azienda

Forms

azienda f (plural aziende)^[1] An older ziènda is recorded in Salvini and in popular rural speech, and Carducci wrote agènda.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Spanish hacienda, in the older spelling Old Spanish hazienda, “occupation; estate, wealth; administration of property”, recorded in Spanish from 1115.^{[3][4][5][6][1]} The Spanish word continues Latin facienda (“things to be done”), the neuter plural of the gerundive of faciō (“to do, to make”), reinterpreted as a feminine singular.^[4][7][5] In Spanish the meaning moved from “occupation” to “possessions” and then to “administration”, the sense in which Italian borrowed it.^[8] The same Latin form gave Portuguese fazenda and Occitan fazenda, and in Italian, by inheritance, faccenda, a doublet of this word.^[9][3][1]

The Latin verb goes back to Proto-Italic *faki-, from the root Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁- (“to put”), whose final consonant arose in the aorist, as in Ancient Greek ἔθηκα (éthēka, “I put”).^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word appears in the reports that Venetian ambassadors read to the Senate: in 1602, and in 1608 Francesco Priuli describes the Spanish Consiglio d'Azienda, which dealt with the royal estate and the revenues and expenses of the Crown.^[3][5] The first sense is thus the administration of a patrimony.^[6][8]

Semantic evolution

Tommaseo's dictionary (1861) still gives the old sense, the management of the economic affairs of a household or commune, and a colloquial “messy business”.^[11] In the 19th century the word took on its modern economic meaning, an organisation of people and goods that produces goods or services;^[8][5] azienda agricola is a farm business.^[8][5] The adjective aziendale is recorded from 1931, aziendalismo from 1959.^[3][4]

In law the azienda is the set of assets the entrepreneur organises to run the business.^[5][6] Public bodies with financial autonomy are also called aziende, from the azienda autonoma to the azienda sanitaria locale, the local health authority.^[12][7][8]

Timeline

• 1115 – Spanish hacienda is first recorded.^[3][5]
• 1602 – Azienda appears in the reports of Venetian ambassadors.^[3][5]
• 1608 – Priuli describes the Spanish Consiglio d'Azienda.^[3]
• 1931 – Aziendale is recorded.^[3][4]
• 1959 – Aziendalismo is recorded.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A company, a business: an organisation of people and goods for an economic purpose: Lavora da vent'anni nella stessa azienda.^[5][13][7]
2. (law) The assets organised by the entrepreneur to run a business.^[5][13][6]
3. A public body with administrative autonomy that runs a service.^[7][12]
4. (figurative) A sector or country seen as an economic whole.^[13][12]
5. (archaic) The estate of a public body or private person; the administration of affairs.^[5][6][14]

Word family

• aziendale
• aziendalismo
• aziendalista

Related words

• faccenda
• fare
• Spanish hacienda

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 91
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
4. ^ a b c d e 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 k De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
6. ^ a b c d e Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
7. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
8. ^ a b c d e Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
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. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
12. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
13. ^ 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
14. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli