curiosità

Forms

curiosità f^[1]

Etymology

It is learned: it is borrowed from Latin cūriōsitās (“excessive eagerness to know”), from cūriōsus (“careful; inquisitive”) (Italian curioso) with the suffix -tās.^{[2][3][4][5][1]} The Latin adjective cūriōsus is cūra (“care”) with -ōsus.^[5] The older Italian form was Old Italian curiositade, from the Latin accusative cūriōsitātem, later shortened.^[4][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is Bono Giamboni, before 1292, with the sense “the quality of being curious, desire to know”.^[2] The TLIO's oldest senses are negative: a superfluous refinement in dress or food, and a desire for knowledge seen as a vice, even personified, as in a Florentine translation of the Tesoro of the late 13th century.^[7]

Semantic evolution

Old forms include curiositade, curiositadi and curïoscitate.^[7] Galileo (before 1642) used curiosità for a rare or unusual thing, a curio.^[2] Tommaseo still defined it as “care”, especially care to know, and quoted Anton Maria Salvini calling curiosity the daughter of wonder and so the sister of philosophy.^[8]

Modern Italian keeps both sides: the healthy wish to learn, and the urge to pry into other people's affairs.^[9][6][10]

Timeline

• Before 1292 – Bono Giamboni uses curiosità for “desire to know”.^[2]
• Late 13th century – A Florentine Tesoro uses it for a vice.^[7]
• Before 1642 – Galileo uses it for “a rare thing”.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. Curiosity, the wish to know or learn: La curiosità lo spinge a leggere di tutto.^[4][9][6]
2. Inquisitiveness, prying interest in other people's affairs.^[9][6][11]
3. A strange, rare or odd thing; a curio: un negozio pieno di curiosità.^[4][6][12]

Related words

• curioso
• cura
• Latin cūriōsitās

Usage notes

The word is invariable in the plural.^[4][9] Togliersi una curiosità means to satisfy one's curiosity about something.^[4][13]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
7. ^ a b c Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
8. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
9. ^ 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
10. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
11. ^ Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
12. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
13. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli