egualità

Forms

egualità f (invariable)^[1] Old forms include Old Italian egualtade, equalitade, igualità, ogualitade and ugualtade.^[2] The archaic form is egualitade.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin aequālitās (“equality”), with the first syllable of eguale.^[5][1][3] The LEI lists it among the inherited outcomes of the Latin word, beside Old French ivelté, Spanish igualdad and Portuguese igualdade, and treats the Latinizing equalità as a learned form.^[6] The Latin noun is formed aequālis (“equal”) with the suffix -tās.^[7][1]

egualitario and egualitarismo are recent loans from French égalitaire (1845) and égalitarisme (1859), not Italian derivatives.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the Pisan translation of the treatises of Albertano da Brescia (1287–1288), and the TLIO's first sense is the quality of things that have the same measure, value or rank: parity, equivalence.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian already used the word for uniformity, for steadiness of mind, for balance and harmony, and for what is just;^[2] in egualità meant “in the same way”.^[2] Cavalca (before 1342) quoted Augustine's definition of virtue as an egualità di mente, an evenness of mind that agrees with reason.^[8][6]

From the 16th century it named civil equality, the equal rights and duties of all citizens (Nardi, before 1563), the uniform thickness of gold (Cellini) and, in Galileo (1638), uniform motion.^[6] The geometric sense dates from 1749.^[6] Today the word is literary, and the dictionaries refer the reader to ugualità.^[9][4][1]

Timeline

• 1287–1288 – The Pisan translation of Albertano's treatises has the first record.^[2]
• Before 1342 – Cavalca writes of egualità di mente.^[6]
• Before 1563 – Nardi uses it for civil equality.^[6]
• 1638 – Galileo uses it for uniform motion.^[6]
• 1749 – V. Riccati uses it for geometric equality.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. (literary) equality: the state of being equal, parity of condition; the same as ugualità.^[9][4][3][1]

Related words

• eguale
• ugualità
• uguaglianza
• equalità
• egualitario
• Latin aequālitās

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ a b c Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
4. ^ 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
5. ^ Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 1, 1027
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
9. ^ a b De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET