abbiente

Forms

abbiente m or f by sense (plural abbienti)^[1]

Etymology

It is from Italian avere (“to have”): its old present participle, remade on the subjunctive abbia instead of on the infinitive, beside the regular avente.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} GRADIT compares French ayant, built on the French subjunctive aie.^[3] Nocentini derives it instead from the first person singular abbo, an Old Italian alternative to ho and aggio, parallel to debbo.^[7] Prati likewise starts from old habbio, habbo “I have”, which continues Latin habeō.^[8] Wiktionary gives the Latin present participle habentem as the source, with the ⟨bb⟩ from an old abbere, from analogy with the subjunctive, or from gemination before /j/.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Simintendi used abbiente simply as the present participle of avere before 1333.^[2] The sense “well-off, owning property” first appears in Franco Sacchetti's Trecentonovelle (second half of the 14th century), in the phrase per non essere abbiente di danari “because he was not provided with money”.^[2][9][10]

Semantic evolution

In the 15th and 16th centuries Morelli, Cavalcanti and Varchi used the word of people who were well off.^[10] Giovanni Cavalcanti also used it figuratively, povero di fortuna e abbiente di sventura “poor in fortune and rich in misfortune”.^[10] Baretti in 1765 counted it among the worn-out words that the Crusca should drop, with abbiendo and abbo.^[2] Tommaseo marked it as obsolete in the sense “having” but noted that some used it in economic and political language for those who own something, as opposed to those who own nothing.^[11]

That use survived: modern Italian has abbiente for well-off people and social classes, above all in the plural and in phrases such as i meno abbienti and i non abbienti, the poorer classes.^[3][12][13]

Timeline

• Before 1333 – Simintendi uses abbiente as the present participle of avere.^[2]
• 1363 – Zingarelli's date of first record.^[12]
• Second half of the 14th century – Franco Sacchetti uses it for a person with means.^[9][2][7]
• 1765 – Baretti calls it a worn-out word in the Frusta letteraria.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. well-off, wealthy; having a good income or property: una coppia abbiente.^{[3][4][12][6]}
2. (obsolete) Having, possessing.^[1][11]

Noun

1. A well-off person, chiefly in the plural;^{[3][4][14][15]} i non abbienti, the poor, those without property.^{[3][4][14][15]}

Related words

• avere
• avente
• benestante
• Latin habeō

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
4. ^ a b c d Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
5. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
7. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
8. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 11
9. ^ a b Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
10. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 1, 22
11. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
12. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
13. ^ Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
14. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
15. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli