What does “viraj” mean in Romanian?

Viraj is the Romanian word for a bend or curve in the road — the thing a driver or motorcyclist leans into when the road turns. It’s a French loan, straight from virage, and it carries that motoring flavour: you don’t just pass a viraj, you take it. On a winding mountain road, un viraj strâns is a tight bend, and un viraj la stânga is a left-hander.

Romanian also has the native-feeling curbă and cotitură for a curve, but viraj leans toward the driving sense — cornering, taking a turn at speed. The borrowing shows in the family it brings: a vira (“to turn/steer”), and the adjective in the clip, virajat, describing a road full of bends (drumuri de munte virajate, “winding mountain roads”). It’s a neuter noun: un viraj, două viraje. Here the discussion is about white circles painted in dangerous bends to help motorcyclists hold a safer line — so every other sentence is about viraje.