Etymologically
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coraggio

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Pronunciation

  • /koˈrad.d͡ʒo/[1]

Forms

coraggio m (plural coraggi)[1] Older forms include Old Italian coragio, Old Italian corajo, Old Italian coraço and Old Italian corazo.[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old Occitan coratge, properly “heart”, from a Vulgar Latin *corāticum, derived from Latin cor (“heart”).[4][5][6][7] Wiktionary also names Old French corage, and Prati derives the word from French.[1][3] Devoto–Oli and Devoto make the Vulgar Latin noun a derivative of Late Latin corātum, a popular form of the Latin word for the heart.[8][9] DEI explains the sense by the ancient belief that the heart was the seat of the feelings, of courage and of the intellect.[10]

Meyer-Lübke traces French courage, Spanish coraje and Portuguese coragem to the same French and Occitan word.[11][12] The Italian word for the heart itself is the inherited cuore.[5][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is the Venetian Proverbia que dicuntur, of the last quarter of the 12th century, and its first sense is the heart as the seat of feelings and will.[2] DELI's first date for “strength of mind to face difficulties and dangers” is Bonagiunta, before 1257: “Dev'omo a la fortuna con coraggio / istar più forte quando incontra gli ène” (one must stand firmer with courage against fortune when it goes against one).[4][13]

Semantic evolution

The sense “heart, mind, thought” lived on in poetry: Petrarch addresses his “stanco mio coraggio” (my weary heart).[14][2] The forms coragio and corajo are in Giacomo da Lentini and Frederick II, and the adjective coraggioso is in Giacomo da Lentini before 1250.[3][4] The verbs incoraggiare and scoraggiare are also 13th-century.[5]

Tommaseo defined coraggio civile, courage shown in facing the anger of the powerful for the love of one's country and of justice.[14] The ironic sense “impudence, nerve” is recorded in his dictionary in 1865, and the exhortation coraggio! in Metastasio before 1782.[4][15] English has used coraggio as an interjection since 1601, according to the OED perhaps through Spanish.[15]

Timeline

  • 12th century (last quarter) – The Proverbia que dicuntur has the first record.[2]
  • Before 1250 – Giacomo da Lentini uses coraggioso.[4]
  • Before 1257 – Bonagiunta uses coraggio for strength of mind.[4]
  • 1601 – English coraggio is recorded as an interjection.[15]
  • Before 1782 – Metastasio uses coraggio! as an exhortation.[4]
  • 1865 – Tommaseo–Bellini records the sense “impudence”.[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. courage, the strength of mind to face danger, difficulty or pain: Ci vuole coraggio per dire di no al proprio capo.[6][8][7][16]
  2. Impudence, nerve: Ha avuto il coraggio di chiedermi altri soldi.[6][7][16]
  3. (archaic) Heart, mind, thought.[6][16][17]

Interjection

  1. Come on!, cheer up!: Coraggio, manca solo un chilometro![6][8][1]

Word family

  • coraggioso
  • incoraggiare
  • incoraggiamento
  • incoraggiante
  • scoraggiare
  • scoraggiamento
  • scoraggiante

Usage notes

Common phrases are fare coraggio a qualcuno (to encourage someone), farsi coraggio (to pluck up courage), perdersi di coraggio (to lose heart) and prendere il coraggio a due mani (to make up one's mind after long hesitation).[6][8][16]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
  3. ^ a b c Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 328
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
  5. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  6. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  7. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  8. ^ 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
  9. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
  10. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1101
  11. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  12. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
  13. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 3, 759
  14. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
  15. ^ a b c Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
  16. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  17. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana