esercito

Forms

esercito m (plural eserciti)^[1] Old forms include Old Italian essercito, Old Italian exercito, Old Italian ezercito and Old Italian 'sercito.^[2][3] The ⟨ss⟩ of essercito is the Old Tuscan rendering of Latin ⟨x⟩.^[4]

Etymology

It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin exercitus.^[5][6][7][1] The Latin noun first meant “exercise”, then “military exercise”, and so “the soldiers gathered for the exercise or review”, and at last an army.^[5][7][8] Isidore of Seville already explained it so: “Exercitus multitudo ex uno genere, ab exercitatione belli vocata” (an army is a multitude of one kind, named from the exercise of war).^[8] It is formed from exerceō (“to keep busy, exercise, train”), the source of esercire, with the suffix of action nouns -tus.^[5][6][9][1] The same Latin word is Spanish ejército and Portuguese exército.^[6][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is the Roman Miracole de Roma, of the mid-13th century;^[2][5][7] DELI's first date is Bono Giamboni, before 1292, for “the men of a state trained, organised and equipped to fight”.^[2][5][7] Giamboni's version of Vegetius explains the new word: “L'oste che di pedoni e cavalieri è mescolata per lettera si chiama esercito” (the host that is mixed of foot and horse is called, in Latin, esercito).^[8][11]

Semantic evolution

In the 13th century the usual word for an army was oste.^[5][8] Bruno Migliorini, after Ferdinando Maggini, showed that esercito came into use around 1300, written exercito and pronounced essercito, at first more for “a multitude” than for an army: three of the four examples in the Divina Commedia mean “crowd, multitude”.^[5] Only in the course of the 14th century, first in prose and then in verse, did the word spread in its present sense.^[5] The TLIO records religious senses too: the Christian people, and the hosts of angels.^[2]

Modern usage sets the army, the land forces, against the navy and the air force.^[3][4][12] Religious language has the Esercito della Salvezza, the Salvation Army, and the figurative sense “great number” is alive, as in un esercito di creditori.^[3][13][14]

Timeline

• Mid-13th century – The Miracole de Roma has the first record.^[2]
• Before 1292 – Bono Giamboni uses the word for an army.^[5]
• Before 1321 – Dante uses it mostly for a multitude of people.^[5]
• 14th century – The military sense spreads, first in prose and then in poetry.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. An army, a body of troops organised in ranks under one command: L'esercito di Napoleone attraversò le Alpi.^[7][3][4]
2. The armed forces of a state.^[7][3][13]
3. The land forces, as distinct from the navy and the air force: Mio cugino si è arruolato nell'esercito.^[7][3][4]
4. (religion) The body of Christians, the Church militant, Esercito della Salvezza, the Salvation Army.^[3][4][13]
5. (figurative) A great number of people, animals or things: Un esercito di turisti ha invaso la piazza.^[7][3][4]

Word family

• esercitale

Related words

• esercitare
• esercizio
• esercire
• Latin exercitus

Usage notes

Esercito is stressed on the second syllable, esèrcito, with a voiced ⟨s⟩.^[3][15] GRADIT and the GDLI also have esercito as the past participle of esercire “to run (a business)”;^[7][8] Camillo Sbarbaro writes of a shop of devotional objects “esercito dalla suora” (run by the nun).^[7][8]

References

1. ^ a b c d 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 d e f g h i Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e f Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
5. ^ 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
6. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ 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
8. ^ a b c d e f Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
11. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
12. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
13. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
14. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
15. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 409