fabbrica

Forms

fabbrica f (plural fabbriche)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin fabrica (“craft; working; workshop”), derived from faber (“craftsman, smith”).^[2][3][4][1] DEI calls it a learned word; the doubled /bb/ is explained by Devoto as the influence of fabbro, and by Sabatini as the Tuscan treatment of the cluster /br/.^[5][6][7] The workshop sense was alive in the Medieval Latin of Italian documents from the 5th century on.^[5]

The popular outcome of the Latin word is Gallo-Romance and Ibero-Romance, with the sense “smithy”: French forge, Occitan farga, Catalan farga, Spanish fragua and Portuguese frágua.^[3][8] Italian borrowed the French word as forgia, its doublet.^[3][1]

According to de Vaan, the Latin noun implies an older adjective Latin *fabricus used with a feminine noun, perhaps ars (“art, craft”).^[9][1] Leumann thought it was formed on a Greek model.^[9] faber itself may go back to Proto-Indo-European *dʰHbʰ-ro- (“craftsman”), but the comparison rests mainly on Armenian դարբին (darbin, “smith”).^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is Restoro d'Arezzo, in 1282, and Zingarelli gives the same date.^[10][11] DELI's earliest dated sense is “workshop” (before 1342, Domenico Cavalca), followed by “the work of building something” and “a building” in Giovanni Villani, before 1348.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian the word covered the act of building and its result, the working of iron, the mind's creation, God's creation of the world, and the body in charge of building and maintaining a great church, as in la fabbrica del Duomo, which Villani uses of the works of San Giovanni in Florence.^[10][12] The last sense survives in la fabbrica di San Pietro, also said of any job that never ends.^[13][11]

The modern sense “industrial plant” is dated before 1793 by Nocentini and Devoto–Oli.^[3][13] In the dialects of central Italy the word also names a honeycomb.^[5] Turkish fabrika was borrowed from Italian in the factory sense, and so were the Albanian and Maltese words.^[5][1]

Timeline

• 1282 – Restoro d'Arezzo uses the word.^[10]
• Before 1342 – Domenico Cavalca uses it for a workshop.^[2]
• Before 1348 – Giovanni Villani uses it for building work and for a building.^[2]
• Before 1793 – The sense “industrial plant” is recorded.^[3][13]

Meanings

Noun

1. A factory, a plant for industrial production; also the company that runs it: Lavora in una fabbrica di scarpe da trent'anni.^[4][13][7]
2. (figurative) A source of a constant flow of something, usually bad: Quel bar è una fabbrica di pettegolezzi.^[4][13][11]
3. The building of something, and the building itself: la fabbrica di una nuova chiesa.^[4][7][11]
4. (ecclesiastical) A church as a building, and the office that maintains it.^[4][13][14]
5. (archaic) A workshop; the structure or composition of something, as of the human body.^[4][14][15]

Word family

• fabbricare
• fabbricato
• fabbricante
• fabbricazione
• fabbricatore
• fabbricabile
• fabbriceria
• fabbriciere

Related words

• fabbro
• forgia
• Latin fabrica
• French fabrique

Usage notes

Prezzo di fabbrica is the price of a product as it leaves the factory, and marchio di fabbrica a trademark.^[4][13] Essere la fabbrica di San Pietro is said of a job that never ends.^[13][15] The literary form is fabrica.^[13][7]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ a b c d e Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e f g De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ a b c d Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1577
6. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ a b c Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
11. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
12. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
13. ^ 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
14. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
15. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli