cura

Forms

cura f (plural cure, diminutive curétta (“cure”) or curettìna (“cure”))^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin cūra (“care, concern; treatment; administration”).^[2][3][1] DELI classes the word as learned, together with curare and curatore, while DEI and Meyer-Lübke count it among the words Italian shares with the western Romance languages.^[4][5][6] The same Latin noun is French cure, Occitan cura, Catalan cura, Spanish cura and Portuguese cura.^[2][6] Outside Italy it took mostly the Christian sense “cure of souls” and then “parish”, and in Spanish and Portuguese also “parish priest”.^[2][6]

The Latin word was written ⟨coira⟩ and ⟨coera⟩ in inscriptions of the 2nd and 1st centuries BC, which points to an older diphthong.^[7] Nocentini calls a Paelignian verb meaning “they took care” the only certain comparison.^[2] De Vaan derives the noun from Proto-Italic *kʷois-ā- “care, watch”, an o-grade noun of Proto-Indo-European *kʷeys- (“to heed”), a root well represented in Celtic and Iranian.^[7][1] Latin sēcūrus (“free from care”), the source of sicuro, and cūriōsus, the source of curioso, belong to the same family.^[7][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in the bilingual Contrasto of the troubadour Raimbaut de Vaqueiras, about 1190, in its Genoese part.^[9] GRADIT and Nocentini date the word to the second half of the 13th century.^[3][2] DELI's first dated sense, “eager and constant interest in someone or something”, is from Dante, before 1321, who speaks in the Inferno of a man “cui altra cura stringa e morda” (gripped and gnawed by another care).^[4][10]

Semantic evolution

Several senses are already medieval.^[4] “Diligence, zeal” is Dante's, an occupation one is absorbed in appears in Passavanti in 1354, and the medical sense “the remedies used to treat an illness” in the 14th-century translation of Pietro Ispano.^[4] The TLIO also records the sense “anguish, worry” in Old Italian, together with guardianship, custody and administration.^[9] The anguished sense lived on in poetry, and the modern dictionaries mark it as literary.^[11][12][13]

Ariosto (1532) used cura for the person or thing that is the object of one's care.^[4] The church sense, the community of the faithful entrusted to a priest, is dated 1656–1657, in Sforza Pallavicino, and curato “parish priest” 1619, in Paolo Sarpi.^[4] In Roman law and in modern law a cura is the administration of another's affairs, and curatore “guardian, trustee” goes back to Dante.^[4][12] Today a cura di is the usual formula for “edited by” on the title page of a book.^[12][13][14]

Timeline

• c. 1190 – The Genoese part of Raimbaut de Vaqueiras's Contrasto has the first record.^[9]
• Before 1294 – Brunetto Latini uses the reflexive curarsi “to worry about something”.^[4]
• Before 1321 – Dante uses cura for “solicitous interest” and “diligence”.^[4]
• 1354 – Iacopo Passavanti uses it for an absorbing occupation.^[4]
• 14th century – The translation of Pietro Ispano uses it for medical treatment.^[4]
• 1532 – Ariosto uses cura for the object of one's care.^[4]
• 1619 – Curato “parish priest” is recorded in Paolo Sarpi.^[4]
• 1656–1657 – Sforza Pallavicino uses cura for a parish community.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. care, concern, attentive interest in someone or something: Si prende cura del nonno ogni pomeriggio.^[3][15][11]
2. diligence, thoroughness: Ha incollato le foto con molta cura.^[3][15][12]
3. An occupation, a task one is responsible for: sarà mia cura, it will be my job.^[3][12]
4. Regard, caution in handling something, and in the plural, attentions given to someone: le cure degli zii.^[3][15][11]
5. (medicine) treatment, therapy, a course of a medicine: Il medico gli ha prescritto una cura di tre settimane.^[3][11][13]
6. (figurative) A remedy: Per la stanchezza la cura migliore è dormire.^[3]
7. (law) Administration, management, curatorship: la cura di un’eredità.^[3][13][12]
8. (religion) The ministry of a priest in his parish, the cure of souls (cura d’anime).^[11][13][12]
9. (literary) Worry, anxiety, distress.^[11][12][13]
10. a cura di: edited by, by the work of.^[13][12][14]

Word family

• curare
• curato
• curatore
• curatela
• curabile
• curabilità
• curante
• curativo
• incuria
• accurato
• curapipe

Related words

• sicuro
• curioso
• procurare
• Latin cura

Usage notes

Common phrases are avere cura or prendersi cura di “to look after”, con cura “carefully”, essere in cura da un medico “to be under a doctor's care” and casa di cura “nursing home, private clinic”.^[3][11][13] The diminutives curetta and curettina are recorded.^[13][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
3. ^ 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
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
5. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1193
6. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
9. ^ a b c Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
10. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 3, 1064
11. ^ a b c d e f g Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
12. ^ a b c d e f g h i Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
13. ^ a b c d e f g h i Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
14. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
15. ^ a b c Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier