avventura

Forms

avventura f (plural avventure)^[1] Old Italian forms include aventura, adventura and avintura.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old French aventure (“fate, destiny; chance happening; daring deed”), recorded from the 11th century.^[3][4][5][6] The French word continues Vulgar Latin *adventūra, the neuter plural of adventūrus, the future participle of Latin adveniō (“to arrive, happen”): “the things that are to happen”, later taken as a feminine singular.^[3][4][5][1]

The LEI sorts the Italian senses: the old sense “fate, fortune” may continue the Vulgar Latin word directly, but the knightly sense “daring deed”, the key word of the French romances of chivalry, is a French loan, brought into Italian through the Sicilian School of poetry and Franco-Italian literature.^[6][3] The TLIO finds it hard to tell the Gallicism from a direct derivation from Latin in the early texts, and reports Nerlich's view that the starting point was a Latin phrase of Livy meaning “an uncertain gain”.^[2]

The same word is Old Occitan aventura, Spanish aventura and Portuguese aventura.^[7][8] The French word spread into the other European languages: German Abenteuer, Dutch avontuur and Old Norse ævintýr.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in the Libro of Uguccione da Lodi, from Cremona, at the beginning of the 13th century.^[2] The oldest sense there is “the course of events, fate, fortune”, good or bad.^[2][6] DELI dates the sense “unexpected or unusual happening” to the Novellino, at the end of the 13th century.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian used avventura for fate and fortune, for risk and danger (mettere ad avventura, essere in avventura), and in adverbial phrases of chance: all’avventura, d’avventura, per avventura.^[2] Per avventura “by chance” is recorded from 1288 and long served in literary prose for “perhaps”.^[6][9]

With the romances of chivalry the word came to mean a daring deed.^[3][6] In the 18th century it also came to mean a brief love affair, a sense DELI dates to Pietro Chiari in 1760.^[3][6] Avventuriero is a 16th-century loan from Middle French aventurier, first used for a soldier of fortune, in Tasso in 1575, and only later for an unscrupulous person.^[6][3] Avventurismo entered political language in 1926, at the Third Congress of the Communist Party of Italy.^[3]

The modern senses are an unusual or risky event, an experience of uncertain outcome, and a casual love affair;^[5][9] romanzo d’avventura names a literary genre.^[5][9]

Timeline

• Early 13th century – Uguccione da Lodi uses avventura in Cremona.^[2]
• Before 1250 – Giacomo da Lentini uses aventuroso.^[3]
• End of the 13th century – the Novellino has the sense “unexpected happening”.^[3]
• 1288 – per avventura “by chance” is recorded in the translation of Egidio Romano.^[6]
• 1575 – Tasso uses avventuriero for a soldier of fortune.^[3]
• 1760 – Pietro Chiari uses avventura for a brief love affair.^[3]
• 1926 – avventurismo appears at the Third Congress of the Communist Party of Italy.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. An unusual, unexpected or exciting event; an adventure: Quel viaggio in treno fu una vera avventura.^[5][10][11]
2. A risky venture, and by extension an experience of uncertain outcome: romanzo d’avventura, an adventure novel.^[5][10][12]
3. A brief, casual love affair: avventura galante.^[5][12][11]
4. (literary) Good fortune, luck: più che senno, ebbe avventura (Ariosto).^[5][12][9]

Word family

• avventurare
• avventurarsi
• avventuroso
• avventuriero
• avventurismo
• avventurista
• avventuristico
• disavventura
• avventuretta

Related words

• ventura
• avvenire
• French aventure

Usage notes

Per avventura means “by chance”, and in older literary use “perhaps”.^[9][11] Zingarelli and DEI list the literary sense “good fortune” separately, as a compound of a- and ventura.^[11][13]

References

1. ^ a b c 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 j k l m Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
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 De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
6. ^ 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. 1, 909
7. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
8. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 90
9. ^ a b c d e Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
10. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
11. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
12. ^ a b c Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
13. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 382