Romanian words from Latin
1633 Romanian words with Latin in their history, whether borrowed directly or passed on through other languages (page 3).
arm
It is inherited from Latin armus (“shoulder or upper arm of an animal”). Latin ⟨armus⟩ continues an Indo-European word for ⟨arm⟩, and de Vaan reconstructs Proto-Indo-European *h₂erH-mo-. It survives…
armă
It is inherited from Late Latin arma (“weapon”), from Latin arma (“arms, weapons”). The Latin neuter plural became a feminine singular in Late Latin, and the Romance languages continue that noun…
armânt
According to Scriban and Wiktionary it is inherited from Latin armāmentum (“implements, equipment”), which is formed in Latin from armō (“to arm”) and -mentum. MDA2 marks its etymology as unknown.
armar
The DA, DEX, MDA2 and Wiktionary take it as inherited from Latin armārium (“cupboard”), formed in Latin from arma (“weapons, tools”). The DA argues that the Romanians cannot have taken it from a…
armăsar
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *armissārius (“stallion”), a form attested as armessārius in the Salic Law. This is admissārius (“stallion kept for breeding”), used with equus (“horse”), from…
arșiță
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *arsīcia (“burning”), with calor (“heat”) understood, the feminine of an adjective *arsīcius formed on ārdeō (“to burn”): so Candrea and Densusianu, Pușcariu, the…
arsură
It is inherited from Late Latin ārsūra (“burning”). The DA cites the Latin word from the Herbarius of Apuleius. It is formed on ārsus, the past participle of ārdeō (“to burn”). Tiktin and Wiktionary…
arțar
Its origin is disputed. DELR's first explanation is inherited from Vulgar Latin *arceārium, formed on *arce, a metathesis of *acre, itself a by-form of Latin acer (“maple”); it cites Burlă, Hasdeu…
arunca
Its origin is uncertain. DELR thinks it probably inherited from Vulgar Latin *arruncāre, a form of ēruncō (“to weed out”) with the prefix changed, as in the Tuscan arroncare and the Abruzzese…
așa
It is inherited from Latin eccum (“look, here is”) combined with sīc (“so, thus”), which gave ⟨acși⟩ and then ⟨ași⟩; the final /a/ was then added, as in abia. This is the view of Hasdeu, Tiktin, the…
așchie
It is inherited from Late Latin ascla (“splinter”), a popular form of Latin assula, itself the diminutive of assis (“plank, board”). DER and DELR explain it by a reduction of *astla, the form behind…
asculta
It is inherited from Latin ascultō (“to listen”), the popular form of Classical auscultō. DELR explains the Classical verb as built on ⟨aus-⟩, the stem of auris (“ear”). The DELI puts the loss of…
ascunde
It is inherited from Latin abscondō (“to hide”), a verb that survives across the Romance languages. DELR analyses the Latin verb as abs- and condō (“to put together, to store in a safe place”)…
ascuți
DELR calls its origin uncertain. The usual view is that it is inherited from Vulgar Latin *excōtīre (“to sharpen on a whetstone”), from cōs (“whetstone”), accusative cōtem; Hasdeu, Pușcariu, Tiktin…
asemăna
It is inherited from Latin assimilō (“to make like, to compare”). The Latin verb, also spelled assimulō, is formed on similō (“to resemble”), from similis (“like”), which goes back to…
asemenea
It is inherited from Latin assimilis (“very like, similar”), formed from ad- and similis (“like”). DEX gives the Latin neuter form, in ⟨-e⟩. Ciorănescu explains the /n/ as a reversal of rhotacism…
așeza
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *assediō (“to seat”), a verb of spoken Latin not recorded in texts. It was formed on sedeō (“to sit”), probably through a noun *sedium or *sedia “seat, place to…
asină
It is inherited from Latin asina (“she-ass”), the feminine of asinus (“donkey”). It survives in Istro-Romanian åseră. The DA compares Italian asina, Spanish asna and Portuguese asna.
asmuți
Its origin is uncertain: DEX calls it of unknown origin, and DELR thinks it most probably inherited, though disputed, and certainly from the same base as sumuța and muța. The sources name three…
aspru
1. The word for the coin is borrowed from Byzantine Greek ἄσπρον (áspron). DEX, DER and MDA2 call the source Modern Greek, DELR Medieval and Modern Greek. The Greek word is the neuter of the…
astâmpăra
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *extemperāre, formed with the prefix ex- on temperō (“to moderate, temper”). Ciorănescu cites this etymology from Densusianu, Pușcariu, the REW, the DA and Rosetti…
astăzi
Romanian dictionaries explain it in two ways. In DEX and DLRM it is inherited from Latin istā diē (“on this day”), with a Romanian compound as the alternative. NODEX and Wiktionary also give the…
aștepta
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *astectō (“to wait”), an assimilated form of Latin adspectō, a variant of aspectō (“to look at attentively”). The Latin verb is the frequentative of aspiciō, formed…
așterne
It is inherited from Latin asternō (“to stretch out on, to lie prone”), formed on ad- and sternō (“to spread, to strew”). It survives in all four branches: Aromanian așternu, Megleno-Romanian ștern…
astrânge
MDA2 and CADE take it as inherited from Latin astringō (“to bind together”). DLRLV instead analyses it as a formation from Romanian a- + strânge. The DA gives both views, with the prefix in the…
astruca
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *astru(i)cāre, a derivative of astruō (“to build on, add by building”), which is ad- + struō (“to pile up, build”). Meyer-Lübke and the DA explain the sense “to…
astupa
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *asstuppō (“to stop up with tow”), formed on Latin stuppa (“tow”); MDA2 writes *a(d)stuppō. Pușcariu also accepts *exstuppō and *stuppō as etyma, and Hasdeu notes…
asuda
It is inherited from Latin assūdāre (“to sweat”), attested as adsūdāre, from ad- and sūdō (“to sweat”). Only Romanian kept the prefixed verb; the other Romance languages continue the simple verb…
asupra
It is inherited from Latin ad suprā (“over, above”), made of ad (“to”) and suprā (“above”), which comes from super (“above, over”). Ciorănescu gives the sister-branch forms Aromanian asupră and…
asurzi
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *assurdīre, formed on Latin surdus (“deaf”) in place of obsurdēscō (“to become deaf”). The verb survives in Aromanian asurdzãscu. Ciorănescu and the DA compare…
ață
It is inherited from Latin acia (“thread for sewing”). The Latin noun is derived from acus (“needle”), although de Vaan finds the sense shift not obvious. The Latin /kj/ became /ț/, as in față from…
atare
It is generally explained as inherited from Vulgar Latin *eccum tālis (“lo, such”), a compound of eccum (“behold, here is”) and tālis (“such, of such kind”). The compound passed through an…
atât
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *eccum tantum (“see, so much”), a compound of Latin eccum (“here he is”) and tantum (“so much”). The first syllable of compounds with this particle regularly became…
atent
It is borrowed from Latin attentus (“attentive, intent”), a learned 19th-century borrowing of the Latin adjective. DELR also compares Italian attento. In Latin the word is the perfect participle of…
atenție
It is a learned word with several sources: DELR gives its sources as borrowed from Latin attentiō, French attention and Italian attenzione, DEX the French and Latin words, and Tiktin only the…
aține
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *atteneō (“to hold to”), a remaking of classical attineō (“to hold, keep”) after its base teneō (“to hold”). The Latin verb is formed with ad-. Romance cognates are…
atinge
It is inherited from Latin attingō (“to touch, reach”), formed from ad- and tangō (“to touch”). Italian attingere continues the same verb, while French atteindre and Catalan atanyer go back to…
ațipi
Ciorănescu, following Candrea and Rosetti, takes it as inherited from Vulgar Latin *adtepīre, formed on tepeō (“to be warm; to be languid”), perhaps blended with *adsopīre, the source of French…
atunci
It is from Vulgar Latin ad (“to”) + *tunce (“then”), a Latin phrase whose second part is tunc (“then”) with a final ⟨-e⟩. DELR gives two explanations for the final ⟨-e⟩: the deictic particle -ce…
auă
It is inherited from Latin ūva (“grape, bunch of grapes”), with a prothetic a-: ⟨*úă⟩ became ⟨aúă⟩ and then ⟨áuă⟩. Tiktin compares the same a- in Aromanian aumbră. The word survives south of the…
auace
According to Candrea and Densusianu, CADE and Rosetti it is inherited from Vulgar Latin *ad hācce, a compound of Latin ad (“to”) and an extended form of hāc (“this way”). Philippide, Pascu and the…
aur
It is inherited from Latin aurum (“gold”), the Latin word for the metal. The Latin word goes back to Proto-Italic *auzom and to Proto-Indo-European *h₂é-h₂us-o- (“glow”), a derivative of *h₂ews-…
auri
Most dictionaries take it as a native verb formed from Romanian aur (“gold”) + -i, from the noun for gold. Pușcariu and the DA saw in it instead a direct continuation of Latin aurēscō (“to become…
austru
It is inherited from Latin auster (“south wind”), also found as a neuter austrum, a word inherited by several Romance languages. The Latin word goes back to Proto-Italic *austeros and…
auzi
It is inherited from Latin audiō (“to hear”). De Vaan explains the Latin verb as a compound of Proto-Indo-European *h₂ewis (“clearly, manifestly”) and the root *dʰeh₁-, “to make manifest”. The verb…
avea
It is inherited from Latin habeō (“to have, hold”), a verb found in all the Romance languages. Wiktionary traces the Latin verb to a Proto-Italic form and, more doubtfully, to Proto-Indo-European…
azi
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *hadie (“today”), a local form of Latin hodiē (“today”) with ⟨a⟩ in place of ⟨o⟩. The dictionaries explain the vowel in two ways. Ciorănescu, DEX and Wiktionary…
baie
1. The word for “bath” is inherited from Vulgar Latin *bannea, a form of balnea, originally the plural of balneum (“bath”), with /ln/ assimilated to /nn/ as in the other Romance languages. DELR…
baieră
It is inherited from Latin bāiulus (“porter, carrier”), or its feminine bāiula, which in Late Latin was also an adjective “carrying”. DELR suggests a neuter Vulgar Latin *bāiulum “thing that holds…
bale
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *baba (“slobber”), a word found across Romance. DELR sees in it an expressive creation, compare the syllable ⟨bab-⟩ used of babbling and the lips. The regular…
balț
It is inherited from Latin balteus (“belt, baldric”), which Varro thought an Etruscan word. It survives south of the Danube: Aromanian balțu, the white headscarf of old women. The Romance cognates…
bălțat
It is inherited from Latin balteātus (“girded, belted”), with an early transferred sense of coloured bands or stripes. This is the view of Densusianu, Candrea and Densusianu, the DA and DEX, and…
barbă
It is inherited from Latin barba (“beard”), a word common to the Romance languages. The Latin word goes back to Proto-Indo-European *bʰardʰeh₂ (“beard”). It survives in all four branches: Aromanian…
bărbie
Its origin is disputed. Tiktin, Pușcariu and the DA see it as inherited from Vulgar Latin *barbīlia, first the neuter plural of an unattested *barbīle (“the place where the beard grows”), formed on…
barbur
It is inherited from Latin barbula (“little beard”), a diminutive of the Latin word for beard, the view of Hasdeu, Candrea–Densusianu, the DA, Ciorănescu and Tiktin's 3rd edition. The first edition…
barbură
It is inherited from Latin Barbara, the name of the saint. DELR gives two explanations of its ⟨u⟩: assimilation to the ⟨b⟩ through the variant barboră (Candrea), or the influence of barbur, from…
băși
It is inherited from Latin vissiō (“to break wind softly”), the Late Latin form of vīsiō. It survives south of the Danube: Aromanian bes and Megleno-Romanian bes. Romance cognates are Old French…
bășica
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *vessīcō (“to blister”), a verb on vessīca (“bladder, blister”). DELR names this origin first, citing Densusianu, Pușcariu, Candrea and Densusianu, the REW and…
bășică
It is inherited from Latin vessīca (“bladder”), a variant of vēsīca; DEX writes the Latin form *bessica. Pușcariu cites a 6th-century spelling with b- and -ss-. The word is pan-Romance: Italian…
bătaie
It is inherited from Late Latin battālia (“fencing exercise”), the popular form of battuālia, from battuō (“to beat”). Cassiodorus already noted the popular form beside the classical one. In Latin…