debito

Forms

debito m (plural debiti); adjective debito (feminine debita, masculine plural debiti, feminine plural debite)^[1] Old Italian also had the popular forms Old Italian devito and Old Italian deveto, especially in Siena and Perugia.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin dēbitum (“what is owed, debt”), the noun use of the neuter of dēbitus (“owed”), the past participle of dēbeō (“to owe”); the adjective is the participle itself.^[4][5][6][1] DELI and GDLI call both learned, and the LEI notes that the adjective exists in Italo-Romance only in learned form.^[4][7][8]

The Latin noun also lived on in popular forms: Romansh deivet, Old French det, Catalan deute and Sardinian déppidu, and in central Italy Old Sienese devito.^[3][9] The plural dēbita gave Old Italian detta (“principal of a debt”), French dette, Spanish deuda and Portuguese dívida.^[9][10] The learned word is also French débit and Spanish débito.^[5][11]

Latin dēbeō is contracted from a compound of dē- (“away from”) and habeō (“to have, to hold”), “to hold something away from someone, to withhold”.^[12]

The Italian phrase for the national debt is a calque of French dette publique, and the one for a floating debt renders dette flottante.^[4][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is a document from Montieri of 1219, for what is owed materially or morally.^[2] DELI dates the adjective “due, required by obligation or circumstance” to Guittone d'Arezzo (before 1294), with a Venetian record of 1282, and the noun “money owed” to a Volterra document of before 1322.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The sense “moral duty” is in Giordano da Pisa (1303–1306), and Dante uses the noun for a moral obligation.^[4][11] The religious debiti are the sins for which man owes God, as in the Lord's Prayer: rimetti a noi i nostri debiti, “forgive us our debts”.^[6] Old Italian rendere or rimettere il debito meant to forgive a wrong received.^[2] Debitore “debtor” is older than the noun, in Mazzeo di Ricco early in the 13th century.^[4]

The word passed into the German of merchants as Debit (1552).^[13] Modern uses include the economist's debito pubblico and debito estero, the physiologist's debito d'ossigeno, and in the upper secondary school a deficit in a subject that the pupil must make up.^[6][14][15]

Timeline

• 1219 – Debito appears in a document from Montieri.^[2]
• Early 13th century – Mazzeo di Ricco uses debitore.^[4]
• 1282 – The adjective is recorded in Venetian.^[4]
• Before 1294 – Guittone d'Arezzo uses the adjective.^[4]
• 1303–1306 – Giordano da Pisa uses the noun for “moral duty”.^[4]
• Before 1322 – A Volterra document uses it for “money owed”.^[4]
• 1552 – German Debit is recorded.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. A debt, money or another thing that one must pay back: Ha finalmente estinto il debito con la banca.^[6][14][15]
2. (law, accounting) The obligation of a debtor towards a creditor; the opposite of credito; a debit.^[15][6]
3. A duty, moral obligation: Sento un debito di riconoscenza verso i miei insegnanti.^[6][14]
4. (school) A deficit in a subject that a pupil must make up.^[6]

Adjective

1. Due, proper, required by duty or circumstance: Ha preso le debite precauzioni. A tempo debito, at the proper time.^[6][15][14]

Word family

• debitore
• debitamente
• indebitarsi
• indebitamento
• sdebitarsi
• addebitare
• indebito

Related words

• dovere
• credito
• Latin debitum
• French dette

Usage notes

The proverb ogni promessa è debito means that a promise must be kept.^[14] The stress is on the first syllable, débito, with a closed or open e.^[15][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ a b Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 1, 446
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
5. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d e f g h De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
8. ^ Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 1, 460
9. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 365
11. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1219
12. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
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. ^ a b c d e Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
15. ^ a b c d e Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier