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cambio

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Etymology and origin of the Italian word cambio

Confidence
Probable
Formation
Derivation
First attested
late 12th century, record of an exchange of land (as canbio)
Ultimate origin
Gaulish cambion
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin cambio
French changer
Italian cambiare
Italian cambio
Derived words
English change ← cambio
French changement ← changer

Pronunciation

Forms

cambio m (plural cambi, relational adjective cambiale)[1] Old Italian also had the plural cambiora.[2][3]

Etymology

It is a noun formed from the verb cambiare (from Italian cambiare + -o).[4][5][6][7][1][3] The verb continues Late Latin cambiō (“to exchange”), first found in Apuleius and explained in the glosses as “to give one thing for another”.[8][9][1] The Latin verb is generally taken to be Gaulish: LEI compares Middle Irish cimb (“tribute”), and Wiktionary derives Latin cambium (“exchange”) from Gaulish cambion, from Proto-Celtic *kambos (“twisted, crooked”).[8][10][9][1] Figge rejected a Gaulish source and proposed Vulgar Latin *coambāre (“to join, connect”), from Latin ambō (“both”), and LEI leaves the question to Latinists.[8]

The verb lives on in all the Romance languages except Romanian, which has Romanian schimba from Vulgar Latin *excambiāre.[8] The noun is Spanish cambio, Portuguese câmbio and Occitan cambi, while the French noun is change.[11][1] Italian also has cangiare, borrowed from French changer.[10]

DEI treats the botanical “cambio” “cambium” (19th century) as a separate, learned word, from New Latin cambium (1818).[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is canbio at the end of the 12th century, in a Tuscan record of an exchange of land, with the sense of exchange or replacement of one thing for another.[4][3] The money sense came soon after: Medieval Latin cambium for the changing of one currency into another is found at Bologna in 1209, and Italian cambio in 1211.[4][12][5]

Semantic evolution

Merchants used the word from 1278 for the trade in money between places by means of bills, and lettera di cambio “bill of exchange” appears in a Lucca document of 1376.[4][13] Dante writes in the Convivio (1304–1308) that one “makes a fine exchange” who gives imperfect things to gain perfect ones (fa bello cambio).[4][2] Old Italian also used the word for a reward or a just punishment, and had the phrase in cambio di “instead of”.[3]

The sense “cambium”, the growing layer between wood and bark, is recorded in 1830, and cambio di velocità, the gearbox of a motor car, in Panzini's dictionary of 1918.[4][14] In modern Italian the word also means a change of clothes, the relief who takes over a shift, a bureau de change, and an exchange of pieces in chess.[5][6][15]

English used cambio for a bill of exchange from 1645 and for an exchange office from 1656, and German had Cambio from 1616, beside Wechsel, a calque of the Italian money sense recorded from 1383.[13]

Timeline

  • Late 12th century – Canbio in a record of an exchange of land.[4][3]
  • 1209 – Medieval Latin cambium “money exchange” at Bologna.[4][12]
  • 1211 – Italian cambio for the exchange of one coin for another.[4][5][13]
  • 1278 – The trade in money by bills of exchange, in the records of the Tolomei.[4]
  • 1304–1308 – Dante uses cambio in the Convivio.[4]
  • 1376 – Lettera di cambio in a Lucca document.[4]
  • 1383 – German Wechsel in the money sense, modelled on the Italian word.[13]
  • 1645 – English cambio “bill of exchange”.[13]
  • 1830 – The botanical sense “cambium”.[4]
  • 1918 – Cambio di velocità “gearbox” in Panzini's dictionary.[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The replacement of something with another thing of the same kind; a change: Abbiamo avuto un cambio di orario all'ultimo momento.[5][6][7]
  2. A change of clothes or linen: Metti in valigia un cambio, staremo via una notte.[5][6][16]
  3. A person or group who takes over from others in an activity; the relief: Il collega che mi dà il cambio è in ritardo.[5][6][15]
  4. An exchange, a swap or barter: in cambio di “in exchange for”.[5][6][17]
  5. (finance) The exchange rate of one currency against another; the buying and selling of foreign currency: Il cambio tra euro e dollaro è peggiorato.[5][7][17]
  6. A bureau de change.[5]
  7. (mechanics) The gearbox of a vehicle, and its gear lever: un'auto con il cambio automatico.[5][7][17]
  8. (chess) An exchange of pieces of equal value.[5]
  9. (botany) The cambium, the layer of tissue between wood and bark that makes stems and roots grow thicker.[5][7][17]
  10. (anatomy) The layer of the periosteum that forms new bone.[7][17][16]

Word family

  • cambiale
  • cambiario
  • cambista
  • intercambio
  • cambiare
  • scambio
  • ricambio
  • cangiare
  • Latin cambium

Usage notes

Common phrases are dare il cambio (to take over from someone), darsi il cambio (to take turns), fare a cambio (to swap) and cambio della guardia (the changing of the guard; figuratively, a change of leadership).[6][17][15][16]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
  3. ^ a b c d e Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n 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 f g h i j k l m 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 Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
  7. ^ a b c d e f Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  8. ^ a b c d Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it
  9. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  10. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  11. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
  12. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 698
  13. ^ a b c d e Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
  14. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
  15. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
  16. ^ a b c Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
  17. ^ a b c d e f Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
Cite this entry

“Cambio.” Etymologically, 21 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/it/cambio. Accessed 22 Oct. 2026.

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