rumânie

Romanian

Etymology

From rumân +‎ -ie.

Noun

rumânie f (uncountable)

1. (historical) serfdom (of Romanian peasants)

Usage notes

• The term undertook a semantic shift from "(a) group/collectivity of Romanians" to "(a) group/collectivity of Romanian (feudal) peasants", in a similar vein to how the Russian word крестьянин changed its meaning from Christian to peasant. Therefore, rumânie (and by extension, rumân with a u) bore feudal, low-class connotations. As a consequence, by the 19th century, the român variant (рѡмѫн in Romanian Cyrillic) gradually monopolized ethnic self-identification, whereas rumân (рꙋмѫн in Romanian Cyrillic) retained a feudal, class-related meaning and thus fell out of fashion (though other factors also had a role in the process).