apertura

Forms

apertura f (plural aperture)^[1] Old forms include Old Italian apritura, avertura, apirtura and opertura.^[2] Old Mantuan had Old Italian avredura (1299–1309, Belcalzer), and Genoese has Ligurian avertûa.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin apertūra (“opening”), formed from apertus (“opened”), the past participle of aperiō (“to open”), with the suffix -ūra.^{[4][5][6][7][1]} DEI notes that Vitruvius uses the Latin word.^[8] The LEI treats it as inherited, and finds it across Romance except in Romanian.^[3][8]

The Latin word continues in Romansh avertüra, Sardinian abertura, Spanish abertura (from the 13th century) and Portuguese abertura (from the 15th).^[3][9] French ouverture (from 1120), Old Occitan ubertura and Catalan obertura come instead from a form opertūra.^[3] The French word was later borrowed as ouverture, a doublet of this one.^[1][3]

The Latin verb is from Proto-Italic *ap-wer-je-, with ap- “off” and a root Proto-Indo-European *h₂wer- (“to cover”); operiō (“to cover”) is its opposite.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in Bono Giamboni's Florentine translation of Orosius, before 1292; its earliest senses are the act of opening and a crack, hole or passage.^[2][4] DELI starts from Domenico Cavalca, before 1342, in the sense “empty space, gap”: Per lo foro e per la apertura del lato, ci mostra Cristo la sua lata e grande carità (“Through the hole and the opening in his side Christ shows us his wide and great love”).^[11][12]

Semantic evolution

The Latin sense of a gap, crack or opening came first; in Old Italian the word also meant a wound, a cave and the mouth of a vessel.^[3][2] The sense “beginning, start” is a Romance development, matching the uses of aprire; it is recorded from 1608–1619 in Paolo Sarpi.^[3][11] From the 18th century the word also meant a door or window.^[3]

Apertura di mente “breadth of mind” (from 1693, Magalotti) and similar phrases copy French ouverture d'esprit.^[3] Apertura was also used for the musical overture (before 1764, Algarotti), beside overtura and the French form ouverture (1836).^[3] In the 20th century it gained the senses of the right to open the betting in poker (1953) and the first moves of a game of chess (1961).^[3] In politics it is a readiness to work with an opposing party, as in apertura a sinistra.^[13][14][12]

Timeline

• Before 1292 – Bono Giamboni's translation of Orosius has the first record.^[2][4]
• 1299–1309 – The Mantuan form avredura appears in Belcalzer.^[3]
• Before 1342 – Domenico Cavalca uses apertura for an empty space or gap.^[11]
• 1608–1619 – Paolo Sarpi uses it for the start of an activity.^[11]
• 1693 – Magalotti writes apertura di mente.^[3]
• Before 1764 – Algarotti uses apertura for an opera overture.^[3]
• 1953 – The poker sense is recorded.^[3]
• 1961 – The chess sense is recorded.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act of opening or being opened: l'apertura del pacco.^[5][15][14]
2. An opening, gap or passage; a crack or fissure: un'apertura nella siepe.^[5][13][14]
3. (figurative) The start of an activity; an inauguration or opening: l'apertura del nuovo museo.^[5][13][15]
4. Being open to the public: l'orario di apertura della biblioteca.^[5][16]
5. The angular width or greatest distance between two ends of something: l'apertura alare.^[5][14][15]
6. (figurative) Open-mindedness, readiness to accept new or different ideas: apertura mentale.^[5][15][14]
7. (politics) A show of willingness to work with an opposing party.^[5][13][14]
8. (games) In chess, the first moves of a game; in some card games, the score or cards needed to open play.^[5][13][15]
9. (optics) The aperture of a lens: the ratio of its diameter to its focal length.^[5][13][1]
10. (sport) In football, a pass that opens the play; in rugby, play towards the wings.^[13]

Word family

• riapertura
• aperturismo
• aperturista

Related words

• aprire
• aperto
• ouverture
• Latin apertura

Usage notes

Ad apertura di libro means opening a book at random, and so at first sight, without preparation.^[16][17] Apertura di credito is a bank's contract to put a sum at a client's disposal, and figuratively a show of trust.^[15][14]

References

1. ^ a b c d e 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 d e f g h i j k l m n o p Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 2, 1747
4. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ 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
6. ^ Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 238
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ a b c d Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
12. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 1, 537
13. ^ a b c d e f g Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
14. ^ a b c d e f g Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
15. ^ a b c d e f Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
16. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
17. ^ Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)