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colpa

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Pronunciation

Forms

colpa f (plural colpe)[1] Old Italian forms include corpa, culpa and cholpa.[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin culpa (“fault, guilt”).[3][4][5][1] Nocentini sets it beside Old French coupe and Old Occitan colpa, and notes that Catalan culpa, Spanish culpa and Portuguese culpa were taken from Latin by learned speakers.[4] Meyer-Lübke went further: although the Italian form shows the regular change of the short Latin /u/ to /o/, he doubted that the word was inherited anywhere in Romance.[6] Körting called it learned and ecclesiastical in every Romance language, the everyday words for moral guilt being nouns formed from Latin fallō (“to deceive; to fail”).[7]

The Latin noun had an older form colpa, recorded by Priscian.[8] Its origin is uncertain: DELI and Nocentini find no sure comparison for it, and Devoto saw no connections outside Italy.[3][4][9] The Oxford Latin Dictionary compares Oscan kulupu, whose meaning is itself unclear.[10] De Vaan tentatively derives it from a noun Proto-Indo-European *kʷolp-eh₂ meaning “a wrong”, from a root Proto-Indo-European *kʷelp- (“to wind, turn”) seen in Old Norse hvelfa (“to make vaulted, turn over”) and perhaps in Old Prussian poquelbton (“kneeling”), through Proto-Italic *kʷolpā (“wrong, mistake”).[8][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is a confession formula from Norcia in Umbria, dated 1065.[2][11] DELI's first literary record is in Giacomo da Lentini, before 1250, with the sense “a fault, a failing; an action that offends morality and the law”.[3]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian the word already covered responsibility felt for a wrong, a breach of the law, and sin in the religious sense, with phrases such as colpa originale (original sin), mia colpa in the confession, and per colpa di “through the fault of”.[2] It could also mean a defect in an animal or a thing, and the person to blame for something.[2] Dante writes in the Paradiso: “Molte fiate già pianser li figli / per la colpa del padre” (many times have sons wept for their father's fault).[12]

Tommaseo observed that Latin linked the word with negligence, in contrast with deliberate fraud, and modern law keeps that distinction between colpa and dolo.[13][11] The sense “an action with a bad outcome”, whoever intended it, is recorded in 1723 in Giuseppe Casaregi, together with the adjective colposo.[3] An obsolete sense was an error or imperfection, as in a misprint.[11][5]

The derivative colpevole appears in the Novellino at the end of the 13th century;[3] colpevolista, someone convinced of a defendant's guilt before the verdict, was coined with innocentista in November 1947 during the Graziosi trial.[3]

Timeline

  • 1065 – A confession formula from Norcia has the word.[2][11]
  • Before 1250 – Giacomo da Lentini uses colpa for a moral fault.[3]
  • Late 13th century – Colpevole “guilty” appears in the Novellino.[3][4]
  • Before 1321 – Dante uses it for a father's fault visited on his sons.[12]
  • 1723 – Giuseppe Casaregi uses it for an action with harmful effects, and has colposo.[3]
  • 1818 – Colpevolezza is recorded in Ludovico Di Breme.[3]
  • 1947 – Colpevolista is coined during the Graziosi trial.[3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A fault: an action against morality or the law, and the responsibility that follows from it: Ha pagato a lungo per una colpa di gioventù.[5][14][15]
  2. (religion) A sin: colpa originale, original sin.[5][15][16]
  3. (law) negligence, imprudence or lack of skill that causes harm to others without intent, as opposed to dolo.[5][11][17]
  4. blame, responsibility for something bad; its cause: La colpa del ritardo è dello sciopero.[5][14][16]
  5. (psychology) In senso di colpa and complesso di colpa, a feeling of guilt.[17][16][15]
  6. (obsolete) An error of language or style.[5][11]

Word family

  • colpevole
  • colpevolezza
  • colposo
  • colpevolista
  • colpevolismo
  • incolpare
  • discolpare
  • discolpa
  • scolpare

Usage notes

Per colpa di means “because of”, with a negative effect;[14][16][15] sentirsi in colpa is “to feel guilty”, and dare la colpa a qualcuno “to blame someone”.[14][16][15] The proverb che colpa ci ha la gatta se la massaia è matta? is said of someone who blames others for their own faults.[15] In grammar, the complemento di colpa names the offence someone is accused of, introduced by di or per.[11][17]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e 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 j k 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 Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  5. ^ a b c d e f g De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  7. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
  8. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  9. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
  10. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  11. ^ a b c d e f g Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  12. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 3, 319
  13. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
  14. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  15. ^ a b c d e f Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
  16. ^ a b c d e Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
  17. ^ 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