Etymologically
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esperto

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Pronunciation

  • /esˈpɛr.to/[1]

Forms

esperto (feminine esperta, masculine plural esperti, feminine plural esperte, superlative espertissimo)[1] Old forms include Old Italian experto, Old Italian espierto, Old Italian isperto and Old Italian sperto.[2][3] Devoto–Oli and Gabrielli still list sperto as archaic and literary.[4][5]

Etymology

It is a learned borrowing, borrowed from Latin expertus (“experienced; tested”), the past participle of experior (“to try, test, experience”).[6][7][2][1] As a noun, “an expert”, it is a calque of French expert, according to Devoto–Oli and Treccani.[4][8][9]

The Latin word also survived in popular speech: DEI and REW cite Emilian spèrt (“witty, cheerful”) in Emilia and around Piacenza, and Old French, Occitan and Catalan espert (“skilful, quick”).[9][10] Wiktionary connects the root of the Latin verb with perītus (“experienced”) and perīculum (“trial, danger”).[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in the Storie de Troia e de Roma, a Roman text of 1252–1258, and DELI's in Iacopone da Todi, who died in 1306.[2][6][7] The sense is skilled through experience in some activity: Iacopone writes tengote bene esperto, si me fieri a scoperto, “I'll call you truly skilled if you hit me where I'm unguarded”.[2][3]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian the word also meant informed of a fact, made wise by experience, or known through experience.[2] Dante's souls in the Purgatorio say they are not sperti of the place, but pilgrims like the travellers who ask them the way.[11] A Tuscan proverb says that no ploughman is so esperto that he never ploughs a crooked furrow.[11]

The noun, a person with special knowledge in a field, is recorded from Carlo Cattaneo in 1860.[6][12] It later took legal and technical uses: an expert witness called by a court, and in computing sistema esperto, an expert system.[5][13][8]

Timeline

  • 1252–1258 – The Storie de Troia e de Roma use the adjective.[2]
  • Before 1306 – Iacopone da Todi uses esperto.[6][7]
  • 1300–1313 – Dante uses the form sperti in the Purgatorio.[11]
  • 1860 – Carlo Cattaneo uses esperto as a noun, “specialist”.[6][12]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. experienced, skilled in a particular field (with di or in): È un'esperta di storia medievale.[14][4][12]
  2. Capable, able: un'alpinista esperta.[14][4][13]
  3. Who knows the world, worldly-wise: Mio nonno era un uomo esperto del mondo..[14][12][5]
  4. Of things, showing experience: Lo ha esaminato con occhio esperto.[14][4][8]
  5. (computing) Sistema esperto: an expert system.[13][8]

Noun

  1. An expert, a specialist: Abbiamo chiesto il parere di un esperto di vini.[14][4][8]
  2. (law) A person called by the judge or the parties to give a technical opinion.[5]

Word family

  • inesperto
  • espertamente

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
  3. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 5, 392
  4. ^ a b c d e f Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
  5. ^ a b c d Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
  6. ^ 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
  7. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  8. ^ a b c d e Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
  9. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1542
  10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  11. ^ a b c Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
  12. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  13. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  14. ^ a b c d e De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET