affittare

Forms

affittare (first-person singular present affìtto, first-person singular past historic affittài, past participle affittàto, auxiliary avére)^[1] Old forms include Old Italian affictare, Old Italian affitare and northern Old Italian afitar.^[2]

Etymology

It is from Medieval Latin affictare, formed with the prefix ad- from fictum (“rent”).^[3][4][5][1] DELI and GRADIT describe the same verb as an Italian formation, from Italian a- + fitto² + -are, made on fitto² “rent”, and take affitto “lease, rent” as a deverbal noun of the verb.^[6][7][8][9] The Medieval Latin verb is recorded from the 11th to the 13th century, as adfitare at Parma in 1255 and afitare there in 1316.^[10][6]

That noun first meant a rent fixed in advance: fictum is a past participle of Latin fīgō (“to fix, fasten”), and the noun is recorded in Medieval Latin at Bobbio in the 10th century.^[6][3][11] REW lists the verb among the derivatives of fictus (“fastened”), beside Spanish ahitar and Portuguese afitar, which kept the sense “to fix”.^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is a Sienese document of 1294, where the verb means to let a property in return for an agreed payment, the fitto.^[2] Medieval Latin affictus “lease” appears at Vallonga in 1194, and Italian affitto in rural accounts of 1274–1282.^[6]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian the verb meant only to let land or a house to someone for rent.^[2][6] Tommaseo noted that affittare was said properly of farms and fields, while houses and shops were appigionate.^[13]

The opposite sense, “to take on lease, to rent”, was condemned as a crude new usage by Rigutini in 1866, who had read it in the Florentine paper La Nazione.^[6] It is now very common, though Devoto–Oli and Treccani still label it improper.^[4][5] The verb also came to mean to hire out or hire movable things such as a boat or a car.^[7][4] Small advertisements use the formula affittasi “to let”.^[7]

Timeline

• 1194 – Medieval Latin affictus “lease” is recorded at Vallonga.^[6]
• 1255 – Medieval Latin adfitare is recorded at Parma.^[6]
• 1294 – The first Italian record, in a Sienese document.^[2][3]
• 1597 – Affittuario “tenant” appears in a Pisan decree.^[6]
• 1815 – Affittacamere, a person who lets furnished rooms, is recorded in Venice.^[6]
• 1866 – Rigutini condemns affittare in the sense “to take on lease”.^[6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To let, to lease: to give a property, especially a house or land, to someone for a period in return for rent: Hanno affittato il negozio a un fornaio.^[7][4][8]
2. To hire out a movable thing, such as a boat.^[7][4][5]
3. To rent, to take on lease or hire: Per l'estate affitteremo una casetta in collina.^[7][4][8]

Word family

• affitto
• affittabile
• affittacamere
• affittuario
• affittanza
• subaffittare
• riaffittare

Related words

• fitto
• figgere
• Latin fīgō

Usage notes

A separate verb affittare “to fix; to stare at”, from Latin fictus (the past participle of fīgere), survives in southern Italy and in rural Tuscany, and Jacopone da Todi uses it.^[10][13][12] An old proverb, chi affitta sfitta, says that whoever lets out his property ruins it.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e f Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b c d Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
7. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
8. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
9. ^ Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
10. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 76
11. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
12. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
13. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET