comportamento

Forms

comportamento m (plural comportamenti)^[1]

Etymology

It is from Italian comportare + -mento.^[2][3][4][1] The verb is borrowed from Latin comportō (“to carry together”), from portō (“to carry”) with con-; its reflexive comportarsi (“to behave”) is recorded before 1446.^[5][6] Comportamentismo, “behaviourism”, is a calque of English behaviorism.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is in Bernardoni in 1812, with the sense “way of behaving”.^[5][2] The TLIO has an isolated 14th-century plural comportamenti in a Florentine Leggenda Aurea, of uncertain meaning, perhaps from a mistranslation.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The GDLI quotes the word for people's conduct, and by extension for things, as Massimo Bontempelli's new behaviour of the stars of the Little Bear.^[8] In the 20th century it became a term of psychology and ethology for an organism's reactions to stimuli; comportamentismo is recorded in 1950 and comportamentale in 1973.^[5][9]

Timeline

• 14th century – An isolated plural appears in a Florentine Leggenda Aurea.^[7]
• 1812 – Bernardoni records comportamento.^[5][2]
• 1950 – Comportamentismo is recorded.^[5]
• 1973 – Comportamentale is recorded.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. behaviour, conduct: the way a person acts towards others and their surroundings; condotta: Il suo comportamento a scuola è migliorato.^[2][3][4]
2. The way a person or group acts on a particular matter: Il comportamento del governo durante la crisi ha sorpreso tutti.^[2]
3. (psychology, ethology) The response of a living organism to stimuli.^[4][9][3]
4. The way a substance, body or machine reacts to given conditions: il comportamento dell'acciaio alle alte temperature.^[2][4][9]

Word family

• comportamentale
• comportamentismo

Related words

• comportare
• comporto

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
3. ^ 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
4. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
5. ^ a b c d e f g Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
6. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
8. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
9. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli