Etymologically
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centrale

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Pronunciation

  • /t͡ʃenˈtra.le/[1]

Forms

centrale m or f by sense (plural centrali, superlative centralissimo)[1]

Etymology

It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin centrālis (“central”), a word of Pliny, from centrum (“centre”) and the adjective suffix -ālis.[2][3][4][5][6] Latin “centrum” was taken from Ancient Greek κέντρον (kéntron, “sharp point; centre”), the fixed point of a pair of compasses.[7][8] The Romance forms are all learned: French central (from 1503), Old Occitan central (mid-14th century), Catalan central (15th century), Spanish central (1802) and Portuguese central (1712).[5]

The noun “centrale” “head office, power station” is the adjective used on its own, short for “sede” or “officina centrale”.[9] DEI compares French centrale and ties the sense “head office” to English and the sense “power station” to German Zentrale.[10] Several derivatives came from French: centralità from French centralité (1792), centralizzare from French centraliser (1794), and centralismo from French centralisme.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Francesco da Buti's Pisan commentary on Dante (1385–1395), which speaks of the centre of the earth as lo punto centrale dell'universo, “the central point of the universe”, the point farthest from the extremes.[11][12][5][2] GRADIT dates the word to before 1406.[4]

Semantic evolution

Leonardo (1515) used it in geometry, for lines that meet at the centre of the world.[5][12] The sense “principal”, of an office or administration, is recorded from Monti (1803), and the sense “in the middle part of a territory” from Giusti's Italia centrale (1849).[5][2] Tommaseo (1865) recorded the musical sense, of notes between the low and the high, and Pavese (1950) used it for “fundamental, essential”.[5]

As a feminine noun it meant a directing centre on which local branches depend from Imbriani (before 1886), and an installation producing and distributing goods or services from 1904, when Vannotti wrote of steam turbines in centrali elettriche.[2][13] The imperi centrali were the German and Austro-Hungarian empires before the First World War.[9]

Timeline

  • 1385–1395 – Francesco da Buti uses centrale.[11][2]
  • 1515 – Leonardo uses it in geometry.[5]
  • 1792–1794 – French centralité and centraliser are coined, Italian later borrows them.[5]
  • 1803 – Monti uses it in the sense “principal”.[5]
  • 1849 – Giusti writes Italia centrale.[2]
  • Before 1886 – The noun “directing centre” appears in Imbriani.[2]
  • 1904 – Centrali elettriche, power stations, are recorded.[2]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. central, in or at the centre: Il tavolo occupa la parte centrale della sala.[4][14][13]
  2. In the centre of a town: Abitano in una via centrale.[4][14][9]
  3. In the middle part of a territory: Europa centrale, Italia centrale.[4][13][9]
  4. Of a system or service, centralised: riscaldamento centrale.[4][14]
  5. Of an office or administration, main, principal: la sede centrale della banca; of power, exercised by national bodies: il governo centrale.[4][14][9]
  6. (figurative) Fundamental, essential: È la questione centrale del libro.[4][13][15]
  7. (music) Of a note, between the low and the high.[4][13]
  8. (phonetics) Of a vowel, articulated in the middle of the mouth.[4][13][9]

Noun

  1. (feminine) The head office, control centre of an organisation: la centrale di polizia.[4][15][9]
  2. (feminine) A plant producing or distributing goods or services: centrale elettrica, a power station, centrale del latte.[4][15][13]
  3. (sport) A player in a central position, such as a centre-back.[13][15]

Word family

  • centralina
  • centralino
  • centralmente

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
  3. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 13, 871
  6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
  8. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
  9. ^ a b c d e f g Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
  10. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 856
  11. ^ a b Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
  12. ^ a b 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 e f g h Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  14. ^ a b c d Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
  15. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli