causa

Forms

causa f (plural cause)^[1] Old Italian forms include cauça, cauza and chausa.^[2]

Etymology

It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin causa (“cause, reason; lawsuit”), an older caussa.^[3][4][5] The same Latin noun, in popular speech, became cosa “thing”, as it did in nearly all the Romance languages: French chose, Spanish cosa, Portuguese coisa.^[3][6][7][8] The LEI notes that the popular and learned outcomes are hard to separate, because in southern Italy and parts of the north /au/ is kept even in popular words.^[7]

The origin of the Latin noun is unknown.^[9][10] Walde and Hofmann, followed by the OLD, linked it to cūdō (“to strike”), as “a blow” that sets things moving, but Ernout and Meillet doubted any Indo-European source;^[9][11][1] Wiktionary compares Etruscan cavsa.^[9][11][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in the Venetian Proverbia que dicuntur, of the late 12th century, in the sense “what produces an effect, reason”.^[2] DELI's first record of this sense is in Brunetto Latini (1260–1261).^[3]

Semantic evolution

The legal sense “lawsuit, trial” is recorded in 1322 in the statute of the Order of the Sea at Pisa; it was as old as the Latin word, which named a party's case in court.^[3][12][9] Old Italian used causa also in philosophy, with causa prima for God, and in rhetoric for the kinds of oration.^[2] The phrase causa finale spread after Leibniz.^[13]

The sense “cause” in politics, a set of claims a group fights for, appears in Guicciardini before 1540.^[3] In bureaucratic Italian causa is also used as a preposition, causa maltempo “owing to bad weather”.^[6][14] A Venetian charter of 1084 already names a man Ugo Causatorta.^[15]

Timeline

• 1084 – The surname Causatorta is in a Rialto charter.^[15]
• Late 12th century – The Proverbia que dicuntur have the first record.^[2]
• 1260–1261 – Brunetto Latini uses causa “reason”.^[3]
• 1304–1308 – Dante uses causare.^[3]
• 1322 – The Pisan statute of the Order of the Sea uses it for a lawsuit.^[3]
• Before 1540 – Guicciardini uses it for a political cause.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A cause, reason, what brings something about: La nebbia è stata la causa dell'incidente.^[5][16][6]
2. (philosophy) A principle on which a thing depends: causa prima, causa efficiente.^[5][14]
3. (law) A lawsuit, case: Ha fatto causa al suo ex datore di lavoro..^[5][16][1]
4. A cause, an ideal or aim one supports: lottare per la causa della pace.^[5][6]

Word family

• causale
• causalità
• causare
• causativo
• causidico
• concausa

Related words

• cosa
• accusare
• scusare
• Latin causa

Usage notes

A causa di means “because of” and per causa mia “because of me, through my fault”.^[16][17] The proverb chi è causa del suo mal pianga sé stesso says that those who bring trouble on themselves have only themselves to blame.^[14][17]

References

1. ^ a b c d e 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 Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
4. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b c d e De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
6. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
7. ^ a b Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 13, 386
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ a b c d de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
11. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
13. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 822
14. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
15. ^ a b Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 258
16. ^ 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
17. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana