abbastanza

Forms

abbastanza (invariable)^[1] Older and literary a bastanza, written separately.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is an old phrase meaning “to sufficiency”, written as one word, formed from Italian a + bastanza, with ⟨bastanza⟩, an old noun for “sufficiency” now out of use, made from bastare (“to be enough”).^[4][5][3][1] DEI calls it a popular Italian formation, parallel to the phrase with sufficienza, of the same type as accanto, addosso and appunto.^[6]

The LEI traces the verb to a supposed verb Vulgar Latin *bastāre (“to suffice”); the sense is shared with Old Occitan, Catalan, Spanish and Portuguese, where it replaced Latin sufficiō.^[7] Wiktionary compares Spanish bastante.^[1] Eugenio Coseriu, quoted by DELI, compared the idiom for “to have had enough of it” with a Greek phrase of the same meaning.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The phrase a bastanza “sufficiently” is first recorded in Guittone d'Arezzo, who died in 1294.^[4][8][5] The spelling abbastanza is found in Luigi Pulci and Marsilio Ficino, both before 1500, but a bastanza was still the usual form in Boiardo, Castiglione and Tasso.^[4][2]

Semantic evolution

The adverb at first meant “in sufficient measure”, as in Matteo Villani's oltre a bastanza “beyond what was enough”.^[8][2] From “enough” it came to mean “rather, fairly” before an adjective or adverb, and it is used ironically for “more than enough” (hai scherzato abbastanza!).^[9][10][3] It also works as an invariable adjective (“enough bread”) and as a pronoun, and averne abbastanza means “to be fed up”.^[9][10]

The word passed into Venetian and Istriot.^[1]

Timeline

• Before 1294 – Guittone d'Arezzo uses a bastanza.^[4][8]
• Before 1363 – Matteo Villani writes oltre a bastanza.^[9][2]
• Before 1484 – Luigi Pulci writes abbastanza as one word.^[4]
• 15th century – Devoto–Oli and Sabatini–Coletti date the single-word form to this century.^[10][3]

Meanings

Adverb

1. enough, sufficiently, as much as is needed: Stanotte non ho dormito abbastanza.^[9][10][3]
2. (ironic) More than enough, too much: Ti sei lamentato abbastanza!^[10][3]
3. (before an adjective or adverb) fairly, rather, quite: un esame abbastanza difficile.^[9][10][3]

Adjective

1. (invariable) Enough, sufficient: Non abbiamo abbastanza sedie.^[9][10][1]

Pronoun

1. What is enough, averne abbastanza (di) “to be fed up (with)”.^[10][3][9]

Related words

• bastare
• basta

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
4. ^ a b c d e f Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
5. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 4
7. ^ Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 5, 96
8. ^ a b c Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
9. ^ a b c d e f g De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
10. ^ a b c d e f g h Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier