contrapposizione

Forms

contrapposizione f (plural contrapposizioni)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin contrapositio, a noun formed on Latin contrāpōnō (“to place opposite”).^[2][3][4][1] Gabrielli analyses the Late Latin word as contra (“against”) with positio (“position”).^[5] DEI calls it a learned word and notes that Boethius and Isidore used the Latin noun in the rhetorical sense of antithesis.^[6] The Latin participle contrāpositum also meant “antithesis” in rhetoric.^[7]

GRADIT and Treccani instead take the Italian word as formed in Italian: in their view it is from Italian contrapporre with the suffix -ione, comparing the Latin supine.^[8][9] Devoto dates the Late Latin noun to the 6th century.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is the 14th-century Italian translation of Augustine, with the sense of the act or effect of setting one thing against another.^[11] The TLIO's first record is the Florentine translation of Pietro de' Crescenzi, where a field is sheltered by the height or the facing position of another hill.^[12][13]

Semantic evolution

Already in Old Italian the word had two lines of meaning: the placing of one thing opposite another, and the rhetorical figure that sets two words or clauses of opposite sense side by side.^[12] The translation of Augustine praises the beauty of an eloquence built on such oppositions, of things rather than words.^[13][14] DEI dates the rhetorical sense, as a synonym of antitesi, to the 16th century.^[6] Tommaseo also records the term of logic, the conversion of a proposition by negating its contrary, which he finds in the Italian Boethius.^[14]

In painting the word came to mean the arrangement of lights and darks, colours and figures so that each sets off the other, a use the GDLI illustrates from Algarotti.^[13] In modern Italian it is above all an opposition or clash between ideas, positions or people, and heraldry uses it for figures placed facing or alternating on a shield.^[8][9][15] The rhetorical sense is now marked as old.^[3][16]

Timeline

• 14th century – The Italian translation of Augustine uses contrapposizione.^[11][13]
• 14th century – The Florentine translation of Pietro de' Crescenzi has contrapposizion of a hill.^[12]
• 16th century – The rhetorical sense “antithesis” is recorded.^[6]
• 19th century – Carducci uses the word in a polemic.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act of setting against one thing and another, or of being opposed, and its result: an opposition or contrast between ideas, colours or positions: la contrapposizione tra le due tesi.^[8][3][4]
2. (by extension) A dispute or conflict between people.^[15]
3. (logic) In scholastic logic, the conversion of a proposition into another by negating its contrary.^[8][3][9]
4. (heraldry) The placing of figures on a shield facing each other, alternating or opposed.^[8][3][9]
5. (rhetoric, archaic) Antithesis.^[8][3][16]

Related words

• contrapporre
• contrapposto
• opposizione
• posizione
• Latin contrāpōnō

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
3. ^ 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
4. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
5. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
6. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1080
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
9. ^ a b c d Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
10. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
11. ^ a b Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
12. ^ a b c Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
13. ^ a b c d e Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
14. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
15. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
16. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli