creatura

Forms

creatura f (plural creature, diminutive creaturina, augmentative creaturóna)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin creātūra (“creation; creature”), a derivative of Latin creō (“to create, bring forth”).^[2][3][4][1] Zingarelli and Battaglia call it a learned word, and Prati says it came in through the written language.^[5][6][7] Battaglia gives the Church Latin meaning as “creation” first and “creature” after it.^[6] The Latin noun was made from the feminine of the future participle of the verb.^[1]

The sense “person protected by a patron and bound to him”, Nocentini and Devoto–Oli think, was probably modelled on French créature.^[3][8] The same Latin word is Spanish criatura and Portuguese criatura, and the Dalmatian of Veglia had kratoire;^[9] Meyer-Lübke notes that across much of the Romance area it came to mean “child”.^[9]

The Latin verb first meant “to make grow”, as when Cato says that dung makes the grass grow, and it is related to crēscō (“to grow”).^[10][1] Wiktionary traces it to the root Proto-Indo-European *ḱer- (“to grow”).^[1]

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 any being made by God, living or not.^[11] DELI dates this sense from Francis of Assisi about 1224, whose Cantico praises the Lord cum tucte le tue creature, “with all your creatures”.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

Before 1250 Giacomo da Lentini already used the word for a child, and for a human being who stirs pity or admiration.^[2] The TLIO also records it for a beloved woman or a dear friend, and for a newborn child or a child still in the womb.^[11] Dante calls the Virgin umile e alta più che creatura, “humbler and higher than any creature”.^[8][12]

Giovanni Villani, before 1348, used creatura for a person protected by an influential figure.^[2][11] French créature took this sense in the 16th century, recorded from 1547, and DIFIT counts it as a semantic calque of the Italian word, though Nocentini and Devoto–Oli take the opposite view.^[13][3][8] Prati also records the old sense “pupil”, someone brought up under another's discipline, in Villani and Berni.^[7][4]

Timeline

• Late 12th century – The Venetian Proverbia que dicuntur have the first record.^[11]
• c. 1224 – Francis of Assisi speaks of all God's creature in his Cantico.^[2][5]
• Before 1250 – Giacomo da Lentini uses the word for a child.^[2]
• Before 1348 – Giovanni Villani uses it for a protégé.^[2]
• 1547 – French créature “protégé” is recorded.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. Any being or thing that has been created, especially by God: Gli uccelli sono creature di Dio.^[4][8][5]
2. A child, especially a small one, or one's own child: È nata una creatura sana.^[4][14][1]
3. A person, in expressions of pity or admiration: Povera creatura!^[4][8][15]
4. (pejorative) A protégé, someone who owes their position to a powerful patron: Quel direttore è una creatura del sindaco.^[4][8][15]
5. A product of the mind, a creation or invention: Quel personaggio è la sua creatura più riuscita.^[8][16]

Word family

• creaturale
• creaturina
• creaturella

Related words

• creabile
• creare
• crearsi
• creativamente
• creatività
• creativo
• creato
• creatore
• creatrice
• creazione
• Latin creātūra
• French créature

Usage notes

An old form criatura is recorded in Old Italian and in the older dictionaries.^[5][6][12] The phrase prime creature means the angels.^[4][5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e f g De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ a b c d e f Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
6. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
7. ^ a b Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 344
8. ^ 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
9. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
12. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
13. ^ a b Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
14. ^ Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
15. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
16. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli