Etymologically
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dollaro

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 21 October 2026 at 19:31. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Pronunciation

  • /ˈdɔl.la.ro/[1]

Forms

dollaro m (plural dollari)[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from English dollar, first recorded in Italian in 1783.[2][3][4][1] The English word, recorded from 1560, is an adaptation of Low German daler, the same coin name as German Taler.[2][5][6] The German name is short for Joachimsthaler, a coin of Joachimsthal in Bohemia, whose silver was used for the first such coins.[7][5]

Italian took the German word directly as well, as tallero.[2][3][8] GRADIT records the first Italian form as ⟨dolars⟩, and the American sense from 1785.[4] French had taken the English word a few years earlier, in 1778.[5][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is in the newspaper Notizie del mondo in 1783, for the monetary unit of the United States and other countries.[2][4]

Semantic evolution

Before the English word arrived, Giovanni Battista Ramusio had written dolar for the thaler at the end of the 16th century.[5] The modern word spread with accounts of the new American republic: Carlo Botta's history of the American war uses it, and Zaccaria still listed it as a neologism in 1901.[8][6] Tommaseo defined it as a gold coin of the United States.[9]

In the 19th century the word was extended to the currencies of other countries, and GDLI quotes Melchiorre Gioia on rewards in dollars offered by Venezuela in 1818.[6] In colloquial use the plural can mean money in general,[10][4] and in nuclear physics the dollar is a unit of a reactor's reactivity.[4][11]

Timeline

  • Late 16th century – Ramusio writes dolar for the thaler.[5]
  • 1778 – French takes the English word.[5][6]
  • 1783 – Dollaro first appears in Italian, in Notizie del mondo.[2][4]
  • 1785 – The American sense is recorded.[4]
  • 1792 – The dollar becomes the currency of the United States.[5]
  • 1901 – Zaccaria lists the word as a neologism.[8]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The dollar, the monetary unit of the United States, divided into a hundred cents; also the unit of Canada, Australia and other countries.[4][10][11]
  2. (colloquial, chiefly plural) money: Con quell'affare ha fatto parecchi dollari.[10][4]
  3. (physics) A unit of the reactivity of a nuclear reactor.[4][11]

Word family

  • dollarizzare
  • superdollaro
  • dollarone

Usage notes

The symbol is $.[12] The augmentative dollarone is used colloquially.[12] Treccani records area del dollaro, the countries whose international trade is settled in dollars.[11]

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. ^ 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 j De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  5. ^ a b c d e f g Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1376
  6. ^ a b c d e Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
  7. ^ Wikizionario (Italian Wiktionary), it.wiktionary.org
  8. ^ a b c Zaccaria, Enrico (1901), L'elemento germanico nella lingua italiana: lessico con appendice e prospetto cronologico, Bologna: Treves
  9. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
  10. ^ 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
  11. ^ a b c d Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
  12. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli