Etymologically
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completo

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Pronunciation

  • /komˈplɛ.to/[1]

Forms

completo (feminine completa, masculine plural completi, feminine plural complete)[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin complētus (“filled; complete”), the past participle of compleō (“to fill up; to finish”).[2][3][4][5] The inherited participle of the Latin verb is compiuto, beside compiere.[6][3] The learned word is also French complet, Catalan complet, Spanish completo, Portuguese completo and Friulian complèt.[6][3]

Some senses were taken from French.[2][6] The noun “suit of clothes” is a calque of the French noun, which DELI dates in this sense to the 17th century and the LEI to 1874; the sense “full, with no seats left” follows French too.[2][6][7] completare and completamento are French compléter (1733) and complètement (1750).[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO and the LEI find the word first in the Neapolitan Regimen Sanitatis (1290–1310), then in Old Bolognese conpleda (1321), in the sense “whole, lacking nothing”.[8][6] In Tuscan prose DELI dates it before 1597, in Giovan Vettorio Soderini's work on agriculture, which speaks of a “complete fortification”.[2][9]

Semantic evolution

The adjective spread in the 17th and 18th centuries, with Carlo Dati wishing a correspondent “every most complete happiness”.[9] It came to mean “total, absolute”, also in insults such as un completo idiota, and “full” of a theatre or a bus.[4][10] Of a person it means all-round, having every skill a job needs.[4][7]

The noun for a man's suit of jacket, waistcoat and trousers is recorded in 1918.[2] Writers such as Gadda and Pratolini used it for grey or blue suits, and it now names any set of matching clothes or accessories.[11][4] Technical uses followed: a complete flower in botany, the equestrian concorso completo (from 1956), and in logic a formal system with the property of completeness (from 2000).[4][6]

Timeline

  • 1290–1310 – Completo appears in the Neapolitan Regimen Sanitatis.[8][6]
  • 1321 – Old Bolognese conpleda is recorded.[6]
  • Before 1597 – Giovan Vettorio Soderini uses completo.[2]
  • 1733 – French compléter, the model of completare, is recorded.[2]
  • 1798 – Ugo Foscolo uses completare.[2]
  • 1918 – Panzini records completo for a man's suit.[2]
  • 1956 – The equestrian concorso completo is recorded.[6]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. complete, having all the parts it should have: Mi serve l'elenco completo degli iscritti.[4][7][12]
  2. Total, absolute: Nella stanza c'era un silenzio completo.[4][12][10]
  3. Of a place or vehicle, full, with no seats left.[4][7][10]
  4. Of a person, all-round, having every quality needed for an activity: un musicista completo.[4][7][12]
  5. (botany) Of a flower, having perianth, stamens and carpels.[4][7]
  6. (logic, mathematics) Of a formal system, having the property of completeness.[4][7]

Noun

  1. A suit or outfit, a set of matching clothes; especially a man's suit of jacket, trousers and sometimes waistcoat.[4][10][13]
  2. A set of matching objects or accessories for one use: un completo di valigie.[4][10][14]

Word family

  • completare
  • completamento
  • completezza
  • completamente
  • incompleto
  • completino

Usage notes

Al completo means “full” of a hotel or a theatre, and “with everyone present” of a group.[10][14][7]

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
  3. ^ a b c 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 m De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 16, 520
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
  9. ^ 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, 414
  10. ^ a b c d e f Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  11. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 3, 415
  12. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  13. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
  14. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana