avvertire

Forms

avvertire (first-person singular present avvèrto, first-person singular past historic avvertìi, past participle avvertìto, auxiliary avére)^[1] Old Italian also has avertire and avèrtare.^[2] In the dialects it is Venetian avertir in Venetian, Lombard vartì in Milanese, Ligurian avvertî in Genoese and Sicilian avvertìri in Sicilian.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *advertīre, a remodelling of Latin advertō (“to turn towards”) with a change of conjugation.^[3][4] The Latin verb is formed from ad- (“to, towards”) and vertō (“to turn”).^[5][6] Its sense comes from the phrase with animus (“mind”), “to turn the mind towards”, that is, to pay attention or notice; already in Cicero the verb alone could mean this.^[4][7][8]

The LEI and DELI take the Italian word as inherited, continued with the same change of conjugation in French avertir, Romansh avertir and Friulian avertí.^[3][4] Nocentini and Wiktionary treat it as a borrowing from Latin, and DEI calls it semi-learned; the ⟨ad-⟩ spellings of the 15th and 16th centuries are Latinisms.^[7][1][8][3] Beside it Spanish advertir has the Latin prefix intact.^[7] The past participle of the Latin verb gave avverso.^[4][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is the Composizione del mondo of Restoro d'Arezzo (1282), in Aretine;^[2][10] Zingarelli gives the same date.^[2][10] The Old Italian senses are “to turn towards, attract”, “to warn”, “to pay attention, notice” and “to understand”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The sense “to warn, notify” is in Jacopone da Todi from 1306, and DELI quotes it from the 14th-century Urbano.^[3][4] The sense “to take care, to consider” ran from the end of the 15th century to Giusti in the 19th, and now survives only in literary use.^[3][11] The sense “to perceive, feel” is recorded in Bibbiena's Calandria (1521) and in Annibal Caro, and is today one of the main uses: one avverte a pain, a noise or tiredness.^[4][3][12]

In modern Italian the warning often carries a threat: ti avverto!^[11][10] The present is avverto;^[10][13] avvertisco is rare or old.^[10][13] The derivatives avvertimento (1525, Bembo) and avvertenza (Machiavelli, 1514–1520) are older in the written record than most of the verb's modern senses.^[4]

Timeline

• 1282 – Restoro d'Arezzo uses avvertire.^[2]
• 1306 – Jacopone da Todi uses it for “to warn, inform”.^[3]
• 1514–1520 – Machiavelli uses avvertenza, caution.^[4]
• 1521 – Bibbiena's Calandria has the sense “to perceive, understand”.^[4]
• 1525 – Bembo uses avvertimento.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. To inform, let someone know about something, especially something important: Avvertimi quando arrivi in stazione.^[11][12][5]
2. To warn, caution; often with a threatening tone: Ti avverto: è l'ultima volta che te lo dico.^[11][12][10]
3. To perceive, feel, sense: Appena entrato ho avvertito un forte odore di fumo.^[11][12][5]
4. (literary) To consider carefully; to pay attention.^[11][12][14]

Word family

• avvertenza
• avvertibile
• avvertimento
• preavvertire
• avvertito
• riavvertire

Related words

• avverso
• Latin adverto
• French avertir

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e 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 Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 1, 932
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
5. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
6. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
7. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 382
9. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
10. ^ a b c d e f Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
11. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
12. ^ 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
13. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
14. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana