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Etymology and origin of the Italian word empire

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
1175–1200 Proverbia que dicuntur, Venetian More words from the 12th century
Inherited from
Latin *implio
Ultimate origin
Latin pleō
Derivations

Pronunciation

Forms

empire (first-person singular present émpio, first-person singular past historic empìi or (less common) empiéi, past participle empìto or (less common) empiùto, auxiliary avére)[1] It also has the infinitive émpiere, and Old Italian had enpire, impire and émpere.[2][1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *implīre, the Vulgar Latin form of classical implēre (“to fill up”) with a change of conjugation.[3][1][4][5] The Latin verb is in- with pleō (“to fill”), which is known only from the antiquarians, through Festus.[6][7] In the same way Italian strengthened the verb with ri- to make the commoner riempire, as French did with remplir beside the simple verb.[6]

The verb lives on in all the Romance languages: French emplir, Occitan emplir, Catalan umplir, Portuguese encher, Sardinian umpire and Romanian umple.[6][8] The compound adimplēre survives in southern dialects, as Neapolitan dinchiere “to fill up”.[8]

The root Proto-Indo-European *pleh₁- (“to fill”) is also behind plēnus (“full”) (Italian pieno) and plūs (“more”) (Italian più).[6][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in the Venetian Proverbia que dicuntur, from the last quarter of the 12th century.[9] DELI's first is in Malispini's chronicle, in the 13th century, where a new city is to be filled half with people from Fiesole and half with Romans.[3][2]

Semantic evolution

The Old Italian verb had a wide range: to fill a container or a place, to eat one's fill, to crowd a place with people, to soak something, and, figuratively, to fill the soul or mind with a feeling.[9] Dante says of the she-wolf that mai non empie la bramosa voglia (“she never fills her greedy craving”), and the sense “to satisfy, to sate” stayed in literary use.[10][4][11] The old senses “to fulfil, to accomplish” and, intransitively, “to come true” are now obsolete.[5][12] Tasso used it for making good a lack: e di mia lontananza empi il difetto.[11] Tommaseo records it for the moon growing full.[13]

In modern Italian empire is uncommon, and riempire is used in most of its senses.[7][4][1]

Timeline

  • 1175–1200 – The Venetian Proverbia que dicuntur has the verb.[9]
  • 13th century – Empire appears in Malispini.[3]
  • 1268 – Zingarelli's date for the first record.[5]
  • Before 1320 – The derivative riempimento is first recorded.[6]
  • 18th century – Riempitivo is first recorded.[6]

Meanings

Verb

  1. (uncommon) To fill: Empì la brocca d'acqua fresca.[4][11][1]
  2. (figurative) To fill, pervade or cram: La notizia ci empì di speranza.[11][7][1]
  3. (archaic, literary) To satisfy, to sate.[4][10][1]
  4. (archaic) To fulfil, to accomplish.[4][10][5]
  5. (reflexive, empirsi) To stuff oneself; to become full.[5][10][14]

Word family

  • riempire
  • riempimento
  • riempitivo
  • empimento
  • empitore
  • empitura
  • sovrempire

Usage notes

The present is émpio, émpi, émpie, the past historic empìi or less often empiéi, and the past participle empìto or empiùto.[5][10][1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
  3. ^ a b c 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 d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  5. ^ a b c d e f Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  6. ^ a b c d e f Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  7. ^ a b c Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
  8. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1468
  9. ^ a b c Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
  10. ^ a b c d e Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
  11. ^ a b c d Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
  12. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
  13. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
  14. ^ Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Empire.” Etymologically, 10 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/it/empire. Accessed 10 Nov. 2026.

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