carità

Forms

carità f (invariable)^[1] Older forms are Old Italian caritate and caritade, with northern caritae and southern caritati.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin cāritās (“dearness, affection, love”), taken from the accusative cāritātem in the Christian sense of love of God and of one's neighbour.^[4][5][6][1] The Latin noun is formed from cārus (“dear”), the source of Italian caro.^[4][5][7][1] DEI and the GDLI call it a semi-learned word: the LEI notes that keeping the ⟨i⟩ and the /t/ of the Latin is learned, while the endings ⟨-ade⟩, ⟨-ae⟩ and ⟨-à⟩ are the popular development of the accusative.^[8][9][3]

In Christian Latin the word took over the senses of Ancient Greek ἀγάπη (agápē, “love; love feast”), including the common meal of the early Christians.^[9][8] The word spread through the whole Romance world as the name of a theological virtue: French charité, Occitan caritat, Catalan caritat, Spanish caridad, Portuguese caridade, Friulian caritât and Romanian caritate.^[5][3] DEI, however, says that Romanian does not share it.^[8]

The adjective goes back through Proto-Italic *kāro- (“dear”) to Proto-Indo-European *keh₂-ro- (“desired, desirable”), and it is related to Old Irish carae (“friend”).^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is caritate in the Ritmo di sant'Alessio, a poem from the Marche of the late 12th century, where it already means alms, charity given to the poor.^[4][2] The religious sense, love of God and of one's neighbour as one of the three theological virtues, is first found at the beginning of the 13th century in Uguccione da Lodi: pas et amor e caritate (“peace and love and charity”).^[4][9]

Semantic evolution

DELI sees the Christian sense of love for God and neighbour as the centre of the word's history: from it came, on one side, alms as the concrete act of charity, and on the other, the sense of a favour or courtesy (first in Luigi Pulci, 1483).^[4] Some uses continue the classical sense of affection for one's family or country: Cicero's caritas patriae lives on in carità di patria, and Dante writes la carità del natio loco (“love of my native place”).^[4][6][11]

Old Italian had more senses, which the TLIO records: an act of mercy, a charitable confraternity, and fare carità “to eat together”, used of monks and kept from the Church Latin sense of a common meal.^[2][8] Boccaccio uses the word in 1353 for a disposition to understand and help everyone.^[4] The origin of carità pelosa, “self-interested charity”, is unclear: DELI rejects the story of a ring holding hairs of Saint Peter's beard and links the phrase to avere il pelo sul cuore, to be hard-hearted.^[4]

Timeline

• 1175–1200 – Caritate and caretate appear in the Ritmo di sant'Alessio, meaning alms.^[4][2]
• Early 13th century – Uguccione da Lodi uses the word for Christian love.^[4][9]
• 1280–1310 – The derivative caritevole “charitable” appears in the Fiore.^[4]
• Before 1348 – Giovanni Villani writes carità in the sense of alms.^[4]
• 1353 – Boccaccio uses it for a readiness to help others.^[4]
• Before 1363 – Caritatevole is first recorded, in Matteo Villani.^[4]
• 1483 – Luigi Pulci uses it for a favour or courtesy.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. (theology) charity, one of the three theological virtues: love of God and of one's neighbour for God's sake.^[6][12][13]
2. A readiness to sympathize with and help the weak, the poor and the suffering; compassion: una donna senza carità.^[6][12][14]
3. alms, help given to the needy, especially money: fare la carità, vivere di carità.^[6][12][13]
4. (colloquial) A favour or courtesy: fammi la carità di stare zitto “do me the favour of keeping quiet”.^[6][12][15]
5. (literary) Devoted love for one's family or country: carità di patria.^[6][13][14]

Word family

• caritatevole
• caritativo
• caritevole

Related words

• caro
• Latin caritas
• French charité

Usage notes

Per carità! strengthens a plea or a refusal: “for heaven's sake!”, “certainly not!”.^[12][14][15] Carità pelosa is charity given only for one's own advantage.^[12][14] Suore di carità or Figlie della carità are nuns who visit and nurse the sick.^[16]

References

1. ^ a b c d 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 Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 12, 144
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o 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 Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d e f g De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 770
9. ^ 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
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
12. ^ a b c d e f Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
13. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
14. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
15. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
16. ^ Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)