Etymologically
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cambiare

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Pronunciation

  • /kamˈbja.re/[1]

Forms

cambiare (first-person singular present càmbio, first-person singular past historic cambiài, past participle cambiàto, auxiliary (transitive) avére or (intransitive) èssere)[1] Old Italian also had southern forms such as cagnare.[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin cambiō (“to exchange, barter”), a Late Latin verb of Gaulish origin.[3][4][5][6] Apuleius uses it, and the glosses explain it as “to give one thing for another”.[6][7] DELI points to a Gallo-Latin glossary of the 8th century with this gloss, which seems to reflect barter between free Gaulish farmers.[3]

The verb continues in all the Romance languages except Romanian, which has Romanian schimba from Vulgar Latin *excambiō:[6][8] it is Romansh chammiar, French changer (from 1155), Old Occitan cambiar, Catalan canviar, Spanish cambiar (1147) and Portuguese cambiar.[6][4] The French verb came back into Italian as cangiare.[4][1]

Nocentini compares Old Irish camb “crooked”, from a sense “to turn, convert”, and the LEI quotes Walde and Hofmann's comparison with Middle Irish cimb “tribute”.[4][6] Figge, by contrast, rejected the Gaulish origin and proposed Vulgar Latin *coambāre “to join”, from Latin ambō (“both”).[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's earliest record is in the Venetian Proverbia que dicuntur of the last quarter of the 12th century.[2] The first Tuscan record is a Florentine document of 1255–1256 about exchanging land with someone, where the verb means “to give one thing in exchange for another”.[6][3][5]

Semantic evolution

Exchange came first: a Florentine document of 1255 uses the verb for replacing one thing with another, and the account book of the Tolomei company (1278–1280) for exchanging one currency for another.[3] From this commercial use came cambio “exchange”, with the bill of exchange, lettera cambiale (1723), and the noun cambiale (1763).[3]

The sense “to make different” is in Bono Giamboni before 1292, and the intransitive “to become different” in Dino Compagni (1310–1312); the noun cambiamento is in Boccaccio (1352).[3] Modern life added changing clothes (cambiarsi i panni before 1578, simply cambiarsi by 1875), changing trains (1925) and changing gear (1962).[3]

German took kambieren “to exchange money” from the Italian verb in 1711.[9]

Timeline

  • Late 12th century – The Venetian Proverbia que dicuntur use the verb.[2]
  • 1255 – A Florentine document uses cambiare for replacing one thing with another.[3][5]
  • 1278–1280 – The Tolomei company uses it for exchanging money.[3][9]
  • Before 1292 – Bono Giamboni uses it for making different.[3]
  • 1310–1312 – Dino Compagni uses it intransitively, “to become different”.[3]
  • 1352 – Boccaccio uses cambiamento.[3]
  • 1711 – German kambieren is recorded.[9]
  • 1925 – Zingarelli records the sense “to change trains”.[3]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To replace one thing or person with another, to take a different one: Ho cambiato telefono la settimana scorsa.[5][10][1]
  2. To make different, alter, for better or worse.[5][11][1]
  3. (intransitive, with essere) To become different, to change: Da quando vive a Roma è molto cambiato.[5][10][1]
  4. To exchange money into another currency, or into smaller coins or notes.[5][3]
  5. To change someone's clothes or nappy; pronominal cambiarsi, to change one's clothes.[5][3]
  6. To change trains; on a vehicle, to change gear.[5][3]
  7. (dated) To exchange, barter.[1][2]

Word family

  • cambio
  • cambiamento
  • cambiale
  • cambiavalute
  • cambiabile
  • intercambiabile
  • ricambiare
  • contraccambiare
  • scambiare

Usage notes

The verb takes avere when transitive and essere when it means “to become different”.[1][5] Common phrases include cambiare idea “to change one's mind”, cambiare aria “to go somewhere else”, cambiare discorso “to change the subject” and cambiare le carte in tavola “to shift one's position unfairly”.[5][1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d 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 i j k l m n o p 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 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 f g Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 9, 1701
  7. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 698
  8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  9. ^ a b c Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
  10. ^ 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
  11. ^ Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse