Etymologically
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comunità

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Pronunciation

  • /ko.mu.niˈta/[1]

Forms

comunità f (invariable)[1] Old Italian forms include comunitade, comunitate, communità and comunitae.[2]

Etymology

It is a learned borrowing, borrowed from Latin commūnitās (“sharing, community”), formed from commūnis (“common”) with the suffix -tās.[3][4][5][1][6] Old forms ending in -tade and -tae show a half-learned development of the Latin ending.[7]

The LEI lists the Latin word as a learned borrowing across Romance: Friulian comunitât, Romansh communitad, Middle French communité, Old Occitan comunitat, Catalan comunitat, Old Spanish comunidat (1240–1250) and Portuguese comunidade (from 1272).[7] The Latin adjective is also the source of comune, of which the Italian word was felt to be a derivative.[2][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in an Old Italian version of Egidio Romano from Siena (1288), in the sense of a body of people joined by a social bond.[2] DELI dates the first record to Cecco d'Ascoli, before 1327, in the sense of a number of people joined by common ties into a single body.[3]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian the word also meant a league, guild or religious sect, the whole of mankind, the sharing of a thing or condition (mettere in comunità, to make common property), and even the sacrament of communion.[2][7] By 1348 Villani uses it for the commune, the town and its citizens, a sense found also in Venetian, Genoese and Emilian.[3][7] In 15th-century Genoa it could mean a republic as opposed to a lordship.[7] The abstract sense “commonness” is now rare.[9][10]

In modern Italian the word names religious communities and parishes, political groupings of states (Comunità economica europea), and, since the late 20th century, residential centres for the treatment of drug addicts, comunità terapeutiche, recorded in the press in 1984.[5][9][11] The comunità montana is a public body formed by a group of mountain municipalities.[11][12]

Timeline

  • 1288 – An Old Italian version of Egidio Romano from Siena uses the word.[2]
  • Before 1327 – Cecco d'Ascoli uses it.[3]
  • Before 1348 – Villani uses it for the commune.[3]
  • 1361 – Venetian comunità is recorded in a letter.[7]
  • 1484 – Genoese communità “republic” is recorded.[7]
  • 1984 – La Repubblica writes about therapeutic communities for drug addicts.[9]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A community: a group of people joined by shared language, organization or interests: la comunità italiana di Buenos Aires.[5][11][13]
  2. A group of people who live together under the same rules, especially a religious one: una comunità di monaci.[5][13][12]
  3. A centre for the rehabilitation of drug addicts or people with mental illness through communal life and work, comunità terapeutica.[5][11][12]
  4. A religious denomination; a parish and its faithful.[5][10]
  5. An organization of states bound by economic or political treaties: Comunità economica europea.[5][13]
  6. (rare) Commonness, the state of being shared.[13][10][9]

Word family

  • comunitario

Usage notes

The word is invariable: le comunità.[5][1]

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 Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
  4. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ a b c d e f g Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 16, 156
  8. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
  9. ^ a b c d Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
  10. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
  11. ^ 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
  12. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  13. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse