A GREETING THAT KISSES
Why do you say you kiss her hand when you only say hello?
“Sărut mână!” is a greeting that acts out a gesture: you say you kiss someone’s hand when mostly you only say hello. It is written in two words, with no hyphen — hyphenated “sărut-mână” is another word, the noun in “a umbla cu sărut-mână”, to beg. The formula comes from the deference-gesture of hand-kissing and appears in Romanian letters from 1703; and the verb “a săruta” once meant “to greet”, from Latin “salutare”.
KÜSS DIE HANDKEZÉT CSÓKOLOMSĂRUT MÂNĂ
Three languages, one gesture. A parallel, not a pedigree.
- Sărut mână!
- two words, no hyphen
- 1703
- “sărut cinstită mână dumitale”, in a letter to his mother
- salutare → săruta
- the kiss-word was once a greet-word
What the dictionaries say
Two words, no hyphen
The dictionaries keep the same record: the greeting is “sărut mână”, in two words; hyphenated, “sărut-mână” is another word. And the verb inside carries two formulas: “mână” and the archaic “dreapta”.
DEX ’09
“Sărut mână, a greeting or thanks said to a woman or an older person.”
- women
- older people
The addressees are social, not regional.
DEX ’09, archaic
“Sărut dreapta, a greeting said to priests, rulers, boyars.”
That is all: the page describes it and never stages it.
MDA2
- First sense of the verb: “A saluta”, to greet.
- Attested: COD. VOR. 30/6.
- The phrase, said “to women, to (older) people or, in the past, to masters”.
“To masters” prefigures the “servus” parallel of chapter three.
DOOM 3
“sărut mână (a greeting/thanks formula)” — and, separately: “!sărut-mână/(fam.) săru-mână s. n. (în: a merge/a umbla cu ~)”
DOOM 3 lists the greeting as a two-word group — verb + noun. Hyphenated, it is the neuter noun in “a umbla cu sărut-mână”, to beg.
How to spell it?
“Sărut mână!” — a greeting or thanks · “Săru’ mână!” — the same formula in familiar speech: the apostrophe marks the fallen t · “sărut-mână” — another word: the “begging” noun.
1 verb → 2 formulas
mână and dreapta
Gesture → hierarchy → words → formula → politeness
The hand that gets kissed
Hand-kissing was first a gesture of deference: to a superior, a priest, a parent. Mihaela-Viorica Constantinescu’s study (2018) follows the gesture into words — from feudal hierarchy to family letters, then to drawing-room gallantry.
The gesture: the superior’s hand
Kissing a superior’s hand as a greeting is an old practice, still alive in the mid-19th-century Principalities. The study calls it a tributary gesture, attested across a vast trans-European space; Pietreanu (1984) shows the formula rests on the gesture, under feudal norms of suzerainty in its early days.
“the transition from nonverbal to verbal performance is evident” (Constantinescu 2018)
“the formula sărut mână is based on the gesture” (Pietreanu 1984, via the study)
“he stretched out his left foot to be kissed” (Seneca — comparative context, not pedigree)
Rome is comparative context here: the deference-gesture is older and wider than any Romanian formula.
Rank: priests, parents, masters
In the 19th-century corpus, kissing a superior’s or a priest’s hand is a frequent gesture: the child kisses the priest’s hand, the subject the master’s. When the gesture is missing, contemporaries note it: “Lipsa de sevas” — lack of deference (Alecsandri, theatre, quoted in the study).
“kissing the hands of the priest is still customary” — wrote Nyrop in 1901, of southern Italy — the same gesture, another country
The drawing room: the lady’s hand
The 19th century brings something new: kissing a woman’s hand in gallantry, spoken or performed, under Western influence. “Sărut mână, cousin; you are as beautiful tonight as a fairy!” (Alecsandri, prose, quoted in the study). Pietreanu believes the use stretched metaphorically from the vassal bond to relations between the sexes.
Cousin formulas live across the former Austrian and Austro-Hungarian space: German “Küss die Hand!”, Hungarian “(Kezét) csókolom” (the study names both outright). “Kezét csókolom” is a calque of the German (Wiktionary, a tertiary source). The parallel is documented; a Hungarian pedigree for the Romanian — not.
The formula: the letter of 1703 HYPOTHESIS
“Cinstită dumneata mamă, cu plecăciune sărut cinstită mână dumitale” (27 May 1703, a Brâncoveanu family letter published by Iorga; quoted in the study)
“My honourable mother, I humbly kiss your honourable hand” — the study’s own rendering. Its author believes the family letter mediated the gesture’s passage into words: the formula appears in letters to a mother (1703), an elder brother (1713) and a father (Kogălniceanu). In the early 18th century it opens the letter; in the 19th it closes it too. And the Hungarian road? We found no academic source demonstrating that the Romanian formula is borrowed from Hungarian — the study documents the Central-East-European parallel, not the pedigree.
Hand → gesture → “sărut mână” → hello.
A comparative epilogue
Five greetings, five hidden pictures
Every Romanian greeting hides another picture: a wish, a servant, a kiss, a stroke of luck. They are not interchangeable — each has its people and its moments.
bună ziua
The wish
“A greeting at meeting or parting, during the day” (DEX, s.v. zi). The hidden picture: a wish of well.
salut
The Latin back through French
“From French salut, Latin salus” (DEX). The hidden picture: health, wished on someone. And “a saluta” — “from Latin and Italian salutare” — is the learned kin of “a săruta”.
servus
A servant kept as a hello
“A familiar greeting” (DEX, regional), from German Servus; MDA2 adds Latin servus. Behind it: “servus humillimus”, “your humblest servant” (Wiktionary). The hidden picture: service.
noroc
The toasted luck
“Noroc!” is a greeting too. The story of the glass and of fate lives at home:
sărut mână
The spoken gesture
“A greeting or thanks” for women and older people (DEX). The hidden picture: deference — the hand kissed without being kissed.
Today, on the street
Today “sărut mână” is said to women and older people, as a greeting or as thanks (DEX) — formally, from a man to a woman and from a lay person to a priest; informally, from the young to the old and from students to teachers (the study’s modern corpora). In familiar speech: “Săru’ mână!”
“M-am închinat cu sărut mîna, cucoană Zamfiriță”
The time machine
The greeting ticket
Four stops, one formula: the same “sărut mână”, said to someone else, meaning something else, in another century. Each stop shows who says it, to whom, what it means, and the evidence.
1703
stop 1 of 4
- 1703 — “sărut cinstită mână dumitale”. son → mother, in a letter 27 May 1703: the formula opens the letter. Proof the gesture already fit inside words (Constantinescu 2018).
- RANK — “Sărut mână prea sfințiii tale, părinte”. inferior → superior and priest 19th-century theatre (quoted in the study): the formula spoken upward. Whoever skips the kiss hears “Lipsa de sevas” — lack of deference (Alecsandri).
- GALLANTRY — “Sărut mână, cousin”. gentleman → lady The 19th century: a new practice under Western influence — the lady’s hand, kissed or merely spoken (the study).
- TODAY — “Sărut mână!” / “Săru’ mână!”. hello · respect · thanks The formula lives without the literal kiss: formal and informal, by age, rank and setting (DEX + modern corpora).
What stuck?
Five rounds on the memorable things: spelling, the 1703 letter, gesture and formula. Every round teaches one piece of evidence from the page.
1 How do you spell the greeting?
DOOM 3: the greeting is two words. Hyphenated, it is the noun in “a umbla cu sărut-mână” — to beg.
2 What does the apostrophe in “Săru’ mână” mark?
The DOOM norm: the apostrophe marks familiar-speech sounds — and its own example is “săru’ mână”.
3 Who gets “sărut cinstită mână dumitale” in 1703?
A letter of 27 May 1703 to his mother, from the Brâncoveanu correspondence (Iorga 1935, quoted in the 2018 study).
4 Which came first: the gesture or the formula?
The passage from nonverbal gesture to verbal formula is evident; the study’s author believes the family letter mediated it.
5 Where does “salut” come from?
DEX: “From French salut, Latin salus”.
A timeline
1563–1583
the verb, not the formula
The Voroneț Codex: the old attestation of the verb “a săruta” (MDA2: COD. VOR. 30/6), in the sense “to greet”. The formula “sărut mână” is another, newer thing — documented only from 1703.
1703
the formula fits inside words
“Sărut cinstită mână dumitale” — a letter to his mother, 27 May. The gesture is already a spoken formula (Constantinescu 2018).
19th c.
rank and gallantry
The gesture holds between inferiors and superiors; the novelty arrives: the lady’s hand, kissed in gallantry, under Western influence.
today
the formula without the gesture
The greeting lives without the literal kiss: respect, politeness, thanks — by age, rank and setting.
What we know. What we don’t.
We know: the verb comes from “salutare”
“A săruta” is inherited from Latin “salutare”, and the old sense is “to greet” (DER, MDA2, Scriban). The kiss-word was a greet-word.
We know: the gesture is old, the formula dates to 1703
Deferential hand-kissing is attested across a vast trans-European space, and the Romanian formula appears in family letters at least since 1703 (Constantinescu 2018).
We know: who says it, to whom, and when
From hierarchy to gallantry, from formal to informal: man → woman, lay → priest, young → old, student → teacher — plus thanks.
We don’t know: borrowed from Hungarian?
We found no academic source demonstrating that the Romanian formula is borrowed from Hungarian. The Central-East-European parallel is documented; the pedigree is not.
Natural questions
What people ask when they look the formula up — short answers, each with its source beside it.
How do you spell it: “sărut mână”, “săru-mână” or “sărutmână”?
“Sărut mână”, in two words, with no hyphen — that is how DOOM 3 lists the greeting and thanks formula. “Săru’ mână!”, with an apostrophe, renders familiar speech (the fallen t). “Sărut-mână”, hyphenated, is another word: the noun in “a umbla cu sărut-mână”, to beg.
Where does “sărut mână” come from?
From the deference-gesture of kissing a superior’s hand, passed into words. The 2018 study traces the passage and documents it in family letters: “sărut cinstită mână dumitale”, 27 May 1703, to his mother.
Why say “sărut mână” if you kiss no hand?
Because the formula outlived the gesture: the ritual conventionalized, and today’s speakers voice the deference without acting it. That is how you end up “kissing” someone’s hand over the phone.
Who do you say “sărut mână” to?
DEX: a woman or an older person, as a greeting or as thanks. Modern corpora add: lay → priest, young → old, student → teacher — formal and informal.
Where does the verb “a săruta” come from?
From Latin “salutare”, to greet. DER lists the senses in order: 1. (Obsolete) To greet. 2. To kiss. “A saluta” is the learned kin, from Latin and Italian.
Sources
The academic study first, the dictionaries beside it, then the old texts. Every risky claim points at its source; Wiktionary is tertiary and appears as such.
The claims, in order
| C01 | “Sărut mână”: greeting or thanks for women and older people | DEX ’09, via dexonline |
|---|---|---|
| C02 | Archaic “sărut dreapta”, for priests, rulers, boyars | DEX ’09, via dexonline |
| C03 | MDA2: first sense “A saluta”; “in the past, to masters” | MDA2, via dexonline |
| C04 | DOOM 3: the two-word “sărut mână”; the “sărut-mână” noun; “Săru’ mână!” with an apostrophe | official DOOM 3 + DOOM norms |
| C05 | “A săruta” from Latin “salutare”; the old sense “to greet” | DER + DEX ’09 + MDA2 + Scriban, via dexonline |
| C06 | The tributary gesture → the verbal formula; feudal suzerainty norms | Constantinescu 2018 + Pietreanu 1984, via the study |
| C07 | The 27 May 1703 letter to his mother; the correspondence hypothesis | Constantinescu 2018 (Iorga 1935) |
| C08 | 19th c.: hierarchy + gallantry toward women, under Western influence | Constantinescu 2018 |
| C09 | Today: formal and informal; thanks; “săru’ mîna” in corpora | Constantinescu 2018 (IVLRA corpus) |
| C10 | “Küss die Hand” + “(Kezét) csókolom”: Central-East-European parallels; the Hungarian calque of German | Constantinescu 2018 + Wiktionary (tertiary) |
| C11 | No academic source found demonstrates a Hungarian borrowing | the consulted literature (see Method) |
| C12 | The Voroneț Codex, copied 1563–1583 | RRL 2023 (the CV.1563–83 siglum) + Mareș 1987 |
| C13 | Alecsandri: “M-am închinat cu sărut mîna” | DLRLC, via dexonline |
| C14 | “salut”, “servus”, “bună ziua”, “noroc”: the other greetings | DEX + MDA2 + the noroc-narok sibling |
| C15 | Seneca + Nyrop: the ancient and modern comparative setting | Gutenberg + Wikisource (setting, not pedigree) |
Method
The main source for the formula’s history is Mihaela-Viorica Constantinescu’s study (Revue Roumaine de Linguistique, 2018), on a corpus of 17th–19th-century texts and post-2000 spoken-Romanian corpora; the English wordings of the DEX entries are this page’s. The DOOM 3 quotes come from the official site (doom.lingv.ro). C11 says exactly this much: the absence of a demonstration in the consulted literature does not prove the influence never happened. The Nyrop (1901) quotes keep his frame — “oriental” is his word. The pictures come from Wikimedia Commons, with their licences.
Dictionaries and norms
- săruta: DEX, MDA2, DER, Scriban
- sărut mână: official DOOM 3
- sărut-mână: DOOM 3, via dexonline
- zi: “bună ziua”
- salut, saluta
- servus
Studies
- Constantinescu 2018: the history of the greeting (PDF)
- Boioc Apintei et al. 2023: the CV.1563–83 siglum (PDF)
- Mareș 1987: paper watermarks (NLA catalogue)
- Seneca, On Benefits (Gutenberg)
- Nyrop, The Kiss, ch. 5 (Wikisource)
- kezét csókolom (Wiktionary, tertiary)
- szervusz (Wiktionary, tertiary)
- Coresi (Wikipedia)
The sibling
Type: Fraunces, Newsreader and Atkinson Hyperlegible, under the SIL Open Font Licence.