vită

Where it comes from

Generally taken as inherited from Latin vīta (“life”), from Proto-Italic *gʷītā. In this view, the shift toward the meaning “animal” is sometimes explained as Slavic influence; compare Bulgarian животно (životno, “animal”) alongside живот (život, “life”).

Another possibility is a back-formation from Romanian vițea (“heifer”), by removing the diminutive suffix -ea, with /t͡s/ > /t/ reversing a pattern seen in forms like ciopată → ciopățea. Under this account, the original sense would have been “cow.”