carriera

Forms

carriera f (plural carriere)^[1] Old Italian also wrote carrera, Old Italian cariera and Old Italian charrera.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old Occitan carreira, from Late Latin carrāria, short for a phrase meaning “road for carts”, from Latin carrus (“wagon”).^{[4][5][6][7][8][1]} Devoto–Oli and Gabrielli simply derive it from carro, the GDLI calls it a derivative of that word with an ending of French type, and Devoto explains it as the Latin phrase used figuratively with the northern suffix -iera, itself of French origin.^{[9][10][11][12]} Prati took it from French carrière instead.^[13]

The LEI sets out from a Late Latin adjective *carrārius (“passable for carts”), which formed phrases meaning “cart road”; a noun was probably already formed in Latin, since Medieval Latin carraria is recorded in the Carolingian period, at Valpuesta in 804, at Cluny in 813 and at Lucca in 957.^[3] The same word is Romanian cărare (“path”), Old French chariere, Catalan carrera, Spanish carrera and Portuguese carreira, and its inherited Italian outcome is the old carraia.^[14][1] Meyer-Lübke held that the Italian word went on into Logudorese and into French “carrière”.^[14]

Latin “carrus” is a Gaulish word: the LEI notes that it is recorded from the 1st century BC, of the war wagon of the Gauls, and that it replaced Latin currus and Latin plaustrum and lives on in every Romance language.^[15] Wiktionary traces it to Proto-Celtic *karros (“wagon”) and to the Proto-Indo-European root *ḱers- (“to run”), which also gave Latin “currus”.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Brunetto Latini's Tesoretto (before 1274), where the poet sees Love “in a great carriera”, an open course: E ’n una gran carriera / io vidi dritto stante / ignudo un fresco fante “and in a wide course I saw, standing upright, a naked young lad”.^[2][11] DELI dates to Brunetto both the sense “ground for chariot races and jousts” and “the fastest gait of the horse”, and Pannuccio dal Bagno (before 1276) has carrera for a road used by carts.^[4]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian the word meant a road, and the phrases prendere carriera “to set off” and fare carriera “to make one's way unaided” were already in use; figuratively it could mean a person's attitude or conduct.^[2] The jousting ground is the sense of Renaissance poets such as Berni and Tassoni; the GDLI marks it as no longer used.^[11]

The modern sense, a profession, an employment or a course of studies, is first recorded in Sforza Pallavicino in 1662.^[4] From the idea of advancement in such a course come fare carriera “to rise in one's profession” and donna in carriera “career woman”, and the derivatives carrierismo and carrierista.^[16][9][1] The horse-riding sense survives in di gran carriera “at full speed”.^[8][6]

German used Carriera for the horse's gait about 1600;^[17] French carrière has the gait sense from 1534 and the career sense from before 1680, and English career came from the French word.^[17]

Timeline

• Before 1274 – Brunetto Latini uses carriera in the Tesoretto.^[2][11]
• Before 1276 – Pannuccio dal Bagno uses carrera for a cart road.^[4]
• Before 1294 – The sense “fastest gait of the horse” is recorded in Brunetto Latini.^[4]
• 1534 – French carrière is recorded in the horse-riding sense.^[17]
• About 1600 – German Carriera is recorded for the horse's gait.^[17]
• 1662 – Sforza Pallavicino uses the word for a profession or course of studies.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. career: a profession with a series of grades to be reached one after another, or the course of someone's studies: Ha lasciato la ricerca per la carriera diplomatica.^[6][9][7]
2. Advancement in one's profession: Per lei la famiglia veniva prima della carriera., fare carriera, to rise in one's job, in carriera, bent on getting ahead.^[6][16][9]
3. (horse riding) The fastest gait of a horse, di gran carriera, at full speed: Il ragazzo uscì di casa di gran carriera.^[6][9][8]
4. (obsolete) A road travelled by carts.^[6]
5. (obsolete) A ground where chariot races and jousts on horseback were held.^[6][16]

Word family

• carrierismo
• carrierista
• carrieristico

Related words

• carro
• carraio
• carraia
• French carrière
• Latin carrus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f 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 Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 12, 485
4. ^ a b c d e f Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
5. ^ 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. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
8. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
9. ^ a b c d e Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
10. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
11. ^ 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
12. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
13. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 246
14. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
15. ^ Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 12, 644
16. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
17. ^ a b c d Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it