and French adjoindre beside the…
ajuta
It is inherited from Latin adiūtō (“to help, assist”). The Latin verb is a frequentative of adiuvō (“to help”), itself formed from ad- and iuvō (“to help, to please”). Candrea–Densusianu explain the…
ajutor
It is inherited from Latin adiūtōrium (“help, assistance”). DER cites Cipariu, Pușcariu, Candrea and Densusianu, the REW and Rosetti for this etymology, and treats the noun “help” and the noun…
al
It is inherited from Latin ille (“that”), in its accusative forms illum and illam, used as an article standing before the noun. Ciorănescu traces it through the stage of the pronoun el, ea, which…
ăla
In the traditional view of the dictionaries it is inherited from Latin ille (“that”), in the accusative illum and the feminine illa. Wiktionary analyses it as the short demonstrative ăl with the…
alături
Ciorănescu, MDA2 and the Academy dictionary take it as inherited from Latin ad latera (“at the sides”), with the plural of latus (“side”). The DA quotes the phrase from a Latin text and compares…
alb
It is inherited from Latin albus (“white”). It survives in all four branches: Aromanian albu, Megleno-Romanian alb and Istro-Romanian åb. DELR calls it pan-Romance; its cognates include Dalmatian…
albastru
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *albaster (“whitish”), formed on albus (“white”) with the suffix -aster. The same formation gives Italian biancastro and French blanchâtre “whitish” on other words…
albi
DELR and the DA take it as inherited from Vulgar Latin *albiō (“to become white”), standing for Latin albeō (“to be white”) and albēscō (“to become white”); Pușcariu, Candrea and Densusianu and the…
albie
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *alvea or *albea, for Latin alveus (“hollow vessel, trough; riverbed”). DELR notes that the Romanian form may come from either ⟨-lv-⟩ or ⟨-lb-⟩, as in nalbă from…
albină
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *alvīna (“beehive”), formed on alvus (“belly, hollow; beehive”). Tiktin derives it from alveus (“beehive”) with the suffix -ină. It survives in all four branches…
alboare
It is inherited from Late Latin albor (“whiteness; dawn”) (accusative albōrem), formed on albus (“white”). Ciorănescu names Candrea–Densusianu, the REW and the DA for this etymology. Its Romance…
alega
1. The word for “to cling to, pester” is inherited from Latin alligō (“to bind to, fasten”), from ad- and ligō (“to bind”). The REW lists it with Italian allegare and French allier. Ciorănescu also…