Etymologically
Log in

div

History Permalink

Etymology and origin of the Aromanian word div

Confidence
Uncertain

Forms

div (feminine divã, masculine plural divi, feminine plural divi or dive)[1]

  • Other spellings: DIV, feminine dívă, plural divi or diyi, díve in Papahagi's dictionary;[2] Vrabie also gives the plural divi or diyi.[3]

Etymology

Its origin is uncertain: Papahagi lists it among the words of uncertain origin.[4] He compares it with Romanian div, which Densusianu derived from Slavic, with Romanian dívă (“wonder, marvel”), and with the Turkish word for a demon or genie.[2]

The Ottoman Turkish word is دیو (div, “giant, jinn, devil”), from Persian.[5][6] Bulgarian dialects have див (div, “evil spirit, monster”), and Old Church Slavonic has дивъ (divŭ, “monster”);[7] BER traces the word to Proto-Indo-European *deiwos (“god”), with the same shift of sense as in Iranian, where the word for an old god came to mean a demon.[7] Wiktionary takes the South Slavic forms to be probably borrowed from Ottoman Turkish.[6] Megleno-Romanian has div (“wild”), which Capidan derives from Bulgarian, but in a different sense.[8][9]

Semantic evolution

Cunia defines it as very big, and as a person or tree that is very large, tall and strong;[1] Papahagi glosses it as a giant and quotes ca div albit ş’ di anj curmat (like a giant whitened and worn by the years).[2]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Huge, gigantic; of a person or a tree, very large, tall and strong.[1]
  2. (as a noun) A giant.[2][3]

References

  1. ^ a b c Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 407
  2. ^ a b c d Papahagi, Tache (1974), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, 2nd augmented ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. 490
  3. ^ a b Vrabie, Emil (2000), An English-Aromanian (Macedo-Romanian) Dictionary, University, Mississippi: Romance Monographs, p. 350
  4. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1236
  5. ^ Tietze, Andreas (2002–2018), Tarihi ve Etimolojik Türkiye Türkçesi Lugatı, Istanbul: Simurg; Vienna: Austrian Academy of Sciences
  6. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  7. ^ a b Georgiev, Vladimir I. et al. (eds.) (1971–), Bălgarski etimologičen rečnik, Sofija: Izdatelstvo na Bălgarskata akademija na naukite
  8. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română
  9. ^ Saramandu, Nicolae (coord.) et al. (2010–), Dicționarul dialectului meglenoromân, general și etimologic, fascicles in Fonetică și dialectologie XXIX–
Cite this entry

“Div.” Etymologically, 26 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/rup/div. Accessed 26 Oct. 2026.

Last edited on . ·