Etymologically
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base

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Pronunciation

Forms

base f (plural basi)[1] Old forms include Old Italian basa, Old Italian baxia and Old Italian bazi.[2] The variant basa was still used by Cellini, Vasari and Varchi.[3]

Etymology

It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin basis (“base, pedestal”), which Latin had taken as a technical term from Ancient Greek βάσις (básis, “step, gait; foot; base”).[4][5][6][1] The Greek noun comes from βαίνω (baínō, “to go, to step”), a verb that could also mean “to stand firm, be set”.[4][7] Devoto describes the shift as going from “gait” to “foot” and finally to “support”.[8]

The LEI finds a popular continuation of the Latin word only in northern Italian dialects, with senses such as “threshold” and “ruined house”; standard Italian has only the learned word.[9][10] The same learned borrowing is French base (from about 1160), Spanish basa (1250) and later base, and Portuguese base.[9][5] The old variant basa was made by analogy with the many feminine nouns ending in that vowel.[4]

Several uses came in through other languages.[4][11] The chemical sense was proposed by the French chemist Guillaume-François Rouelle in 1774 and reached Italian through French.[12][11] The verb basare in its figurative sense “to found (an opinion)” is from French baser, recorded from 1787, and basico in the sense “basic” follows English basic.[4][9] The sense in cosmetics also follows an English model, as does the baseball term.[4][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Dante's Convivio (1304–1308), in geometry, for the face on which a solid figure rests.[4][9] The TLIO's earliest text is a Pistoian document of 1322–1326, where the word means the support on which an object or a building stands.[2]

Semantic evolution

In architecture the word named the support of a column or statue: Giovanni Gherardi da Prato, before 1446, describes a great vase standing on “a most graceful basa”, and Annibal Caro writes of “the statue and the base” in 1551.[4] Palladio in 1570 calls the foundations “the base of the building”.[4] The figurative sense “principle, foundation” appears with Benedetto Varchi before 1565, and Giordano Bruno used it in 1584–1585 for the side of a polygon.[4]

From the 19th century the word gained technical and military senses: a base d'operazione is recorded in 1817, a naval base in 1923, an air base in 1936 and a space base in 1965, and soldiers of the Second World War spoke of “returning to base”.[4] The chemical sense dates from 1828 and the musical one, the lowest part of the harmony, from 1774.[4] In politics the base of a party, its ordinary members as against its leaders, is recorded from 1947, and a basista was first a member of a party current and then, in slang, the person who plans a crime.[4]

In the 20th century it also came to mean the number raised to a power (1913), each of the bases in baseball (1930) and a cream put on the face before make-up (1966).[4] Used as an adjective it means “basic, fundamental” (1950) and, in commerce, the cheapest version of a product.[4][11]

Timeline

  • 1304–1308 – Dante uses base in geometry in the Convivio.[4]
  • 1322–1326 – A Pistoian document has the word for the support of an object.[2]
  • Before 1446 – Giovanni Gherardi da Prato uses the form basa for the stand of a vase.[4]
  • Before 1565 – Benedetto Varchi uses it figuratively for a principle.[4]
  • 1774 – Giambattista Martini uses it in music, and Rouelle introduces the chemical sense in France.[4][12]
  • 1817 – Base d'operazione appears in military language.[4]
  • 1828 – The chemical sense is recorded in Italian.[4]
  • 1930 – The baseball sense is recorded.[4]
  • 1947 – La base is used for the rank and file of a party.[4]
  • 1966 – The cosmetic sense is recorded.[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The lower part of an object or structure, on which it rests; base, foot, pedestal: La base della lampada è di marmo.[6][13][7]
  2. (figurative) The foundation of a theory, argument or belief: Il progetto poggia su una base solida di dati.[6][7][14]
  3. (in the plural) The grounding someone has in a subject: Senza basi di algebra il corso è difficile.[6][7][15]
  4. The main element or ingredient of something, a base di “made mainly of”: una salsa a base di pomodoro e basilico.[6][15][16]
  5. (geometry) The face of a solid or the side of a polygon on which it is thought to rest.[6][14]
  6. A place from which organized, especially military, operations start: base aerea, base navale.[6][7][15]
  7. The ordinary members of a party or union, as against the leadership.[6][7][13]
  8. (chemistry) A compound that forms a salt with an acid; an alkali.[6][7]
  9. (mathematics) The number raised to a power.[7][4]
  10. (cosmetics) A cream applied to the face before make-up.[7][16]
  11. (baseball) Each of the bases a runner must reach.[7][15]

Adjective

  1. (invariable) Basic, entry-level: Il modello base costa molto meno.[11][4]

Word family

  • basale
  • basamento
  • basare
  • basicità
  • basico
  • basilare
  • basista
  • imbasare

Usage notes

Two common phrases are in base a “according to, on the basis of” and di base “basic, fundamental”.[15][14][16]

References

  1. ^ a b c 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. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 118
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
  5. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  6. ^ 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
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  8. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier, p. 57
  9. ^ a b c d Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 4, 1719
  10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  11. ^ 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
  12. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 448
  13. ^ a b Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
  14. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
  15. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  16. ^ a b c Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli