One of the interesting things about studying the Romanian language is the number of lexical doublets, meaning that quite often two similar words are used, one from a Latin root and one from a non-Latin (usually Slavic) root.
English has many of these, including lord and master, venison and deer, fire and flame or sheep and ewe.
If you are familiar with other Romance languages (and don’t speak a Slavic language), Romanian can be quite confusing as some of these words are recognizable while the non-Latin ones seem quite bizarre.
Let’s look at a few examples!
| Latin origin | English | non-Latin | English |
|---|---|---|---|
| caine | dog | pisica | cat |
| subsol | basement/cellar | pivnita | basement/cellar |
| fereastra | window | geam | window |
| salariu | salary | banii | money |
| cui | nail | ciocan | hammer |
| aliat | ally | dusman | enemy |
| voce | voice | glas | voice |
| picior | foot | glezna | ankle |
| frunza | leaf | copac | tree |
| pamant | dirt/earth | noroi | mud |
| ninge | (to) snow | zapada | snow |
| sunet | sound | zgomot | sound/noise |
| cascaval | cheese | branza | cheese |
| liber | free | slobod | free |
| spirit | spirit | duh | spirit |
| mincinos | liar | cinstit | honest |
| camarad | comrade | tovaras | comrade |
| egal | equal | deopotriva | equal |
| tristete | sorrow | jale | sorrow |
| speranta | hope | nadejde | hope |
| sanatos | healthy | bolnav | sick/ill |
| pierdut | lost | gasit | found |
| pace | peace | razboi | war |
| puternic | powerful | slab | weak |
| corp | body | trup | body |
| plaja | beach | nisip | sand |
| ora | hour | ceas | hour |
| seminte | seeds | boabe | seeds/grains |
| tortura | torture | chin | torture |
| petrecere | party | chef | party |
| serviciu | work/job | slujba | work/job |
| dormi | to sleep | trezi | to awaken |
| dormitor | bedroom | pat | bed |
| cer | heaven/sky | rai | heaven |
| piata | market | targ | market |
| coada | line/queue | rand | line/queue |
| barca | boat | lotca | boat |
| public | public | obstesc | public |
| nu | no | da | yes |
.
Just for fun, try saying organizaţiile obşteşti!
Can you think of any more examples?
UPDATE: As far as I’m aware, there are no true lexical doublets in Romanian. The only one in this post is “lord and master” as the term refers to two words, often used together in a pair, that come from different origins. My point in writing this post was as a handy way for people learning Romanian (esp from a Romance-language background) to identify related (or identical) words from different sources.
All Things Romania 
Thanks Emmette! Things are going great for the band and we would love to see you when you’re in town as we haven’t seen you in ages. Take care and drop a line sometime.
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Technically these are not linguistic doublets but opposites. An example of a double would be “pork” and “swine” where pork is from Latin/Romance and swine is from Germanic and both reference the same thing (in this case the “pig”, which when included, would make this a “triplet” by the addition the Nordic loan-word for the same animal).
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er….ceas also means watch/clock. :D
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Ohhhh yeaa,you are really so beituaful !! And stunning,no kidding <3 <3 Gorgeous eyes you have.Love love the details on your new scarf and I'm excited on your new purchases !And I love your new profile photo :)
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