concorso

Forms

concorso m (plural concorsi)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin concursus (“a running together; a throng”), the noun formed from the past participle of concurrō (“to run together”).^[2][3][4][5] DEI calls it an adaptation of the Latin word, and the LEI files the Italian forms among the learned ones.^[5][6] DELI and Nocentini treat it under the verb concorrere, which comes from the same Latin verb.^[7][2]

The Latin noun also gave Romanian concurs, French concours, Catalan concurs, Spanish concurso and Portuguese concurso.^[6] The sense “competition” is found in the French word from 1660; the LEI leaves open whether the French took it from Italian.^[6][8] The Latin noun is formed from the verb with the suffix -tus.^[9][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in the Questioni filosofiche of about 1298, from south-eastern Tuscany, where chonchorso means the simultaneous presence of things (“of many other vices”).^[10][6] DELI dates the sense “a flowing together of many people or things to one place” to the early 14th century, in the Italian translation of Cicero.^[7]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian used the word for a meeting of circumstances, the simultaneous presence of things, and a crowd of people gathering at one place.^[10] Leon Battista Alberti, about 1438, uses it for customers flocking to a shop, and Machiavelli for the crowds of citizens that escorted a man to the palace.^[6][8]

The sense “selective examination in which several candidates compete for a post, title or prize” is first recorded before 1617, in Bernardino Baldi.^[7] From there the word spread to sport and to every kind of contest, such as the concorso ippico and the concorso di bellezza.^[3][11] Other senses are legal, for taking part with others in an act or a crime (concorso di colpa, concorso nel reato), and geometrical, for the meeting of lines in a point (punto di concorso).^[12][13]

Timeline

• c. 1298 – Chonchorso appears in the Questioni filosofiche, from south-eastern Tuscany.^[10]
• Early 1300s – The Italian translation of Cicero uses concorso for a flowing together of people or things.^[7]
• c. 1438 – Leon Battista Alberti uses it for a crowd of people at one place.^[6]
• Before 1617 – Bernardino Baldi uses it for a competitive examination.^[7]
• 1660 – French concours is recorded in the sense “competition”.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A concourse: the flowing together of many people to one place, a crowd: La processione si è svolta con grande concorso di fedeli.^{[3][14][11][15]}
2. Participation, collaboration, a contribution to someone else's work or expense: Hanno chiesto il concorso dei soci per riparare il tetto.^[3][14][12]
3. (law) Participation together with others, as in concorso di persone nel reato (complicity in a crime) and concorso di colpa (contributory negligence).^[12][13][1]
4. A competition set by a public body or a private organization to choose among candidates for a post, a contract, a title or a prize: concorso pubblico, concorso a premi, concorso di bellezza.^{[3][14][11][12]}
5. (sport) A contest in which the competitors are ranked by set rules: concorso ippico.^[3][14][11]
6. (figurative) A coincidence of several factors that bring about an event: concorso di circostanze.^{[3][14][11][15]}
7. (geometry) The meeting of several lines at one point: punto di concorso.^[13][15]

Word family

• concorsuale
• concorsista

Related words

• concorrere
• concorrente
• concorrenza
• Latin concursus
• French concours

Usage notes

Concorso is also the past participle of concorrere (la gente concorsa, the people who had gathered).^[3][12][8] The phrase fuori concorso is said of a competitor who takes part without being ranked.^[3][14]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
4. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1048
6. ^ 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, 1122
7. ^ 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
8. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 3, 486
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b c Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
11. ^ a b c d e Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
12. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
13. ^ a b c Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
14. ^ a b c d e f Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
15. ^ a b c Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli