trei (Romanian)
Where does "trei" come from?
The Romanian word 'trei' traces its roots back to the ancient Proto-Indo-European *tréyes, meaning 'three.' It evolved through Proto-Italic as *trēs before entering Latin, where it remained 'trēs.' Over time, it traveled into Romanian, maintaining its ancient numerical significance through the centuries.
Full etymology tree
- trei (Romanian), 'three'
- inherited trēs (Latin), 'three; 3'
- inherited *trēs (Proto-Italic), 'three'
- inherited *trejes (Proto-Italic)
- inherited *tréyes (Proto-Indo-European), 'three'
- inherited *trejes (Proto-Italic)
- inherited *trēs (Proto-Italic), 'three'
- inherited trēs (Latin), 'three; 3'
Ancestors
- tres (Latin)
- *trēs (Proto-Italic)
- *tréyes (Proto-Indo-European)
Cognates and doublets
- trei (Aromanian)
Descendants and derived words
- treisprezece (Romanian)
- treizeci (Romanian)
Updated July 2026
Etymology data from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · About Miraris