Etymologically

Etymology and origin of the Aromanian word veduu

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
1813 Boiagi's grammar, as cited by Pascu
Inherited from
Latin viduus
Ultimate origin
Latin viduus
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin viduus
Aromanian veduu
From the same root
Latin viduo ← viduus

Forms

veduu m (feminine veduã, masculine plural vedui, feminine plural vedui or vedue)[1]

  • Feminine veduã, masculine plural vedui, feminine plural vedui or vedue.[1][2] Cunia does not accept the spelling veduuã for the feminine.[2]
  • With -v-: veduv and veduvu in Wiktionary and Cunia;[1][2] VEDUV, plural veduyi, feminine veduvă, plural veduve, in Pascu, who quotes the feminine vedua from Boiagi;[3] véduv, -vă in a text Papahagi cites.[4]
  • Other spellings: VÉDUŬ, feminine véduňă, plural véduï, védue, in Papahagi's dictionary;[4] véduv, feminine -ă, in Mihăileanu;[5] văduv, plural -yi, in Dalametra;[6] βέντουου, feminine βέντουᾶ (véduu, véduă), in Nikolaidis's Greek script.[7]
  • Regional forms: v'eduv and v'edov for the widower and v'eduvâ for the widow in Turia.[8]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin viduus (“deprived of a husband or wife”),[4][3][7][1] Wiktionary suggests through a Vulgar Latin form *viduvus.[1] The feminine continues vidua (“widow”).[3]

The word is shared with Romanian văduv, which has a regional form văduu in Transylvania.[9] Pușcariu explains the -v- of the Romanian form from the feminine văduvă.[10] The western cognates are Italian vedovo, French veuf, Spanish viudo and Portuguese viúvo;[9][10] Albanian ve (“widow”) is compared too.[10][7]

De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *wiþowo- and traces it to Proto-Indo-European *h₁ui-dʰh₁-eu-o- (“separated”).[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The oldest dated record is the feminine vedua in Boiagi's grammar of 1813, as Pascu quotes it.[3]

Semantic evolution

The sense is unchanged from Latin: a man or woman whose spouse has died and who has not married again.[2][4] Pascu records the verbs viduire and nviduire (to become widowed) and the diminutive viduscă.[3]

Timeline

  • 1813 – vedua “widow” in Boiagi's grammar, as Pascu quotes it.[3]
  • 1901 – véduv, -ă in Mihăileanu's dictionary.[5]
  • 1906 – văduv in Dalametra's dictionary.[6]
  • 1909 – véduu, véduă in Nikolaidis's dictionary.[7]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A widower;[2][1][4] (feminine veduã) a widow.[2][1][4]

Adjective

  1. widowed.[1][5]
  • Romanian văduv

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 1084
  3. ^ 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, 183
  4. ^ a b c d e f Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1106
  5. ^ a b c Mihăileanu, Ștefan (1901), Dicționar macedo-român, București, p. 533
  6. ^ a b Dalametra, I. (1906), Dicționar macedo-român, București: Academia Română, p. 217
  7. ^ a b c d Νικολαΐδης, Κωνσταντίνος (1909), Ετυμολογικόν λεξικόν της κουτσοβλαχικής γλώσσης, Αθήνα, p. 116
  8. ^ Бара, Мариана; Каль, Теде; Соболев, Андрей Н. (2005), Южноарумынский говор села Турия (Малый диалектологический атлас балканских языков, серия монографий 1), p. 355
  9. ^ a b Ciorănescu, Alexandru (1958–1966), Diccionario etimológico rumano, La Laguna: Universidad de La Laguna (Romanian ed.: Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române, București: Saeculum, 2001)
  10. ^ a b c Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
  11. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill

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

“Veduu.” Etymologically, 26 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/rup/veduu. Accessed 27 Oct. 2026.

Last edited on . ·