concessione

Forms

concessione f (plural concessioni)^[1]

Etymology

It is learned: it is borrowed from Latin concessiō (“a granting; an admission”), a noun of action from concēdō (“to yield, grant”).^{[2][3][4][5][6]} The LEI distinguishes three Latin senses that Italian took over: the giving up of a right, the rhetorical figure, and an admission of guilt.^[7]

The same learned word is Romansh concessiun, French concession (from about 1264), Old Occitan concession, Catalan concessió (from about 1315), Spanish concesión (from 1604) and Portuguese concessão.^[7] According to the LEI, the senses “handing over into someone's power” and “consent, approval” exist only in Italian.^[7] DEI treats the political sense, land granted by a state to private persons or to another state, as a 20th-century borrowing of the French word.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in Brunetto Latini's Rettorica (Florence, about 1260–1261), as a term of rhetoric: a kind of argument in which a fault is admitted while its pardon is pleaded.^[9] DELI dates the general sense “act or effect of granting” to Brunetto Latini as well, before 1294.^[10]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian the word soon meant an act by which the use of a thing, an activity or a right was authorised, and more generally a consent that made something possible or lawful; it is found at Siena from 1300, Pisa from 1304 and Florence from about 1324, and Boccaccio uses it in the Decameron.^[7][9][5] The TLIO also records a figurative use for a woman's yielding to a man.^[9]

The administrative sense, a measure by which the public authorities confer rights or advantages on private persons, appears in 1635.^[10] DEI dates the sense of territory granted by one state to another, to the 20th century.^[8] Today the word is also used in commerce for an exclusive dealership, and in rhetoric for the figure of pretending to grant an opponent's point.^[4][11]

Timeline

• c. 1260–1261 – Brunetto Latini uses the word as a term of rhetoric.^[9]
• 1300 – The word appears in Sienese, in a bull of Boniface VIII.^[7]
• 1304 – It appears in Pisan, in the statute of the wool guild.^[7]
• 1348–1353 – Boccaccio uses it in the Decameron.^[4][5]
• 1635 – The administrative sense is first recorded.^[10]
• 20th century – The political sense of a territory granted by a state appears.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act of granting something, and the thing granted: a concession, permission or favour: la concessione di una borsa di studio.^[4][12][13]
2. An act of indulgence towards a request: Ai figli non fa mai concessioni.^[4][12][14]
3. (uncommon) An admission that what another says is true.^[4][14][11]
4. (law, administration) A measure by which the public authorities grant a private party the right to use public property or run a public service: concessione edilizia, a building permit.^{[4][12][15][13]}
5. (commerce) A contract giving a firm the right, often exclusive, to sell another firm's products.^[4][11]
6. A territory that one state grants another to administer for a period.^[4][11]
7. (rhetoric) The figure of seeming to accept an opponent's argument.^[4]

Word family

• concessionario

Related words

• concedere
• concessivo
• Latin concessiō

Usage notes

Fixed phrases include concessione edilizia (building permit), concessione governativa and per gentile concessione (by kind permission).^[4][12]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it
3. ^ 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 De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 16, 930
8. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1044
9. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
10. ^ a b c Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
11. ^ a b c d Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
12. ^ 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
13. ^ a b Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
14. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
15. ^ Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli