carestia

Forms

carestia f (plural carestie)^[1] Older forms include Old Italian caristia, Old Italian carestea, Old Italian carastia and Old Italian charestia.^[2]

Etymology

Its origin is disputed.^[3][4] Nocentini, the LEI and the TLIO see it as inherited from Vulgar Latin *carestia, built on *carēstus, a participle of Latin careō (“to lack, be without”).^[4][5][2][6] The participle is supported by caresto “shortage”, recorded at Bobbio at the end of the 14th century, and by the well-attested derivative carestoso.^[4][5][7] Nocentini compares the strong participles in -esto of the Veneto dialects, made on the model of chiesto and visto.^[4] Prati put this view forward tentatively, and DELI is not fully convinced by it.^[6][3]

Tobler instead derived the word from Ancient Greek ἀχαριστία (akharistía, “ingratitude”), the earth being ungrateful when it yields no crops, and DEI judged this the likeliest proposal, helped by the partial likeness to Latin cāritās “dearness, high price”.^[8][3][9] Devoto–Oli traces it to a Christian Latin *acharistia “lack of grace”.^[10] Meyer-Lübke rejected the Greek source on grounds of meaning and left the word unexplained, Nocentini finds it unsupported, and the LEI drops it because nothing in Greek or Latin backs it.^[11][4][5]

The Medieval Latin form caristia is common: DEI cites it from documents of Bobbio, and the LEI dates it to 1256.^[11][8][5] The same word is Old French charestie (c. 1243), Old Occitan carestia (before 1156), Catalan carestia, Spanish carestía (mid-13th century) and Portuguese carestia, as well as Friulian ciaristìe and Romansh carischia.^[5][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is Folco di Calabria (before 1266), with the sense of a great shortage of the things needed for life.^[3] The TLIO's first record is the Sienese Ruggieri Apugliese, of the mid-13th century, and its first sense is a lack or scarcity of something or someone.^[2] The LEI cites Aretine carestia from 1282.^[5]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian had the phrases avere carestia di “to lack” and fare carestia di “to deprive of”, a medical sense “craving for food”, and the sense of a general scarcity of provisions with rising prices, so that montare di carestia meant “to go up in price”.^[2] Guittone d'Arezzo (before 1294) has the derivative charestisia “high price”.^[5] Jacopone warns of the man who hoards grain c'aspetta la caristìa (“who waits for the famine”).^[12]

From the 16th century the word could also mean avarice, and a thin or stingy person.^[8][13] Tuscan proverbs collected by Tommaseo include carestia fa dovizia (scarcity teaches thrift) and in tempo di carestia pan vecciato (in a famine, bread made with vetch will do).^[14] The adjective carestoso “stricken by famine” is recorded before 1566 in Caro, and in Rome and central Italy it came to mean “expensive”.^[5][6]

Timeline

• Before 1156 – Old Occitan carestia is recorded.^[5]
• 1256 – Medieval Latin caristia is recorded.^[5]
• Before 1266 – Folco di Calabria uses carestia.^[3]
• 1282 – Carestia appears in a text from Arezzo.^[5]
• End of the 14th century – caresto “shortage” is recorded at Bobbio.^[5]
• Before 1566 – Caro uses carestoso “stricken by famine”.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. famine, dearth: a severe shortage of food and other necessities caused by bad harvests, war or economic crisis.^{[9][10][13][15]}
2. By extension, a scarcity or lack of anything: In questo paese c'è carestia di medici.^{[9][10][16][13]}
3. (obsolete) avarice, stinginess.^[13][17]

Word family

• carestoso

Related words

• Latin careō
• carente

References

1. ^ a b 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 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 e f 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 l m Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 12, 92
6. ^ a b c Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti
7. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 241
8. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 765
9. ^ a b c De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
10. ^ 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
11. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
12. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
13. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
14. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
15. ^ Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
16. ^ Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
17. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli