badessa

Forms

badessa f (plural badesse, masculine abate)^[1] Old Italian also had abadessa, abbadessa, abbatessa, batissa and northern badexa.^[2] Dialect forms include Venetian baessa, Neapolitan batéssa and Salentine badissa, and Sicilian badissa.^[3][1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin abbātissa, the Christian Latin feminine of abbās (“abbot”) formed with the Greek suffix -ισσα (-issa).^[4][3][5][6] The Latin word is recorded in Justinian's Code, published at Byzantium in 534.^[3] abbās is a borrowing of Ancient Greek ἀββᾶς (abbâs, “father, abbot”), from Aramaic אבא (ʾabbā, “father”).^[1]

The Latin word lives on in French abbesse, Old Occitan abadesa, Catalan abadessa, Spanish abadesa and Portuguese abadessa.^[3][7] Only Italian has the shortened form, made when the first vowel of Old Italian abbadessa was absorbed by the definite article.^[4][3][8][5] The voiced ⟨d⟩ points to northern Italy, perhaps through badia.^[3][9][10] Nocentini treats the word as a feminine of abate with northern voicing.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in a Sienese letter of 1262, for the nun who heads a convent.^[2][11] DELI dates it from a register of purchases of 1255–1290, and the Novellino tells of a convent where la badessa e le suore, “the abbess and the nuns”, came out to meet passing noblemen.^[4][6]

Semantic evolution

The full form abadessa is still used by Guittone d'Arezzo before 1294, but badessa became the usual word, and Tommaseo found it more common than abbadessa.^[4][12] Madre badessa became the title the other nuns used for her.^[12]

The mocking sense of a woman who wants to lord it over others, as in fare la badessa, is already in the Fiore at the turn of the 14th century, though the dictionaries record the phrase only in 1865.^[4] Tommaseo also gives stare da badessa, “to live in comfort”, and pare una badessa for a young woman of portly, solemn air.^[12] Pirandello uses badessa for a stout woman full of gravity in 1925.^[4]

Timeline

• 534 – Latin abbatissa appears in the Codex Justinianus.^[3]
• 1262 – Badessa appears in a Sienese letter.^[2][11]
• Late 13th century – The Novellino uses badessa.^[3][6]
• Before 1294 – Guittone d'Arezzo uses abadessa.^[4]
• 1865 – Tommaseo records fare la badessa.^[4]
• 1925 – Pirandello uses the word for a stout, solemn woman.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. abbess, the superior of an autonomous monastery of nuns, also as a title, madre badessa.^{[5][13][10][1]}
2. (figurative) A plump, imposing woman: sembrare una badessa.^{[5][10][14][13]}
3. (figurative) fare la badessa: of a woman or girl, to give herself airs.^[5][13][15]

Related words

• abate
• badia
• Latin abbatissa
• French abbesse

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c 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, 60
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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 d e De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
6. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 1, 938
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
9. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 401
10. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
11. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
12. ^ a b c Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
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. ^ Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
15. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana