Etymologically
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colpevole

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Pronunciation

  • /kolˈpe.vo.le/[1]

Forms

colpevole m or f by sense (plural colpevoli, superlative colpevolissimo)[1] Old Italian forms include colpevile, colpevele, colpevre and southern culpivuli.[2][3]

Etymology

It is formed from Italian colpa + -evole.[4][5][6] DEI and Wiktionary explain it instead as Late Latin culpābilis (“blameworthy”) with its suffix replaced by Italian ⟨-evole⟩, and Devoto–Oli, Zingarelli, Sabatini–Coletti and Gabrielli give the Late Latin word as the source.[3][1][7][8][9][10] The learned doublet is colpabile.[1][5] The Latin adjective is formed from culpō (“to blame”) with -bilis.[11]

Colpa continues Latin culpa (“fault, blame”), a word without certain cognates.[12][4] De Vaan connects it with Proto-Indo-European *ku̯olp-h₂- (“bend, turn”) and with Germanic words for a vault, so that a “wrong” would first have been a turning aside.[13][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in the Venetian translation of the Pamphilus, about 1250, for someone responsible for a fault that deserves punishment or blame.[2] DELI dates the adjective and noun to the late 13th century, in the Novellino.[12]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian already used the word in law, for someone found responsible in court for breaking the law, in trovare colpevole (to find guilty), and in religion, for a sinner.[2] Dino Compagni writes of himself fui colpevole (“I was to blame”) for delaying an embassy, and Boccaccio's Decameron has te credendo nella morte del lor fratello esser colpevole (“believing you guilty of their brother's death”).[14]

Colpevolezza is a 19th-century word.[3] Colpevolista, someone who believes a defendant guilty, was coined with its opposite innocentista in November 1947, during the Graziosi trial.[12][3]

Timeline

  • c. 1250 – The Venetian Pamphilus gives the first record.[2]
  • 1288 – Zingarelli's date for the first record.[8]
  • Late 13th century – The Novellino uses colpevole.[12]
  • November 1947 – Colpevolista and innocentista are coined during the Graziosi trial.[12]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. guilty, responsible for a crime or a fault: La giuria lo ha dichiarato colpevole di frode.[5][7][1]
  2. Showing guilt: Mi lanciò un'occhiata colpevole.[5]
  3. That is itself a fault, culpable: un ritardo colpevole.[5][7][8]

Noun

  1. The culprit, the person who committed a crime or fault: Il colpevole è stato arrestato ieri.[5][8][1]

Word family

  • colpevolezza
  • colpevolismo
  • colpevolista
  • incolpevole
  • colpevolizzare
  • colpevolmente
  • colpa
  • colpabile
  • incolpare
  • Latin culpābilis

Usage notes

Tommaseo notes that reo is usually a stronger word than colpevole.[15]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g 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 Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975)
  4. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  5. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  6. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
  7. ^ 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
  8. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  9. ^ Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  10. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
  11. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  12. ^ a b c d e Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
  13. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  14. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 3, 322
  15. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET