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Etymology and origin of the Romanian word zbor

zbor1 flight

Confidence
Established
Formation
Back-formation
First attested
1832
Ultimate origin
Latin volō
Etymology tree of zbor1
inherited borrowed derived
Romanian zbura
Romanian zbor

Forms

zbor n (plural zboruri)[1]

Etymology

The word for flight is a back-formation from Romanian zbura (“to fly”), as DEX, the DLR, MDA2 and Tiktin give it.[2][3][4][5] The verb is inherited from Vulgar Latin *exvolō (“to fly out”), from ex- and volō (“to fly”).[1] Other Romance languages made nouns for flight from their own verbs: Friulian svol, Romansh sgol, Sardinian bolu, Catalan vol, French vol, Italian volo and Spanish vuelo.[1][6] Nocentini treats the French, Italian and Spanish nouns as parallel, independent formations.[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is of 1832, in a periodical cited as AR: „Zborul cel repede al pasirilor” “the swift flight of birds”.[3][4][5]

Semantic evolution

From the flight of birds and insects the word passed to anything carried through the air, and later to aircraft, rockets and spacecraft.[2][4] Vasile Alecsandri already uses a prinde din zbor “to catch in flight”, and the adverbial din zbor, în zbor came to mean “very quickly, at once, in passing”.[5][2] A-și lua zborul “to take wing” also means to run off, to leave or to vanish.[2][4] Figurative senses are speed and an upswing or élan: Convorbiri literare wrote that Geneva's watchmaking “had taken a great flight”, „luase un zbor mare”.[5][2]

Timeline

  • 1832 – „zborul cel repede al pasirilor”, the first record.[3][4]
  • 1843 – „zborul vulturului” “the eagle's flight” in a periodical.[3]
  • 1955–1957 – DLRLC records platformă de zbor “flight deck” and flight through the atmosphere of balloons and aircraft.[8]

Meanings

Noun

  1. flight: the movement of a bird, an insect or an object through the air on wings; by extension the travel of an aircraft, a rocket or a spacecraft: Zborul spre Londra durează trei ore.[2][4] Platformă de zbor: a flight deck.[2] Din zbor, în zbor: in flight, quickly, at once, in passing.[2][4] A-și lua zborul: to take wing, to leave, to vanish.[2][4]
  2. The fast passage through the air of something thrown or carried by the wind.[2]
  3. (figurative) A rush, great speed; an upswing, élan.[2][9]

zbor2 fair; gathering

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
c. 1551–1558 Psaltirea Voroneț (Psalm 110:1)
Borrowed from
Old Church Slavonic съборъ
Ultimate origin
Proto-Slavic *sъborъ
Etymology tree of zbor2
inherited borrowed derived
Old Church Slavonic съборъ (sŭborŭ)
Romanian zbor

Forms

zbor n (plural zboruri)[1]

Etymology

The word for a fair is borrowed from Old Church Slavonic съборъ (sŭborŭ, “assembly”), as DEX, DLRM and the DLRLV give it, with Bulgarian сбор (sbor) beside it.[2][10][11][1] Ciorănescu takes it from Slavonic, compares Russian сбор (sbor) and Polish zbór, and calls it a doublet of sobor, from the same Old Church Slavonic word.[12][13] The DLR and MDA2 instead take it from Serbo-Croatian zbor and the Bulgarian word, and Gabinschi takes it orally from Slavonic or Bulgarian.[3][14][15] The Old Church Slavonic word glosses Ancient Greek συναγωγή (sunagōgḗ) and σύνοδος (súnodos).[16] It continues Proto-Slavic *sъborъ (“meeting, gathering”), from *sъ- and *borъ.[1]

Aromanian zbor (“word”) has a separate source: Wiktionary takes it from a South Slavic word, most likely Macedonian збор (zbor, “word”).[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the 16th-century psalters the word means an assembly: the form zbor occurs in the Psaltirea Voroneț (c. 1551–1558) and zborul in Coresi's psalter of 1570.[17][18] Coresi's Tetraevanghel (1561) speaks of the high priests, the elders and „tot zborul” “the whole council”, and his psalter has „D-zeu stătu în zbor de zei” “God stood in the assembly of the gods”.[19]

Semantic evolution

The old sense “assembly, council” runs through the 16th- and 17th-century church books, from the Codicele Voronețean to Dosoftei.[19] The DLR files that sense under sobor, as a variant of it.[3][14] In Wallachia and Oltenia the word came to mean the annual fair held on a church's feast day: the law code of 1652 names fiddlers who play „pe la târguri și pe la zboruri” “at markets and fairs”, and a Mărgăritare of 1746 has „Veniți să neguțătorim până nu să sparge zborul” “come, let us trade before the fair breaks up”.[11][3][19] From the fair it passed to the church feast itself, to a village work-party and to a hora dance.[14][3] Constantin Negruzzi used it for a public square.[3][8] In the Banat it also means a chat and a collection of things, and in Moldavia an evening work-party.[3][12] A Muntenian glossary still records it for a fair with swings and stalls.[20]

Timeline

  • c. 1551–1558 – zbor in the Psaltirea Voroneț.[17]
  • 1561 – „tot zborul” “the whole council” in Coresi's Tetraevanghel (Mark 15:1).[19]
  • 1570 – zborul in Coresi's psalter.[18]
  • 1652 – zboruri “fairs” in the law code of 1652, MDA2's first record of the sense.[14][3]
  • 1746 – „până nu să sparge zborul” in a Mărgăritare.[3][11]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (obsolete, regional) An annual fair or market, held on a church's feast day; bâlci.[2][14]
  2. By extension, the feast day of a church; a village work-party (șezătoare); a horă dance.[14][3]
  3. (obsolete, rare) A public square.[2][3]
  4. (regional) A chat (taifas).[14][3]
  5. (obsolete) An assembly, a council.[19][12]
  • zbura
  • Aromanian azboair
  • sobor

Usage notes

MDA2 and the DLR have a third, rare zbor “fine salt from a salt mine”, recorded only by Damé in 1893, of uncertain origin.[14][3] DEX numbers the flight word zbor¹ and the fair word zbor².[2]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1220
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. zbor
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 1552
  5. ^ 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. zbor 1
  6. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1434
  7. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  8. ^ a b Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 4, 734
  9. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. zbor
  10. ^ Academia Republicii Populare Romîne (1958), Dicționarul limbii romîne moderne, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 952
  11. ^ a b c Costinescu, Mariana; Georgescu, Magdalena; Zgraon, Florentina (1987), Dicționarul limbii române literare vechi (1640–1780): termeni regionali, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică, p. 327
  12. ^ a b c 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. zbor
  13. ^ Georgiev, Vladimir I. et al. (eds.) (1971–), Bălgarski etimologičen rečnik, Sofija: Izdatelstvo na Bălgarskata akademija na naukite
  14. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 1553
  15. ^ Gabinschi, Marcu (2001), Dicționar de dublete etimologice ale limbii române, 2nd ed., Chișinău: Litera, p. 161
  16. ^ Kurz, Josef; Hauptová, Zoe (eds.) (1958–1997), Slovník jazyka staroslověnského / Lexicon linguae palaeoslovenicae, 4 vols. + supplements, Praha: Academia; digital ed. gorazd.org
  17. ^ a b 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 110:1
  18. ^ a b 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 15:4
  19. ^ 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. zbor 2
  20. ^ Marin, Maria; Mărgărit, Iulia, Glosar dialectal. Muntenia, București: Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti”, p. s.v. zbor

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

“Zbor.” Etymologically, 12 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/ro/zbor. Accessed 12 Nov. 2026.

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