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documento

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Pronunciation

  • /do.kuˈmen.to/[1]

Forms

documento m (plural documenti)[1] Old forms include Old Italian dochumento and Old Italian documente.[2]

Etymology

It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin documentum (“lesson, example; proof”), from doceō (“to teach”) with the suffix -mentum: properly “that which serves to teach”.[3][4][5][1][6] De Vaan traces the Latin verb to Proto-Indo-European *doḱ-éye- (“to make someone accept something”), related to Ancient Greek δοκεῖ (dokeî, “it seems”).[7] The same word is French document, from the 12th century, and Spanish documento.[8][4]

Some derivatives came in through French, among them documentario and documentazione.[3] The computing sense “file” is a calque of English file.[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is the Neapolitan Regimen Sanitatis of the 13th century, in the sense of teaching, the passing on of practical or moral knowledge.[2][10] DELI's first record, Matteo Villani before 1363, already has the legal sense, a deed that serves as proof.[3][11]

Semantic evolution

For a long time the older sense “teaching, precept” lived beside the legal one: Francesco da Barberino called his book of precepts the Documenti d'Amore, Vasari spoke of pupils who follow the documenti of their masters, and Guicciardini hoped his readers would draw “many salutary lessons” (salutiferi documenti) from history.[12][6] Girolamo Savonarola used it before 1498 for testimony or proof.[3]

Historians such as Paolo Sarpi and Lodovico Muratori made it the word for the written sources of history.[11] In modern bureaucratic use i documenti are a person's identity papers, and in computing a documento is a file.[5][13][6] The derivative documentario became the word for a documentary film in the 1930s.[3]

Timeline

  • 13th century – The Neapolitan Regimen Sanitatis uses documento for teaching.[2]
  • Before 1363 – Matteo Villani uses it for a legal deed.[3]
  • Before 1498 – Savonarola uses it for testimony or proof.[3]
  • 1905 – Documentazione is recorded.[3][4]
  • 1930 – Film documentario is recorded, and documentario alone as a noun from 1939.[3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A document, a writing that proves or certifies a fact, especially in law or administration: Ho firmato tutti i documenti per il mutuo.[5][13][10]
  2. (in the plural) Identity papers: Il poliziotto chiese i documenti all'autista.[5][13][6]
  3. A piece of historical evidence; a testimony to something.[5][6][14]
  4. Any material that can be used for study or research.[5][13][10]
  5. (computing) A file created by a program.[13][6][9]
  6. (obsolete) Teaching, instruction.[5][6][9]

Word family

  • documentabile
  • documentale
  • documentare
  • documentario
  • documentarista
  • documentato
  • documentatore
  • documentazione

References

  1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
  3. ^ 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
  4. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  5. ^ a b c d e f g De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  8. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1370
  9. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
  10. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  11. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 4, 895
  12. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
  13. ^ 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
  14. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli