Etymologically
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creare

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Pronunciation

Forms

creare (first-person singular present crèo, first-person singular past historic creài, past participle creàto, auxiliary avére)[1] The old form is criare.[2][3][4][5]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin creō (“to beget, produce; to elect”), a learned word according to DELI.[6][7][8] The old form Old Italian criare has a more popular look, and Wiktionary suggests that the modern verb may be a Latinized form of it.[1][5]

The Latin verb lives on in the other Romance languages: Old French crier (modern French créer), and Occitan criar, Catalan criar, Spanish criar and Portuguese criar in the sense “to raise, bring up”.[9][10] From the Iberian verb come Spanish criado (“servant”), literally “one brought up in the house”, and Portuguese crioulo, which passed through Spanish criollo to French créole.[10]

The Latin verb is from the same root as crēscō (“to grow”) and the goddess Cerēs, and Nocentini compares Lithuanian šerti (“to feed”).[6][9][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is the Libro of Uguccione da Lodi, a Cremonese text of the early 13th century.[12] In DELI the earliest dated sense is “to arouse (a feeling)”, in Pannuccio dal Bagno before 1276, and the sense “to produce from nothing, of God” follows in Brunetto Latini before 1294.[6][9][7]

Semantic evolution

Brunetto Latini writes that man “creato fu san faglia / la più nobile cosa” (“was created, without fail, the noblest thing”).[13] The verb soon widened to “to give rise to” (Giovanni Villani, before 1348) and “to elect, appoint”, as in creating someone king (Boccaccio, 1353).[6] In the 16th century creare and criare also meant “to bring up, educate”, a sense taken from Spanish criar.[5][14]

Among the derivatives, creatura “creature” is in Saint Francis about 1224 and creazione in Dante (1304–1308).[6] The old adjective creativo gained new life under the influence of English creative, and in 1970 the noun creativo “advertising copywriter” is recorded;[6][9] creazione in the sense of a fashion model (1905) is probably a calque of French création.[6][9]

Timeline

  • Early 13th century – Uguccione da Lodi uses the verb.[12]
  • About 1224 – Saint Francis uses creatura.[6]
  • Before 1276 – Pannuccio dal Bagno uses creare “to arouse”.[6]
  • Before 1294 – Brunetto Latini uses it of God's creation.[6]
  • 1353 – Boccaccio uses it for appointing to an office.[6]
  • 1905 – Creazione is recorded for a fashion design.[6]
  • 1970 – Creativo is recorded for an advertising copywriter.[6]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To create from nothing, especially of God: Secondo la Bibbia, Dio creò il mondo in sei giorni.[7][2][4][1]
  2. To found, set up; to invent or design something new: Hanno creato una piccola casa editrice.[7][2][3]
  3. To cause or give rise to: Il ritardo ha creato molti problemi.[7][2][3][1]
  4. To appoint someone to a rank: to make someone a cardinal.[7][2][4][1]
  5. (rare) To procreate.[7][4]
  6. (archaic) To bring up, educate.[7][2][8]
  7. Crearsi: to arise, form; to make or imagine for oneself: Si è creata una certa tensione.[2][4][8]

Word family

  • creabile
  • creativo
  • creato
  • creatore
  • creatura
  • creazione
  • creatività
  • concreare
  • ricreare

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
  3. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  4. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  5. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1148
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
  7. ^ 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
  8. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
  9. ^ a b c d e Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  10. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  11. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
  12. ^ a b Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
  13. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 3, 936
  14. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 344