bestia

Forms

bestia f (plural bestie)^[1] Old forms include Old Italian besta, Old Italian besti, Old Italian bestïa and Old Italian vestia.^[2] In Rome the stressed vowel is open, bèstia.^[3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin bēstia (“beast, animal, wild animal”), taken over in a learned or semi-learned form.^[4][5][3][6] Wiktionary calls it probably borrowed, noting that some sources consider it inherited; the inherited outcome of the same Latin word is biscia “grass snake”, and Sabatini–Coletti contrast the learned word with it.^[1][7][4] DELI simply derives it from the Latin accusative bēstiam, which had come to mean “animal” in general and was already used as an insult in Plautus.^[8][3]

The Latin word survives widely: French bête and Old Portuguese besta go back to a late form Late Latin besta found in Venantius Fortunatus and in glosses, while Old Occitan bestia, Catalan bèstia and Spanish bestia keep the full form.^[9][3] In the Alpine dialects, where the word is semi-learned, it narrowed to “sheep”: Engadine besa and Sursilvan biest “sheep”; in Lucca it named the cow.^[9][3]

The origin of Latin bestia is uncertain.^[10][8] It is usually compared with bēlua (“beast, monster”), but has no clear relatives outside Latin.^[4][10][11] Wiktionary mentions a proposed preform Proto-Indo-European *dʰwēstiā from the root Proto-Indo-European *dʰwes- (“to breathe”), the source of English “deer”, but notes that Latin would then be expected to have an initial “f-”.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in the Venetian Proverbia que dicuntur, of the last quarter of the 12th century, with the sense “animal” as opposed to man.^[2] DELI's first dated record is Ristoro d'Arezzo in 1282 (le besti), who says that some people differ little from beasts.^[8][5]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian used bestia for any animal, for land animals as against birds and fish, for domestic and working animals (bestie grosse cattle and horses, bestie minute sheep, goats and pigs), for game, for the Beast of the Apocalypse, and for snakes and amphibians.^[2][12] Applied to people it already meant a wicked, stupid or brutish man.^[2] Dante's bestia in the first canto of the Inferno is the she-wolf that makes him tremble.^[5][12]

Fixed phrases record later stages: bestie da soma “beasts of burden” in 1553, bestie da tiro “draught animals” in 1865, bestia rara “an unusual person” in Giusti in 1844.^[8] Bestia nera follows French bête noire, at first used in its French form in Italian as in English.^[8][13] Modern colloquial senses include a small insect (mi ha punto una bestia), a person or thing of great strength, and jokingly a small fur stole;^[14][15][13] bestia is also a card game.^[14][15][13] The word was borrowed as Romanian bestie and into Serbo-Croatian.^[1]

Timeline

• Late 12th century – The Venetian Proverbia que dicuntur has the first recorded bestia.^[2]
• 1282 – Ristoro d'Arezzo writes le besti.^[8]
• Before 1294 – Guittone d'Arezzo uses bestiale “beastlike”.^[8]
• 1304–1308 – Dante writes le bestie in the Convivio.^[8][5]
• 14th century – Bestiame “livestock” is first recorded, in Andrea Lancia's translation of Ovid.^[8]
• 1553 – Bestie da soma “beasts of burden” is recorded.^[8]
• 1844 – Giusti uses bestia rara for an unusual person.^[8]
• 1865 – Bestie da tiro “draught animals” appears in Tommaseo–Bellini.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. An animal, as opposed to a human being: Mio nonno teneva molte bestie in campagna.^[14][16][7]
2. A small animal or insect: C'è una bestia strana sulla finestra.^[14][16][13]
3. A working or farm animal; livestock: bestia da soma, bestia da macello.^[14][16][17]
4. (figurative) A brutal, violent person: Quando beve diventa una bestia.^[14][15][13]
5. (figurative) An ignorant or stupid person; also an insult: Che bestia sono stato a crederci!^[14][15][13]
6. (colloquial) A person or thing of exceptional strength or power: Questa moto è una bestia!^[15]
7. (colloquial, humorous) A small fur stole.^[14][15][13]
8. A card game played for money.^[15][7]
9. (with a capital) The Beast, Satan.^[14][2]

Word family

• bestiale
• bestialità
• bestiame
• bestiola
• bestione
• bestiaccia
• bestiario
• bestino
• imbestialire

Related words

• biscia
• belva
• Latin bestia
• French bête

Usage notes

Andare in bestia, also montare or saltare in bestia, means to fly into a rage.^[14][15][13] DELI rejects the explanation of the phrase from the card game, which was introduced too late for such an old idiom.^[8] Brutta bestia is something dreaded and hard to face, bestia nera a person or thing one hates or fears.^[15][16]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f 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 Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 500
4. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b c d Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
6. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 137
7. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
8. ^ 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
9. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
12. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
13. ^ a b c d e f g h Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
14. ^ a b c d e f g h i j De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
15. ^ a b c d e f g h i Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
16. ^ a b c d Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
17. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli