FROM DECREE TO DRINK
“Noroc!” — the toast that used to be a sentence
Noroc means good luck. Behind it stands Slavic narok — the decision spoken over someone — grown into fate, then into a drinking wish. No dictionary says when the shift happened.
Follow what we know — and where the thread snaps
- 1639
- PARACLIS: the indicated first record of the noun — not of the toast
- 14 × 7
- fourteen toasts in seven families: the atlas below
- THIRD NIGHT
- when the fate-weavers come, in fieldwork from Oltenia (Golant)
The word melts as you read it:
- NAROK Church Slavonic · the spoken decision
- NOROC Romanian · fate as the dictionaries have it
- NOROC! toast · the lifted glass, the shift undated
1639 → TODAY · from decision to glass
The 30-second answer
“Noroc!” comes from Slavic narokŭ, the spoken decision: Șăineanu (1929) renders it “ceeace s'a rostit” — that which was spoken — and Scriban (1939) gives it as “na-rokŭ, decision, fate”. Decision grew into fate, fate into a wish — but no dictionary dates the shifts: they are a reconstruction, not a chronicle. What we know for sure: the noun is on record in 1639, the toast is not.
Where does the word “noroc” come from?
From Slavic narokŭ, “judgment, verdict”, built from na- “upon” and rokŭ “time, term” — and rokŭ comes from the verb “to say”. In short: fate as a spoken decision. Its bond with the glass is this page's story.
Etymological history: what the dictionaries say
The word's thread
Before it was noroc, it was narok: a spoken decision. The thread runs through verb, term, verdict, and borrowing — and snaps exactly where the glass begins.
The decomposition
*reťi
reconstructed verb · “to say”
etymology
*rokъ
reconstructed noun · “time, term”
attestation
rokŭ
Church Slavonic · “time, term”
+ na- “upon”
narokŭ
Church Slavonic · “judgment, verdict”
borrowing
năroc, noroc
Romanian · “fate”
new sense, undated
Noroc!
toast · the lifted glass
Vasmer (рок I, text after lexicography.online): Slavonic rokŭ “appointed time”, Proto-Slavic *rokъ “time, term”, tied to “saying” — with the Latin parallel of fatum from fari. Derksen gives *rokъ “time” and *rekti “speak, say”, but the citation is secondary (through Wiktionary); this page leans on Vasmer. Miklosich, Lexicon (OCR on archive.org): нарокъ “sententia, decretum, fortuna, sors” and “serb. narok, rum. norok, fortuna”; рокъ “appointed time, term”.
“that which was spoken”
Scriban (1939, p. 876) is more cautious: “noróc și (vest) năróc… (vsl. na-rokŭ, hotărîre, soartă, d. rešti-rekon, a zice, a vorbi; sîrb. narok, soartă; pol. narok, într'adins)”. The word “spoken” never appears in his entry: the juxtaposition is Șăineanu against Scriban, not Scriban alone.
DER (Ciorănescu) gives no glosses: “Sl. narokŭ (Miklosich, Slaw. Elem., 32), cf. sb., cr., pol. narok”. The note is comparative-etymological, not a current-usage report: the Miklosich p. 32 reference was not inspected.
What is left of narok in the Slavic languages
Polish: HISTORICAL, extinct COMPARED
Absent from the modern SJP and from WSJP (“nie znaleziono”); Brückner (p. 373) records it in the 13th century as “opole, okręg”, in Gliczner (1558) as “narokiem, a umyślnie”, in the 17th century as “wnętrzności”. Doroszewski marks it historical.
Serbian: POPULAR, regional COMPARED
RMS: “нарок м нар. судбина, коб; срећа” — marked popular; Vuk records it from Montenegro. Rečnik-2007 was not consulted.
Croatian: HISTORICAL, literary COMPARED
Absent from HJP; ARj (vol. VII) gives it eight senses, in Menčetić, Držić, and Vetranić, 15th–16th centuries.
A note: Scriban's “pol. narok, într'adins” is Brückner's 16th-century sense — one more proof that the DER note is comparative, not current.
Old Romanian forms (MDA2)
- năroc — obsolete
- naroc — regional
- noruc — regional
The same family, other destinies
The same Slavic family kept surprisingly different senses — each with its own dictionary:
- Polish rok — “okres 365 dni” (WSJP, since the 14th c.)
- Czech rok — “doba dvanácti měsíců” (ÚJČ)
- Czech nárok — a claim (ÚJČ)
- Croatian rok — “vrijeme… ispitni rok” (HJP)
- Russian rok — fate, poetic doom
- Russian srok — a term, a deadline
Year, term, claim, destiny: a branching, not a ladder. Russian rok is fate (poetic doom), not “year”.
decree → fate → toast: the model, not the dating
The record: 1639
MDA2 indicates a record from 1639: “[At: PARACLIS (1639), 20]”. It is the earliest record MDA2 indicates for the noun — not for the toast.
The press? A recent study (Mârza–Bogdan, Apulum LXII/2025) argues the Paraclis was printed, “almost certainly”, at Govora, not Alba Iulia — probable printer popa Dobre. The hedging is theirs; this page keeps it.
From noun to “Noroc!”
The noun became a greeting, the greeting — perhaps — a drinking wish. The dictionaries keep the senses side by side; the witnesses show the greeting, not the toast.
DEX '09
A da noroc = … to pledge, to clink, to wish. Noroc! = a greeting or wishing formula.
1. Fate, lot, (favorable) destiny. 2. Chance, luck. 3. Happiness.
CADE
Noroc (bun)! A wish for various occasions.
And sense 1 is still “fate (good or bad)”: before it softened, fate could be bad too.
The paired wish
“Sănătate!” — the body's wish, not fate's.
The worldwide toast list sets it beside Noroc (WP Toast).
Witnesses: the greeting first
Three stops and a gap: the noun in 1639, the greeting in Slavici and Giulești, the toast — undated.
1639 · the noun
The Paraclis, after MDA2: the indicated first record of the noun. Its sense then is not the toast.
1881 · the parting greeting (Slavici)
Moara cu noroc: six passages with “noroc” as a formula — farewell on leaving (I, III, VII, XV), a wish (“Noroc bun să deie Dumnezeu!”, IV) and, the centerpiece, Lică's definition: “să le zici noroc bun celor ce vin și se duc” (II) — greeting and farewell in one. Quoted after the 1965 critical edition (Pervain, Todoran, Protase, after ESPLA 1958); the 1881 princeps was not inspected.
1920 · the meeting greeting (Giulești)
Papahagi, Graiul și folklorul Maramureșului (1925), text DXXXVIII, pp. 165–166: the informant “1920. Giulești — Ioan…” says “năroc bun, bună dzuă” — a greeting on meeting, replaced after the earthquake with “laudă-se Isus Hristos”.
Bonuses: wishes and mirror-toasts
Coșbuc (1884, a greeting with its reply), Alecsandri (“Noroc bun, tânăr voinic!”, 1866), CADE (“a wish for various occasions”), Săcel in 1920 (a ritual wish with the hammer — a separate class), Alecsandri in Cinel-Cinel and Paracliserul (toasts with stage directions — mirror-witnesses).
? · the toast
The first dated toast is missing. See the honest gap, above.
Not used: the DRAM 319–320 pagination (from the 1981 re-edition), an unidentified Alecsandri in DLRLC, Ispirescu (snippet only) — all sit in the ledger.
Fate is spoken at the cradle.
The fate-weavers
Among Romanians, fate is not drawn by lot: it is spoken. Three women come by night to the newborn and settle its fate, character, and abilities — so Natalia Golant's informants told it in Oltenia, in fieldwork from 2006–2010.
Three women
“Those three ursători”, demons of destiny — typical of the Balkan Slavs too: Bulgarians, Macedonians, Serbs, Montenegrins, Croats (Golant).
The third night
Their coming was expected on the third night after birth (Polovragi, Ponoarele) — or even the first (Mălaia). Both variants stand recorded; neither is erased.
The laid table
The newborn's family lays the fate-weavers' table: sweetened unleavened bread (Polovragi), round loaves (Ponoarele), milk, cheese, meat, wine, plum brandy — with which the kin try to shape the wished-for future.
Names that speak
The South Slav names of the fate-weavers derive from verbs meaning “to pass sentence, to name”: orisnici, narečnici, suđenici (Golant). The same cultural image returns: destiny is spoken.
Badly fated
Of the luckless person they say “te ursază rău” — you were fated badly (Golant, Mălaia): the fate spoken at the cradle, the luck drunk from the glass.
The thread spoken at the cradle is the thread you drink from the glass: luck and fating, one story. That is this page's reading, not a scholarly thesis.
The libation
Long before “Noroc!”, wine was already being poured to the gods. The link is a gesture, not a lineage: the lifted glass speaks too.
“Then they drew wine from the bowl into the cups, and poured it forth, and made prayer to the gods that are for ever.”
Poured wine seals the oath: whoever breaks it shall spill on the ground like wine. (The editors' gloss.)
From wine spilled for the gods to glasses clinked among people, the road is long and unproven. We show it as such: two documented practices, one gesture to read.
What we leave out here: the Greek libation vocabulary and the “probably a secular vestige” quote — their sources could not be inspected, so they are absent, not paraphrased.
How we grouped them
The toast atlas
In many cultures, the glass comes with a wish. Fourteen toasts, grouped by us into seven families by what they wish — Prost got its own family, BENEFIT. The taxonomy is the editors'; the glosses are sourced.
HEALTH
The wish is a body that holds: to your health.
- Sănătate Romanian — health
- Santé French — health
- Salute Italian — health
- Na zdrowie Polish — to health
BENEFIT
The wish is a good that takes hold: may it benefit you.
- Prost German — may it benefit you
LUCK-FATE
The wish is a fate that smiles: good luck.
- Noroc Romanian — good luck
HONOR
The wish is a name held high: honor.
- Şerefe Turkish — to honor
LIFE
The wish is more years: life.
- L'chaim Hebrew — to life
- Živeli Serbian/Croatian — live!
VICTORY
The wish is a battle won: victory.
- Gaumarjos Georgian — victory!
- Yum seng Cantonese via Singlish — drink to victory
SOUND
The wish is the clink itself: sound.
- Cin cin Italian — the clink (route disputed)
- Chinchín Spanish — clink
- Tchin-tchin French — clink
Play with the glasses
Pick a family and its glasses gather; open a glass and read its story; or toast the table and draw one at random.
14 of 14 glasses
From Slavic narokŭ — Șăineanu (1929): “ceeace s'a rostit”, that which was spoken. The decree softened into luck; the shift is undated.
A direct wish: be healthy. The toast beside Noroc.
From Latin prōsit, “may it be of use, may it serve you well” (DWDS: es nütze, sei dienlich), 3rd-sg. present subjunctive of prodesse; taken over mid-16th c., raised over drink — zum Wohl — since the 16th c.
The dative of şeref, “honor” — from Arabic šaraf (Nişanyan). The wish is honor, not health.
Hebrew: “to life”. Chabad: the traditional wish on raising the glass, for at least 2,000 years.
Serbian/Croatian: “live!” — life as a command.
Georgian: “victory!” — the tamada's word at the supra feast (Muehlfried: “Victory to…”).
From Cantonese yam seng, “drink to victory” (Culturepaedia Singapore); the wish is shouted three times, louder each time (Singapore's Mandarin Council).
A Chinese origin via pidgin English (Treccani: ch'ing-ch'ing “prego prego”), reinterpreted in Italy as the glasses' sound; the exact dialect route is disputed.
Onomatopoeic for the clinking of glasses (DRAE, via WP-ES).
Like English chin-chin (EN-Wiktionary: from Chinese pidgin English); Petit Robert, via CNRTL: from Canton pidgin, tsing tsing.
A direct wish: health.
A direct wish: health.
A direct wish: to (your) health.
Every glass shows its literal gloss, its mechanism, and its source.
What do you drink when you toast?
Six rounds: every toast speaks its literal meaning. Pick the gloss, take the verdict, keep the score.
Cin cin sits out the game — its dialect route is disputed, and a dispute is never a quiz answer; find it above, with all its voices.
1 Prost German
Round 1 of 6
may it benefit you · From Latin prosit, the optative of prodesse (DWDS).
2 Şerefe Turkish
Round 2 of 6
to honor · The dative of şeref “honor”, from Arabic šaraf (Nişanyan).
3 Noroc Romanian
Round 3 of 6
good luck · From Slavic narokŭ, “ceeace s'a rostit” (Șăineanu, 1929).
4 Gaumarjos Georgian
Round 4 of 6
victory! · The tamada's word at the feast (Muehlfried 2007).
5 L'chaim Hebrew
Round 5 of 6
to life · The traditional Jewish toast (Chabad: at least 2,000 years).
6 Na zdrowie Polish
Round 6 of 6
to health · A direct wish (WP Toast).
Score: 0 of 6
You have been through all six glasses.
The myths
Four things often said that don't hold up.
“Noroc always meant luck”
This page's model — spoken decree, fate (good or bad, CADE), good luck, toast — is a reconstruction: no dictionary dates the shifts. Out of a word of decision, once upon a time, a wish was born.
“The 1639 record dates the toast”
It dates the noun — and only as an MDA2 indication. The first dated toast is missing from the dictionaries: see the honest gap.
“Nobody knows where cin cin is from”
We know the direction: Treccani picks the Chinese origin through pidgin, with an onomatopoeic reinterpretation in Italy. What stays disputed is the exact dialect route — six voices, no consensus.
“Şerefe just means cheers”
Şerefe means “to honor” — the wish is honor, from Arabic šaraf (Nişanyan), not health.
“Norocu-i orb”
Questions and answers
Six natural questions, with this page's honesty attached.
Where does the word “noroc” come from?
From Slavic narokŭ, “judgment, verdict” — built from na- “upon” and rokŭ “time, term”, and rokŭ from the verb “to say”. In short: fate as a spoken decision.
What did narokŭ mean?
“Judgment, verdict” in Slavonic (Miklosich); Șăineanu (1929) renders it “ceeace s'a rostit”, Scriban (1939) gives it as “decision, fate”.
When is the word on record?
MDA2 indicates a record from 1639, in the Paraclis — the earliest indicated for the noun. The press? Probably Govora, not Alba Iulia (Mârza–Bogdan, 2025: “almost certainly”).
When did it become a wish?
Nobody knows: no dictionary dates the “clinking” sense. The literary witnesses (Slavici, Giulești) show the greeting, not the toast.
Is it a Slavic word?
Yes, as a borrowing: Romanian took it from Slavic (năroc, then noroc). The related Slavic forms — Polish, Serbian, and Croatian narok — are historical or regional today, not current use.
Why do we say “Noroc!” over the glass?
Because the wish stuck to the gesture: the lifted glass asks for a kind word, and “good luck” was the word at hand. The shift is undated — it is this page's honest gap.
Sources
Dictionaries first, then fieldwork, old texts, and print, then the world's glasses. Every risky claim points at its source.
Dictionaries
- noroc: DEX '09, MDA2, CADE, DER (dexonline)
- noroc: the MDA2 entry, with the 1639 record (dexonline)
- noroc: the DER entry (dexonline)
- Scriban, Dicționarul limbii românești (scan)
- rok: Vasmer, рок I (lexicography.online)
- narokъ, rokъ: Miklosich, Lexicon (scan + OCR)
- rok, nárok: Czech (ÚJČ, příručka)
- rok, narok: Polish (WSJP)
- rok: Croatian (HJP)
- narok: historical Polish (Brückner, Wikisource)
- prosit ← prodesse, 16th c. (DWDS)
- şeref ← Arabic šaraf (Nişanyan)
- cincin: Chinese + onomatopoeia (Treccani)
- chin-chin ← Chinese pidgin English (EN-Wiktionary)
Fieldwork, old texts, and print
- the ursitoare in Oltenia, 2006–2010 fieldwork (Golant, PDF)
- Iliad 3.295–300: the oath's wine (Perseus, Murray 1924)
- Slavici, Moara cu noroc, 1965 ed. (scan)
- cin cin ← qingqing, Masini (Goldthread, 2020)
- the 1639 Paraclis: Govora, “almost certainly” (Apulum LXII/2025)
- Ursitory: the background article (EN-wiki)
The world's toasts
- Toast: history, prosit, the worldwide list (EN-wiki)
- Brindis: chinchín (ES-wiki)
- Tchin-tchin: the Chinese qing qing (FR-wiki)
- l'chaim: “to life”, at least 2,000 years (Chabad)
- yum seng ← Cantonese (Culturepaedia Singapore)
How we verified
The Romanian dictionaries (DEX, MDA2, CADE, DER, Scriban, Șăineanu) were read on dexonline and in scans on 24 Sep 2026. Vasmer (рок I) and ÚJČ were read directly; Chabad blocked automated reading — the passage is quoted after sources that reproduce it. DRAE, Collins, and CNRTL block automated reading — their glosses arrive through the articles that cite them. Magalotti 1666 has no digitization found. Miklosich p. 32 (Slaw. Elem.), the 1881 Slavici princeps, and Rečnik-2007 were not inspected. A locus note: Drăganu (1922) shows Paraclis f. 20 as Molitve, without “noroc”, and the single “năroc” occurrence at 54v°13 — the discrepancy with the MDA2 locus stays unexplained.
The claim table
| C01 | DEX: fate/chance/happiness + “to pledge, to clink” | dexonline |
|---|---|---|
| C02 | MDA2: PARACLIS 1639, năroc/naroc/noruc, slv narokъ | dexonline |
| C03 | CADE: NĂROC, “fate (good or bad)”, “Noroc (bun)!” | dexonline |
| C04 | DER: Sl. narokŭ (Miklosich), sb./cr./pol. narok — a comparative note | dexonline |
| C05 | Șăineanu, 6th ed. (1929), p. 433: NAROKŬ, “ceeace s'a rostit” | Dacoromanica scan |
| C06 | Scriban (1939), p. 876: na-rokŭ, “decision, fate” — no “spoken” | archive.org scan |
| C07 | Vasmer рок I + Miklosich, Lexicon: rokъ, narokъ | lexicography + scan |
| C08 | Slavici (greeting, 6 passages) + Giulești 1920 (greeting) | scan + Papahagi 1925 |
| C09 | Govora “almost certainly” + the Drăganu locus note | Apulum + ledger |
| C10 | prosit ← prodesse, taken over mid-16th c. | DWDS + WP |
| C11 | Şerefe = “to honor”; şeref ← Ar. šaraf | Nişanyan + WP |
| C12 | Treccani: Chinese origin through pidgin + reinterpretation | Treccani |
| C13 | the dialect route: six voices, no consensus | dictionaries + WP |
| C14 | Noroc/Sănătate in the worldwide list | WP Toast |
| C20–C26 | l'chaim (Chabad), živeli, gaumarjos (Muehlfried), yum seng, santé, salute, na zdrowie | sources + WP |
| C27 | the ursitoare: three women, the third night, the table | Golant 2006–2010 |
| C28 | Iliad 3.295–300: wine poured at the oath | Perseus/Murray |
| C29 | Slavic narok: PL historical, SR popular, HR historical-literary | Brückner · RMS · ARj |
| C30 | rok: year/term/claim/destiny, each with its dictionary | WSJP · ÚJČ · HJP |
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