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Etymology and origin of the Italian word data

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
before 1556, Giovanni Della Casa
Borrowed from
Latin data
Ultimate origin
Latin dō

Pronunciation

Forms

data f (plural date)[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Medieval Latin data, the feminine past participle of Latin dō (“to give”), from the formula “littera data” or “epistola data”, “letter given (on this day)”, with which a letter recorded the day it was handed to the carrier.[2][3][4][5][1] The noun is first found in the acts of the Council of Lyon of 583, and the verb “datare” in Merovingian Latin of 663.[6]

It is a learned word in nearly every Romance language: Romansh data (from 1744), French date (from 1281, and, from it Romanian dată), Catalan data (1347), Spanish data (from 1601) and Portuguese data.[6][3] English date comes from the same formula, while German Datum follows the Latin neuter.[7] The derivatives datare, databile and datazione are French dater, “datable” and “datation”.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI and GRADIT give Giovanni Della Casa, before 1556, as the first record, for the indication of the time and place in which a letter was written or a document drawn up.[2][4] The LEI has an earlier northern Italian use in Boiardo (1460–1494) for the date of an election to an office.[6]

Semantic evolution

The sense “time when something happened” is recorded in Saverio Bettinelli in 1775.[2] Purists objected: in 1848 Ugolini held that data should only mean the time a letter was written, and condemned phrases such as di lunga data “of long standing”.[2] The extended sense won, and di vecchia data and di fresca data (“old”, “recent”) are now common.[4][8]

In journalism data is also a concert or show on a tour, a calque of English date “appointment”.[9][8] The LEI records several modern loans from English in the same family, such as datare in the sense “to become dated”.[6]

Timeline

  • 583 – Latin data appears in the acts of the Council of Lyon.[6]
  • 1281 – French date is recorded.[6]
  • 1460–1494 – Boiardo uses data for the date of an election.[6]
  • Before 1556 – Giovanni Della Casa uses data.[2][4]
  • 1640 – Datare is recorded in Oudin's dictionary.[2]
  • 1775 – Saverio Bettinelli uses it for the time of an event.[2]
  • 1917 – Benedetto Croce uses datazione.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A date: the day, month and year in which something happens, happened or will happen: Non abbiamo ancora fissato la data della partenza.[4][9][5]
  2. The date written on a letter, a document or a book: Ricordati di scrivere la data in alto a destra.[4][9][10]
  3. Time in general: La cena è rinviata a data da destinarsi.[4][5][10]
  4. (journalism) A single concert or show of a tour: Il gruppo farà venti date in Italia.[9][8][10]

Word family

  • datare
  • databile
  • datazione
  • datario
  • retrodatare
  • antidata

Usage notes

Di lunga data means “of long standing”, a far data da “with effect from”, and data di scadenza is an expiry or best-before date.[4][9][8] A separate data, formed from dare and recorded in 1688, means the dealing of cards in a game, and in older use the granting of a church benefice or a tax.[4][7][8] The English plural data is used in computing, as in big data, since 1985.[9][5]

References

  1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
  3. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  5. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 19, 305
  7. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1214
  8. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  9. ^ 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
  10. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Data.” Etymologically, 21 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/it/data. Accessed 23 Oct. 2026.

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