The history of Roman Dacia covers 165 years. During this time the province prospered and benefited from the advantages of the romanisation. Gold and iron mining seem to be very important for this period; slaves, but also well paid workers, were used in this field. But the main occupation of the locals continued to be agriculture and cattle breeding.

"Crowds of Roman citizens" (Eutropius) were brought to Dacia. They settled in the cities, while the Dacian population continued to practice agriculture. Still a lot of words of Latin origin have been preserved for this semantic field.

In the area of the cultivation of plants, many names of cereals, vegetables and fruit trees have been preserved:

-cereals: "grâu" from the Latin "granum" (grain), "orz"- "hordeum" (barley), "secară"- "secale" (rye), "porumb"- "palumbus" (corn), "mei"- "milium" (milles) etc.

-textile plants: "in"- "linum" (flax), "cânepă"- "canapa" (the folk Latin form for "cannabis"; hemp).

-vegetables: "legumă"- "legumen" (vegetable), "varză"- "viridia" (cabbage), "ceapă"- "caepa" (onion), "ridiche"- "radicula" (radish), "urzică"- "urtica" (nessle) etc.

-fruit trees: "măr"- "malus" (apple), "păr"- "pirus" (pear), "cireş"- "ciresius" (cherry tree), "nucă"- "nux/nucis" (nut), "piersic"- "persicus" (peach tree), "viţă-de-vie"- "vitis/vitiae" (grapevine) etc.

The Dacians were apiarists and obtained honey ("miere"- "mel") and wax ("creară"- "cera"), which were very appreciated by the Romans. Wax was used for making candles ("lumânare"- "luminaria"), honey was used for nourishment and for preparing certain drugs.

The Romans scorned beer; they made drinks from honey and fruit wines (drinks made from fermented pear and quince). But the most important drink was the grape wine. It was a mass consumption drink, being also part of the ration of the slaves ( obviously the lowest quality wine). The hilly regions of Dacia were propitious for the cultivation of grapevine, from which they obtained wine. Once the Romans came, the Latin term "vinum" replaced the one in use at the time, which was lost in the long run.

The Romanian language took from Latin also words concerning domestic and wild animals. Terms like "oaie"- "ovis" (sheep), "porc"- "porcus" (pig), "vacă"- "vacca" (cow), "berbec"- "berbecs" (ram), "bou"- "bovus" (ox), "cal"- "caballus" (horse), "capră"- "capra" (goat), "găină"- "gallina" (hen) have been preserved as they define a perpetual reality. Different products obtained from these animals were used daily: "lapte"- "lactem" (milk), "caş"- "caseus" (a certain type of cheese), "lână"- "lana" (wool), "carne"- "coro/carnis" (meat), "ouă"- "ovum" (eggs), "piele"- "pellis" (skin). The Romans also used to hunt certain wild animals, which were served at any feast: "căprioare"- "capriola" (deers), "păuni"- "pavo" (peacocks), "porumbei"- "palumbus" (doves) etc.

The mines in Dacia were very important for the Romans, especially the gold mines. The emperor owned all of them and had an office holder who managed them. Besides gold they used to extract salt ("sare"- "sarea"), iron ("fier"- "ferum"), copper ("aramă"- "aramen"), marble ("marmură"- "marmorem"). By processing iron, sickles ("seceră"- "sicilis"), knives ("cuţit"- "cotitus") and other tools were made. As for "păcură"- "picula" (fuel oil), the term itself is a proof of the fact that it was known in Roman Dacia, and here only: there is no similar term in any other language of Latin origin, as there were no such deposits in any other Latin country.

There was no important industry in Roman Dacia. But there were workshops in which ordinary pottery was made: pots, cups, figurines or burnt clay statuettes. Not all the Latin words concerning this field were preserved. Among the inherited ones we mention the term "oală"- "olla" which has formed a great lexical family ("olărit"- pottery, "olar"- potter, "oliţă"- little pot etc.). There were also workshops specialized in wood ("lemn"- "lignum"), skin ("piele"- "pellis"), wool ("lână"- "lana"), flax and hemp processing.

Making woolen and flaxen cloths was for quite a long time a woman’s household activity. The methods of work and the tools of those times are still used at the countryside and their names are still the same. Wool is washed, combed and bundled. The bundle ("caier"- "caiulus") is fixed on the distaff ("furcă"- "furca") and it is spinned ("toarce"- "torquere"), and the thread wool is made a clew ("ghem"- "glemus"). Flax and hemp are made into bundles and woven ("ţese"- "textere"). Women also used to make clothes ("veşmânt"- "vestimentum") like shirts ("cămaşă"- "camisia"), embroidered blouses ("ie"- "linea") and traditional narrow girdles woven in different colours ("bată"- "bita"). Words of Latin origin have been preserved not only in the economic life, but in all aspects of life. Considering family life, terms that were needed for communication between the Dacians and the Romans were the ones that designated family relations: "mamă"- "mamma" (mother), "tată"- "tata" (father), "soră"- "soror" (sister), "frate"- "frater" (brother), "unchi"- "avunculus" (uncle), "mătuşă"- "amita" (aunt), "nepot"- "nepotus" (nephew or grandson), "fin"- "filianus" (godson), "cumnat"- "cognatus" (brother-in-law), "cuscru"- "consocrum" (in-law), "fiu"- "filius" (son), "socru"- "socrus" (father-in-law) etc.

Latin linguistic influences are felt nowadays in the Romanian's daily life: customary words like "masă"- "mensa" (table), "scaun"- "scamnum" (chair), "casă"- "casa" (house), "celar"- "celarium" (), "fereastră"- "fenestra" (window), "vilă"- "villa" (villa), "scară"- "scala" (stairs), "uşă"- "ustia" (plural, became singular form of "ustium", "ostium"; door), "cuţit"- "cotitus" (knife), "lingură"- "lingula" (spoon), "roată"- "rota" (wheel), "car"- "carius" (cart), "poartă"- "porta" (gate) etc. These words have no synonyms and have resisted the Slavic influences. They are general notions, which define objects belonging to a man's intimacy and are indispensable to any linguistic vocabulary.

In the Romanian language the words that are more frequent are of Latin origin. The core of the Romanian vocabulary contains over 60% terms of Latin origin, 20% terms of Slav origin, and the rest of them are of other origins. We can make intricate long compound sentences using Latin words only, but we cannot build one sentence with words of other origins only.

Nowadays, on the territory that was once Dacia, there is a Romanic population who speaks Latin: not Caesar and Cicero's Latin, but a popular, living one, transformed and enriched with new elements.

Bibliography

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-"Istoria culturii şi civilizaţiei" ("History of Culture and Civilization")- Ovidiu Drâmba