Etymologically
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altezza

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Pronunciation

  • /alˈtet.t͡sa/[1]

Forms

altezza f (plural altezze)[1] Old forms include Old Italian alteza, Old Italian altecça, Old Italian aitezza, Old Italian altessa and Old Italian alticza.[2] The word is Piedmontese autessa and Milanese Lombard altèzza.[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin altitia (“height”), a derivative of Latin altus (“high”) with the suffix -itia.[4][1][5] The Late Latin word, recorded in the veterinary treatise of Chiron, took the place of classical altitūdō in the Romance languages.[5][3][6] Within Italian it can also be read as from Italian alto + -ezza.[1][7]

The same word is Old French hautesse, Old Occitan auteza, Catalan altesa, Spanish alteza, Portuguese alteza, Engadine otezza and Old Sardinian altithia.[3][8] The figurative senses “power” and “excellence, nobility” are shared by most of these languages.[3] Some southern Old Italian forms continue the variant suffix -ities instead of -itia.[3]

Latin altus goes back to Proto-Italic *altos.[9][1] Wiktionary derives it from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eltós, a verbal adjective of Proto-Indo-European *h₂el- (“to grow, nourish”), the root of Latin alō (“to feed”) and of Proto-Germanic *aldaz (“old”).[1] De Vaan notes that the adjective has the form of the participle of alō, but finds the meanings hard to connect, and he gives the Germanic words for “old” only as a possible cognate.[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in Uguccione da Lodi, a Cremonese poet of the early 13th century.[2] DELI dates the sense “dimension from the base to the top; a high point or degree” to Giacomo da Lentini, before 1250.[4] At the start of the Inferno Dante, frightened by the she-wolf, says ch'io perdei la speranza de l'altezza, “so that I lost hope of the height”.[10]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian used altezza for height and elevation above the ground, for the stature of a person, for the level of a liquid and for depth, and in Rustico Filippi (before 1300) for the open sea.[2][3] It also named a high place or fortress, the summit of something, the vault of heaven and the kingdom of heaven.[2] Figuratively it meant dignity, high rank and glory, and excellence or nobility of mind; in love poetry it praised the worth of the lady.[2]

As a title of princes, “Highness”, the word is recorded from before 1276, as altessa.[11] It passed into French as altesse (1500), and English used altezza as a title from 1599, beside Spanish alteza.[11] The sense “latitude” is first recorded in Daniello Bartoli, before 1685.[4] The phrases essere all'altezza di and all'altezza della situazione, “to be equal to something”, were coined on the model of French être à la hauteur de, recorded from 1792.[3]

Modern technical uses include the altitude of a triangle or prism in geometry, the angle of a star above the horizon in astronomy, the pitch of a sound in music and the width of a bolt of cloth between the selvages.[12][13][14]

Timeline

  • Early 13th century – Uguccione da Lodi writes the earliest recorded altezza.[2]
  • Before 1250 – Giacomo da Lentini uses the word.[4][12]
  • Before 1276 – Altessa is recorded as a title of princes.[11]
  • Before 1300 – Rustico Filippi uses it for the open sea.[3]
  • c. 1319 – Dante uses it for the vertical dimension of a body.[3]
  • 1500 – French altesse is recorded as a title.[11]
  • 1599 – English altezza is recorded as a title.[11]
  • Before 1685 – Daniello Bartoli uses altezza for “latitude”.[4]
  • 1838 – German Altezza is recorded.[11]

Meanings

Noun

  1. height: the vertical extent of a body or object, from its base to its top: La torre ha un'altezza di quaranta metri.[12][7][15]
  2. The stature of a person.[12][7]
  3. The depth of a body of water.[12][7][15]
  4. The width of a fabric between its two selvages.[12][7][14]
  5. A height above the ground; a high place: Dall'altezza del rifugio si vede il lago.[12][15]
  6. (figurative) Loftiness, nobility, excellence: altezza d'animo.[12][15][13]
  7. Highness, a title of princes and members of royal houses, usually capitalized: Sua Altezza.[12][1]
  8. (geography) Latitude, all'altezza di, level with, near a given point.[12][13][15]
  9. (geometry) altitude: the perpendicular from a vertex to the opposite side, or the distance between the bases of a solid.[12][13][14]
  10. (music) pitch: how high or low a sound is.[15][13]
  11. (astronomy) The angle between the direction of a star and the plane of the horizon.[12][13]

Word family

  • altezzoso

Usage notes

Essere all'altezza (di qualcosa, della situazione) means to be equal to a task.[13][16]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 2, 370
  4. ^ a b c d e Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
  5. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 145
  6. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
  7. ^ a b c d e Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
  8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  9. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  10. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
  11. ^ a b c d e f Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
  12. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  13. ^ a b c d e f g Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  14. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
  15. ^ a b c d e f Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  16. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli