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albu

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Etymology and origin of the Aromanian word albu

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
1894 Weigand's glossary
Inherited from
Latin albus
Ultimate origin
Latin albus
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin albus
Aromanian albu
From the same root
Latin alba ← albus
Latin albatus ← albus
Latin albeo ← albus
Latin alburnus ← albus
Latin dealbo ← albus

Pronunciation

Forms

albu (feminine albã, masculine plural alghi, feminine plural albi/albe)[1]

  • Feminine albã, masculine plural alghi, feminine plural albi or albe.[2][1]
  • Other spellings: alb in Wiktionary;[1] ALBU, feminine -bă, feminine plural álbe, in Papahagi's dictionary;[3] άλμπου, plurals άλγκι and άλμπε, in Nikolaidis's Greek script, which he transcribes albu, albă, álgi, álbe;[4] álbu-ă in Mihăileanu;[5] albu, -ghi; -bâ, -bi in DIARO;[6] albu in Weigand's glossary.[7]
  • Regional forms: álbu, feminine álbă, feminine plural álbi, in the glossary of the ALAR atlas;[8] ’albā in ’albā o’ai “white sheep” in the village of Turia.[9]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin albus (“white”).[3][10][1][4] De Vaan traces it to Proto-Italic *alfo- (“white”) and Proto-Indo-European *h₂elbʰ-o- (“white”);[11] Wiktionary counts Ancient Greek ἀλφός (alphós, “whiteness, white leprosy”) among its cognates.[1]

The word is common to the four Eastern Romance languages: Romanian alb, Megleno-Romanian alb and Istro-Romanian ǫb.[12][13] Further west it survives in Spanish albo and Portuguese alvo.[12][14]

Earliest recorded meaning

The oldest dated record among these sources is Weigand's glossary of 1894, which glosses albu as white and lucky, and the plural albile as the fairies.[7]

Semantic evolution

Besides the colour, the word means clean and blameless:[3][2][1] Mihăileanu glosses it as honest and quotes éste cu fáça álbă ("he has a white face", he has done nothing wrong).[5] It also means happy or lucky, as in DIARO's wish albă s-ti vedu ("may I see you happy").[3][6] Ciorănescu calls this sense, shared with Romanian, an extension of the contrast of black and white;[12] Pascu compares Latin diēs (“day”) alba, a lucky day,[10] and Capidan notes the same sense in Albanian bardh (“white”).[15] The glossary of the ALAR atlas records it for pale, in álbu ca ţ÷ara ("pale as wax").[8] As nouns, the masculine plural alghi means silver coins and the feminine plural albile the fairies, evil spirits of the folk tales.[2][10][7]

Timeline

  • 1894 – albu “white, lucky” in Weigand's glossary.[7]
  • 1901 – álbu-ă “white, honest” in Mihăileanu's dictionary.[5]
  • 1909 – άλμπου “white; happy” in Nikolaidis's dictionary.[4]
  • 1925 – Pascu derives it from Latin albus.[10]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. white.[2][1][3]
  2. (figurative) clean, blameless, honest.[2][1][5]
  3. happy, lucky.[3][10][7]
  4. pale.[8]

Noun

  1. (masculine plural alghi) silver coins.[2][10]
  2. (feminine plural) White clothes; the fairies, evil spirits.[2][7]

Word family

  • albush
  • alburiu
  • alghescu
  • algheatsã
  • albeatsã
  • Romanian alb

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 44
  3. ^ a b c d e f Papahagi, Tache (1974), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, 2nd augmented ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. 133
  4. ^ a b c Νικολαΐδης, Κωνσταντίνος (1909), Ετυμολογικόν λεξικόν της κουτσοβλαχικής γλώσσης, Αθήνα, p. 24
  5. ^ a b c d Mihăileanu, Ștefan (1901), Dicționar macedo-român, București, p. 19
  6. ^ a b Caragiu Marioțeanu, Matilda et al. (1997), Dicționar aromân (macedo-vlah) DIARO, A–D, București, p. 33
  7. ^ a b c d e f Weigand, Gustav (1894), Die Aromunen: ethnographisch-philologisch-historische Untersuchungen, vol. II: Volksliteratur der Aromunen (with a glossary), Leipzig: J. A. Barth, p. 291
  8. ^ a b c Saramandu, Nicolae (2023), Glosar aromân, Fonetică și dialectologie XLII: 103–176, p. 108
  9. ^ Бара, Мариана; Каль, Теде; Соболев, Андрей Н. (2005), Южноарумынский говор села Турия (Малый диалектологический атлас балканских языков, серия монографий 1), p. 366
  10. ^ a b c d e f Pascu, Giorge (1925), Dictionnaire étymologique macédoroumain, 2 vols. (I: Les éléments latins et romans; II: Les éléments grecs, turcs, slaves, albanais, germaniques, magyars, néologismes, créations immédiates, obscurs), Iași: Cultura Națională, p. 1, 31
  11. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  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)
  13. ^ Papahagi, Pericle (1902), Megleno-românii: studiu etnografico-filologic I, București: Academia Română (with a glossary), p. 52
  14. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  15. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1932), Aromânii: dialectul aromân. Studiu lingvistic, București: Academia Română (Academia Română, Studii și cercetări XX), p. 150

Related etymologies

  • featã · also from Latin
  • cu · also from Latin
  • cã · also from Latin
  • tu · also from Latin
  • shi · also from Latin
  • di · also from Latin
  • am · also from Latin
  • yin · also from Latin
Cite this entry

“Albu.” Etymologically, 26 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/rup/albu. Accessed 27 Oct. 2026.

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