crudeltà

Forms

crudeltà f (invariable)^[1] Older forms are Old Italian crudelitate, Old Italian crudeltade, Old Italian crudeltate, Old Italian crudelità and Old Italian crudaltà.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin crūdēlitās (“cruelty”), a noun formed from crūdēlis (“cruel”).^{[5][6][7][3][1]} The GDLI calls it a learned word;^[4] Sabatini–Coletti explains the modern form by the loss of the pretonic vowel and of the final syllable, a path that Old Italian crudelitate shows.^[8][2]

The same Latin noun is French cruauté, Old Occitan cruzeldat, Spanish crueldad and Portuguese crueldade.^[9][10]

Latin crūdēlis comes from crūdus (“raw, bloody; rough, cruel”), the source of Italian crudo.^[11][12] De Vaan relates crūdus to cruor (“blood”) and reconstructs Proto-Indo-European *kreuh₂- “raw (flesh)”, though the formation of the adjective is unclear.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in the Judaeo-Italian Elegy of the early 13th century, from central Italy, where the word means a cruel act.^[2][12] The sense “the quality of being cruel” is first in Brunetto Latini, before 1294.^[12][6]

Semantic evolution

Brunetto Latini defined it in his Tesoro as nothing other than harshness in punishing: the cruel man is one who keeps no measure when he condemns.^[13] In the love lyric of the 13th and 14th centuries crudeltà became the coldness of the beloved lady,^[2][6] and in the preface to the Decameron Boccaccio says that his suffering came not from the cruelty of the beloved lady but from the fire in his own mind.^[13] Dante uses it of the city that kept him in exile, la crudeltà che fuor mi serra del bello ovile (“the cruelty that bars me from the fair sheepfold”).^[4][13]

Crudeltà mentale names cruelty by humiliation rather than physical violence, especially between spouses, as a ground for divorce in many American states.^[14][6] Senza crudeltà renders English cruelty-free for products not tested on animals.^[7]

Timeline

• Early 13th century – The Judaeo-Italian Elegy uses the word for a cruel act.^[2][12]
• c. 1261 – The date Zingarelli gives for the first record.^[3]
• Before 1294 – Brunetto Latini uses it for the quality of being cruel.^[12][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. cruelty: pitiless hardness of heart, indifference to others' suffering or pleasure in causing it; also of animals.^[6][7][3]
2. Of things: harshness, relentlessness: la crudeltà della sorte.^[6][7][15]
3. A cruel act: Lasciarlo solo sarebbe una crudeltà.^[6][7][8]
4. (literary) Indifference to a lover's pleas.^[6][2]
5. (obsolete) harshness of the climate.^[3][16]

Related words

• crudele
• crudo
• Latin crūdēlitās

Usage notes

Crudeltà mentale is mental cruelty.^[6][7]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
4. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
5. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ 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
8. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
11. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
12. ^ 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
13. ^ a b c Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
14. ^ Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
15. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
16. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli