Etymologically
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accesso

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Pronunciation

  • /atˈt͡ʃɛs.so/[1]

Forms

accesso m (plural accessi)[1] Old forms are Old Italian acciesso and the popular Tuscan escesso.[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin accessus (“approach, access”), a learned word.[4][5][6][7] The Latin noun, which had a medical sense too, was formed from accēdō (“to approach”) with the suffix -tus.[4][1][8] The verb is ad- and cēdō (“to go, proceed”), whose further origin is disputed.[9][1] The same learned word is French accès, Spanish acceso, Portuguese acesso and Catalan accés.[7][5][10]

The sense “impulse, fit of anger” was thought a Gallicism in the 19th century: Tommaseo advised using it with caution.[4] The computing sense is a calque of English access.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is the medical sense, a sudden attack of illness, in a vernacular version of Pietro Ispano from the first half of the 13th century.[4][11][7] The TLIO's first example is in the Tuscan Questioni filosofiche of about 1298, for a movement forward or upward; it also records the astronomical approach of a heavenly body, entering into someone's confidence, and a bout of fever.[2]

Semantic evolution

The sense “way in, passage” is found in Francesco Colonna's Hypnerotomachia (1499), and the act of entering in Giordano Bruno, before 1600.[4] Goldoni has it in 1748 for the permission to enter a place, and Manzoni in 1821–1823 for a sudden outburst of feeling.[4][7] Michelangelo Buonarroti the Younger used it for a judge's visit to the scene of a crime, the modern legal accesso giudiziale.[3][12]

The dialects have the word too: Piedmontese acess and Milanese acèss also mean a private lane leading to a house or farm.[7][10] Since 1961 accesso has been used for reading and writing data in a computer's memory, and more recently for logging in to a network.[4][11][1]

Timeline

  • First half of the 13th century – A vernacular Pietro Ispano uses accesso for an attack of illness.[4][11]
  • About 1298 – The Tuscan Questioni filosofiche use it for a forward movement.[2]
  • 1499 – Francesco Colonna uses it for a way in.[4]
  • Before 1600 – Giordano Bruno uses it for the act of approaching.[4]
  • 1748 – Goldoni uses it for permission to enter.[4]
  • 1821–1823 – Manzoni uses it for an outburst of feeling.[4]
  • 1961 – The computing sense appears.[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The act of entering, entry: divieto di accesso.[11][12]
  2. A way in, entrance: La polizia ha chiuso gli accessi allo stadio.[11][13][14]
  3. The right or possibility of entering or being admitted: Solo i soci hanno accesso alla piscina.[11][13][14]
  4. (figurative) Approachability: un dirigente di facile accesso.[11][12]
  5. (medicine) A sudden attack of an illness: un accesso di tosse.[11][13][14]
  6. A sudden outburst, fit: un accesso di rabbia.[11][13][14]
  7. (computing) The reading or writing of data in memory; a connection to a network or system, a login.[11][14][1]

Word family

  • accessibile
  • accessibilità
  • accessione
  • accessorio

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
  3. ^ a b Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 17
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n 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. 24
  7. ^ a b c d e Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 1, 275
  8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  10. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  11. ^ a b c d e f g h i j De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  12. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  13. ^ 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
  14. ^ a b c d e Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse