Romanian language

Lexical Doublets


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.

31 thoughts on “Lexical Doublets”

  1. Sam,

    ai uitat:
    sotie/soata (Lat) – nevasta (Slav, care de fapt inseamna mireasa in limbile slave),
    domn (Lat) -voievod (Slav)
    pacurar (Lat) – cioban (turc)
    cununa -coroana (amble latine de la corona dar cu sensuri usor diferite)

    Ca regula, cuvantul de origine slava este folosit in mod informal sau ironic in timp ce imprumutul latin, venit tardiv via limba franceza sau italiana este mult mai formal.

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  3. Here is a quadruplet: master – magister – maestru – maistru (lat. magister “teacher”)
    And a funny doublet:
    menestrel – ministru (lat. minister “servant”)
    Nu degeaba toti ministrii din Romania sunt menestreli. :)

    Following your model “lord – master,” I could say that there are many examples in Romanian:
    paradis (fr.) – rai (sl.)
    infern (it.) – iad (sl.)
    plop (lat.) – plútă (scr.)
    zestre (lat.) – dótă (fr.)
    lumesc (lat.) – laic (fr.) – mirean (sl.)
    sicriu (magh.) – coșciúg (sl.) – ráclă (bg.)
    drac (lat.) – diavol (sl.) – demon (fr.) – satană (fr./sl./ngr.)
    strigoi (“a striga” lat. ) – vârcolác (bg.) – vampir (fr.)
    occident (fr.) – apus (“a apune” lat.)
    orient (fr.) – răsărit (“a rasari” lat.)
    amurg (nec.) – seară (lat.) – crepuscul (fr.)
    zilnic (“zi” – lat. dies) – cotidian (fr.)
    popor (lat.) – obşte (sl.)
    nădejde (sl.) – speranță (it.)
    pieptar (“piept” lat.) – ilic (tc.) – vestă (fr.) – bundiță (magh.) – cojocel (sl.)
    flanelă/flanel (fr.) – pulover (engl.)
    visare (“vis” lat.) – reverie (fr.)
    etc.

    Helpful hints (for standard Romanian):

    – If you have to choose between a word from Latin and a bizarre word, it’s preferable to choose the one from Latin. Starting with the 18th century, Romanian has constantly replaced the borrowings from non-Romance languages with words from Romance languages or English / German.
    Ex:
    adunarea ‘obştească’ (it’s archaic and you will sound bizarre even to Romanians)
    adunarea ‘publică’ (it’s contemporary Romanian)
    ———————-
    ‘Nădejdea’ mea e sa trec testul. (not bad, but you might sound like Sadoveanu)
    ‘Speranța’ mea e sa trec testul. (most likely)
    ———————-
    Copilul scrie ‘citeț’. (fair enough)
    Copilul scrie ‘lizibil’. (you sound smarter)
    ————————————————————————————————
    – If you have to choose between a Latin word and a borrowing from a Romance language:
    a) choose the Latin word for an informal situation (those words are the reason why the language is called Romance):
    Cititul ma ajuta sa uit de grijile ‘zilnice’.
    Daca s-ar fi maritat Otilia, ar fi trebuit sa-i dea ‘zestre’! (country style)
    Plaja e un loc care ma indeamna la ‘visare’.
    b) choose Romance borrowings for a formal situation or if you want to sound smart (kind of GRE style):
    Stresul si grijile ‘cotidiene’ ne influenteaza sanatatea.
    “Daca s-ar fi maritat Otilia, ar fi trebuit sa-i dea ‘dotă’!” (bourgeois style)
    Plaja e un loc care ma indeamna la ‘reverie’.

    – Any English word sounds “cool”:
    Mi-am cumparat un ‘flanel’. (boo!)
    Mi-am cumparat un ‘pulover’. (thumbs up!)

    p.s. and no, we did not translate “mouse” (when it comes to computers), we even keep the English orthography (who said Romanian is a phonetic language?!), but we still decline the word (which might give you a lot of trouble when you thought you’re done!):
    Ex:
    Am cumparat ‘un mouse’. ‘Mouse-ul’ merge bine. Pretul ‘mouse-ului’ e convenabil.
    Plural?! aaa….’ moushi’, ‘moushii’?! Just kidding…
    Am cumparat ‘mouse-uri’. ‘Mouse-urile’ merg bine. Pretul ‘mouse-urilor’ e convenabil.
    And it’s neuter: un mouse – două mouse-uri
    Which reminds me of another hint:
    If it’s a borrowed word which has no definite gender in real life (masculine or feminine), most likely it’s neuter (singular – masculine / plural – feminine), like in English (“it”): computer, software, driver, desktop, folder, mouse, hub, modem, etc.

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    1. but if the word ends in a vowel, it is considered feminine (there are some exceptions though, such as “avocado” or “mango”, which are masculine if you are talking about the tree and neuter if you are talking about the fruit):
      o pijama – doua pijamale (fr. pyjama)
      o banca – doua banci (fr. banque)
      o fregata – doua fregate (fr. frégate)
      o kiwi – ……. invariable (fr. kiwi)

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    1. I found it on the municipal website of Balti, Republica Moldova :D I often used to ask my friends (here in Cluj) what “obstesc” means as a kind of trivia question, and interestingly the only ones who knew it were ones who came from (Romanian) Moldova.

      Everyone doubts me but I AM more Romanian than you! :P

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  5. Not bad, but… as far as I know, “sad” is adjective in English and “jale” is noun in Romanian. Maybe you can find a different translation in English. I would also use “paradis” instead of “cer.” For “money” (which is non-count in English), I would use the singular in Romanian “ban” (“bani” – plural; “banii” – plural + definite article). Especially this last example might be confusing, because in Romanian we count money, so the verb has to agree with the noun: “Banul e important. / Banii sunt importanti.” vs. “Money is important.”
    I am not sure what you mean by “true lexical doublets.” I would say that there are a lot of doublets in Romanian:
    a coresponda – a corespunde
    dominion – domeniu
    intermediu – intermezzo
    beton – bitum
    hol – hala
    providenta – prudenta
    serviciu – service
    spaclu – spatula
    penalty – penalitate
    standard – sindard
    studio – studiu
    corp – corpus
    for – forum
    cabana – cabina
    baston – baton
    repertoar – repertoriu
    fantasma – fantoma
    diligenta (postalion) – diligenta (sarguinta)
    marchiza (rang nobiliar) – marchiza (element arhitectonic)
    etc.

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    2. Whew, I appreciate all the details in your comments. Very helpful for people learning Romanian.

      In English, a “lexical doublet” means two words which are often used together. For example, “lord and master” in my post. Another famous example (from wedding vows) is “love and cherish”, again two words meaning (roughly) the same thing, used together because at one point part of the population (of England) spoke a Latin language (Norman French) and the other half a Germanic language.

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      1. ah, now I understand… it’s basically a pleonastic construction. Well, Romanian language has an Academy, which tells us how we should speak/write (you had your own experience with î and â) so we have been thought for more than a century to avoid pleonastic constructions.
        If we live alone the particular English experience (Norman vs. Germanic language), we can still find pleonastic constructions (which are not recommended, but people use them):
        – Doamne Dumnezeule: doamne (lat. dominus) + dumnezeu (lat. domine deus) – both mean “God”
        Ex: Doamne Dumnezeule, ce s-a intamplat?!
        – ordine si disciplina: ordine (lat. ordo/-inis) + disciplina (fr. discipline) – in this context, both mean “discipline”
        Ex: Ordinea si disciplina sunt esentiale in armata.
        – averse de ploaie: aversa (fr. averse) + ploaie (lat. plovia) – both mean “rain”
        Ex: La noapte vor cadea cateva averse de ploaie.
        – conducere manageriala: conducere (lat.) + managerial (engl.) – both mean “management”
        Conducerea manageriala a companiei a decis inghetarea salariilor.
        – perioada de timp: perioada (lat. periodus) + timp (lat. tempus) – both mean “time frame”
        Ma mut la Cluj pentru o perioada de timp.
        – a cronometra timpul: a cronometra (gr. cronos) + timp (lat. tempus) – both mean “time”
        Se va cronometra timpul de la lansare până la atingerea solului.
        – munca laborioasa: munca (sl. monka) + laborios (lat. laboriosus) – both mean “labor, work”
        Politia a dus o munca laborioasa de descoperire a infractorilor.
        etc.

        p.s. there is a funny pleonasm: “mujdei de usturoi” (engl. garlic garlic juice)
        mujdei = must de ai (lat. alium = usturoi) – garlic juice

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  6. There is the word ‘țărm’, which means ‘shore’ and is alleged to derive from the Latin, but there is also the word ‘mal’ for shore, which derives from the Dacian.

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  7. But I beg to differ!

    Ai două greşeli la cuvintele de provenienţă non-Latină: “uşă” e cât se poate de Latin, < *ostium, var. *ustium, cf. It. "uscita"; "pădure" < Lat. V. *padulem < Lar. paludem (aparent acest etimon s-a păstrat doar în Română, deşi poate că mai apare spontan sub alte forme în alte limbi şi dialecte romanice pierdute prin lume…)

    În rest arată bine. Ahh, şi în primul rând acestea nu sunt dublete !
    Vezi următorul articol pentru lămurire: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doublet_(linguistics)

    Numai bine!

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      1. Except in the expression “muncile iadului”, apparently coming from Slavic, where again “monka”=chin=torment.
        Also munca=roboteala, direct link to Karel Capek’s Rossum’s Universal Robot. (robot= somebody/something who works, works, works)

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    2. “picior” vine din Lat. “petiolum”, iar Lat. “pedes” a dat un alt cuvânt în română care din păcate e prea puţin folosit şi mai apare în idiomuri: “piez/ piază” sau poate chiar “pied”, cf. “piază rea”.

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