Etymologically
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appartamento

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 21 October 2026 at 20:22. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Pronunciation

  • /ap.par.taˈmen.to/[1]

Forms

appartamento m (plural appartamenti)[1] The first record has the form apartamento, with a single ⟨p⟩.[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old Spanish apartamiento (“secluded place”), a noun formed on apartar (“to set apart”) and aparte (“apart”), and was adapted to the Italian verb appartare.[2][4][5][1] GRADIT dates the Spanish word to 1493–1495.[5] The Spanish words go back to Latin pars (“part”), the source of parte.[4][6]

Italian passed the word on as French appartement (1559), and modern Spanish borrowed it back as Spanish apartamento.[6][7][1] The GDLI notes that the Italian word appears in the 16th century together with that verb.[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is Paolo Giovio in 1538, with the form apartamento and the sense “the set of rooms that form a dwelling”.[2][9]

Semantic evolution

In the 16th century the word was used for a group of rooms reserved for one person or one use within a great house or palace: Vasari writes of halls and rooms below that make up an appartamento for the summer.[8][10] Torquato Tasso remarked that French houses had no suite of rooms in a convenient forma d'appartamento.[8] The word then came to mean a dwelling within a larger building, the ordinary sense today, and in luxury hotels a suite.[5][11][12]

In royal palaces gli appartamenti are the private rooms of a member of the family, and ritirarsi nei propri appartamenti is used jokingly of anyone who withdraws.[5][13] In French appartement also meant a court reception from 1851 to 1862.[7]

Timeline

  • 1493–1495 – Spanish apartamiento is recorded.[5]
  • 1538 – Paolo Giovio uses apartamento.[2]
  • 1559 – French appartement is first recorded.[7]
  • 16th century – Vasari and Tasso use appartamento for a suite of rooms.[8]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A flat, apartment: a dwelling of several rooms within a larger building: Hanno comprato un appartamento al terzo piano.[5][11][3][1]
  2. In a hotel, a suite of rooms.[5][11][12]
  3. In a royal or princely palace, the private rooms of one member of the family: gli appartamenti della regina.[5][11][13]

Word family

  • appartamentino

Usage notes

Pianta da appartamento is a houseplant, and topo d'appartamento (literally “flat mouse”) a burglar.[5] Old Neapolitan had an unrelated noun appardamiento, from appartare, meaning “withdrawing (to be alone)”, in the 14th-century Destructione de Troya.[14] A nautical appartamento, the distance a ship makes east or west on a course oblique to the meridians, also comes from Spanish apartamiento in the sense “moving away”.[13][9][12]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ 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
  3. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  4. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  7. ^ a b c Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
  8. ^ a b c d Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 1, 554
  9. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  10. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
  11. ^ 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
  12. ^ a b c Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
  13. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
  14. ^ Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it