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DRAGOSTE · DRAGOSTЬ · DRAGЪ

Dragoste: dear and beloved, side by side — Romanian chose love

Dragoste comes from Slavic dragostь, an abstract built on dragŭ — dear in both English senses, beloved and expensive — with the suffix -ostь. Across Slavic today the word has scattered: joy, pleasure, charm, price. Of the modern dictionaries surveyed here, only Romanian made it the everyday word for love. We meet it at Coresi in 1561 — “dragostea lu Dumnezeu” — and still alive after the 1871 Glossariu declared it dead.

Pull the thread

1561
“dragostea lu Dumnezeu”, at Coresi
0×
dragostь in the five searched CCMH texts
1871
The Glossariu declares it dead — wrongly
A Marianus leaf: the precious ointment — müra draga, from Mt 26:7The Bucharest Bible: “Dragostea mult îngăduiaște”Allegory of Love: what the cousins keep for other things
Three pictures, one survivor:
Three ways of seeing love.

Contents

  1. Machine
  2. Coresi
  3. Cousins
  4. 1871
  5. Tally
  6. Game
  7. Sources

The meaning machine

Five links, four stamps

“Sl.” in DEX is shorthand, not a donor. The links separate the living loan from reconstruction and from the gap.

dragoste Romanian today ATTESTED

“– Din sl. dragostĭ” (DEX '09); MDA2, DER, Scriban, Șăineanu, CADE: the same loan.

dragostь the Slavic loan ATTESTED

Bg., Serb., Sln. and Old Russian (1314) attest it ready-made; the closest parallels stand south. (ESSJa)

*dorgostь reconstructed RECONSTRUCTED

“Производное с суфф. -ostь от прилаг. *dorgъ” (ESSJa, V, p. 76) — with no Slavic form cited.

dragŭ dear and beloved ATTESTED

“müra draga” (Marianus, Mt 26:7); “drago” (Suprasliensis). Dear and beloved together — ESSJa holds “beloved” → “costly” to be the likely direction (V, pp. 77–78).

dragostь in OCS? the missing link UNCERTAIN

Stem search for dragostь- on 26.09.2026 across the five canonical CCMH texts: 0 hits. Miklosich, p. 175: “драгость f. τιμιότης pretiositas” — with no manuscript siglum. Search evidence, not proof of absence.

PIE does NOT enter the machine: Derksen says “Etymology unclear”, Vasmer “вероятно”, Brückner “Innych odpowiedników brak” — the root is missing on paper, not for want of searching.

The oldest evidence

1561: love enters the book

From 1561, dragoste flows through print: missals, sermon books, psalms, bibles.

1561: the oldest page verified here

Coresi, Tetraevangelion, Brașov, Lk 11:42, Zac. 61: “vai de voi fariseilor. că zeciuiți de în izmă și pătrunjelul și toate vérzele și trecut judecata și dragostea lu Dumnezeu”. Timuș ed. 1889, p. 147. (Coresi)

1581: the MDA2 siglum, decoded

“CORESI, EV. 33” = the Evanghelia cu învățătură (1581), p. 33: “cu blândeaţe şi cu milostivnicie şi cu dragoste părintele priimi-va noi” (Pușcariu–Procopovici ed., 1914). So 33 is a page, not a date — and the 1561 page is still the oldest.

1570: the same press

The 1570 Liturghier (service book): “și dragostea domnului și a tatălui… fie cu toți voi” (2 Cor 13:13). Another book, same decade.

The drăg- family

a îndrăgi (Coresi); drăgăstos (Varlaam 1643); drăgălaș (Dosoftei 1673); drăguț (c. 1700). Romanian derivatives. (MDA2, DEX)

1688: the Bible

1 Cor 13: “…și dragoste nu am… Dragostea mult îngăduiaște…” (list 871); Song 8: “tare e ca moartea dragostea”. Latin scan, uncollated.

What was not found

Palia (1582): not checked here. Dosoftei: no verse found (non-exhaustive search). Old “milostenie” sense: attested by no dictionary.

The Coresi page of 1561, with the love verse highlighted
“…dragostea lu Dumnezeu” (Lk 11:42) — Coresi, Brașov 1561, p. 147, Timuș reprint (1889). The verse, highlighted by us. Photo: Coresi, Internet Archive, public domain

Coresi, 1561 (scan) →

The map of senses

Atlas: one word, four territories

Press a territory: its languages light up. Of the modern dictionaries surveyed, only Romanian keeps the word for love.

Choose a language below: its definition with a date lands here.

dragŭ · *dorgъ the centre ATTESTED

“Costly, dear, beloved”: “müra draga” (Marianus, Mt 26:7); “drago” (Suprasliensis). *dorgъ reconstructed.

Mt 26:7 · Suprasliensis · Derksen

Romanian dragoste CURRENT ATTESTED

“Feeling of affection…; love”

DEX '09 · attested since 1561

Bulgarian драгост ARCHAIC · POETIC · DIALECTAL ATTESTED

“Приятно чувство, удоволствие, радост” — pleasure, joy

RBE

Macedonian драгост MARGINAL ATTESTED

“приятност” (Koneski, via ESSJa); absent from the official contemporary dictionary

ESSJa, V, p. 76

Croatian dragost CURRENT ATTESTED

“…stanje ushićenosti” (sic) — rapture

Školski rječnik

Serbian драгост REGIONAL · HISTORICAL HISTORICAL

“О радости, велика драгости!” — south-west; missing in 1818

Vuk 1898

Old Serbo-Croatian DRAGOST HISTORICAL · LITERARY HISTORICAL

“aa) caritas, amor… ljubav” — love, one sense (aa) among several

RJA, II · Marulić, Kašić · 16th–18th c.

Slovenian dragost CURRENT ATTESTED

“lastnost dragega” — the quality of being dear

SSKJ²

Czech drahost HISTORICAL ONLY HISTORICAL

PSJČ: drahost (with the dictionary's own * — an editorial mark, not the reconstruction star), 2 citations; SSJČ: nothing; living: drahota

PSJČ 1935–57

Slovak drahosť ABSENT

No entry (control: drahota)

Lingea

Polish drogość ARCHAIC HISTORICAL

“high price” — historical, 18th–20th c. citations

Doroszewski

Russian дорогость HISTORICAL + ABSENT TODAY HISTORICAL

Old: дорогость = “дороговизна” (Pskov Chronicle, s.a. 1314; Sreznevsky I, 707)

Pskov, 1314

Ukrainian дорогість ABSENT

“Слово 'дорогість' відсутнє в базі!”; control: дорожнеча

SUM

Belarusian дарагасць ABSENT

“ня знойдзена”; дарагавізна and дарагоўля hold the slot

slounik.org

Surveyed: RBE; the Macedonian official; Školski rječnik; Vuk; SSKJ²; SSJČ; PSJČ; Lingea; PWN; Doroszewski; Dahl; Ozhegov; SUM; slounik.org.

RBE: драгост (dictionary) →

The wrong verdict

1871: dead on paper, alive on the tongue

The Glossariu buries it with documents: amor and caritas gloss the headword, then a foreign accent, desuetude, clean replacements. The language never signed.

The DRAGOSTE entry in the 1871 Glossariu, with the verdict highlighted
DRAGOSTE, s. f., amor, caritas — Glossariu, p. 232 (“in desuetudine” highlighted by us). Photo: Laurianu & Massimu, Internet Archive, public domain

The stamped tally

Secure, reconstructed, historical, uncertain

The whole page, four drawers.

Secure ATTESTED

dragoste ← dragostь (the cited etymon) ← dragŭ + -ostь (ESSJa's analysis). iubire ← ljubiti (DEX).

Reconstructed RECONSTRUCTED

*dorgъ, *dorgostь — starred (ESSJa, Derksen). PIE: nothing.

Historical HISTORICAL

RJA: dragost = amor in Marulić and Kašić (16th–18th c.). Old Russian дорогость, 1314. DER comparanda (“minune”, “plăcere”, “conveniență”) stand side by side, not in a chain.

Uncertain UNCERTAIN

COD. VOR. 190: text unverified. Palia (1582): not checked here. Dosoftei: no verse found (non-exhaustive search). Old “milostenie” sense: attested by no dictionary. CCMH: 0 hits in five texts — search evidence, not proof of absence.

Boundary: dor presupposes love + distance (DEX, sense 3) — its etymology lives on another page.

Test yourself

Set each sense in its territory

Six cards. Set each card where its sense lives.

Choose each card's territory; keys 1–4 set the chosen card. RJA is the trap: historical, not living.

  1. Ro. dragoste — “love”

  2. Pol. drogość — “high price”

  3. Old Slavic dragŭ — “costly ointment”

  4. Old Serbo-Croatian DRAGOST — “amor, ljubav”

  5. Sln. dragost — “the quality of being dear”

  6. Bg. драгост — “pleasure, joy”

Score: 0 of 6

The right placing:

  1. Old Slavic dragŭ — DEAR
  2. Bg. драгост — JOY-CHARM
  3. Sln. dragost — VALUE-PRICE
  4. Pol. drogość — VALUE-PRICE
  5. Ro. dragoste — LOVE
  6. Old Serbo-Croatian DRAGOST — LOVE (historical)

Sources

The Slavic thread, the Romanian years, the rivals, the neighbours — every risky claim points at its source.

The Slavic thread

The Romanian years

Love's rivals

Catalogue neighbours

Type: Fraunces and Source Serif 4, under the SIL Open Font Licence.