moș

See also: Appendix:Variations of "mos"

Romanian

Etymology

Unknown. Moș and its feminine counterpart moașă (“midwife; old woman”) (which appears to be older^[1]^[2]) are often considered substratum words related to Albanian moshë or derived from it,^[3] but can also possibly be from Latin annōsus (“aged, old, full of years”) with a loss of the initial vowel as in some other cases (compare mătușă, noaten, nămaie), and the -ș- sound formed as with coș. The change of -n- to -m- is more unusual, but has other instances as well (compare măgar, miel, miță). Its presence in all Eastern Romance languages (compare Aromanian mosh, moashi) and the addition of the prefix stră- also indicates that it is an old word and probably from a Latin source. ^[4]

Pronunciation

Audio: (file)

Noun

moș m (plural moși)

an old man
Synonym: bătrân

Declension

Declension of moș

	singular		plural
	indefinite articulation	definite articulation	indefinite articulation	definite articulation
nominative/accusative	(un) moș	moșul	(niște) moși	moșii
genitive/dative	(unui) moș	moșului	(unor) moși	moșilor
vocative	moșule		moșilor

Derived terms

References

^ Alexandru Ciorănescu, Dicționarul etimologic român, s.v. "moș" (Tenerife: Universidad de la Laguna, 1958-1966).
^ Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române, ediția a II-a, ed. Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică Iorgu Iordan, s.v. "moș" (Univers Enciclopedic, 1998).
^ Orel, Vladimir E. (1998) “moș”, in Albanian Etymological Dictionary, Leiden, Boston, Köln: Brill, →ISBN, page 274
^ Romanian Explanatory Dictionary

[1] Alexandru Ciorănescu, Dicționarul etimologic român, s.v. "moș" (Tenerife: Universidad de la Laguna, 1958-1966).

[2] Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române, ediția a II-a, ed. Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică Iorgu Iordan, s.v. "moș" (Univers Enciclopedic, 1998).

[3] Orel, Vladimir E. (1998) “moș”, in Albanian Etymological Dictionary, Leiden, Boston, Köln: Brill, →ISBN, page 274

[4] Romanian Explanatory Dictionary

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