familiare

Forms

familiare m or f by sense (plural familiari, superlative familiarissimo)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin familiāris (“of the household; intimate”), a derivative of familia (“household”) with the suffix -āris.^{[2][3][4][1][5]} DEI and Battaglia call it a learned word.^[6][7] The inherited word from the same family is famiglia.^[3][2]

French has familier from the 12th century.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is Andrea da Grosseto in 1268, and Zingarelli gives the same year.^[8][9] Its first sense is “belonging to or concerning the family”.^[8] Dante writes in the Convivio (1304–08) of those held back from learning per cura familiare o civile, by family or civic cares.^[2][7]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian the adjective also meant “of the servants”, and as a noun a member of a household, a community or a court.^[8] The old nouns “servant”, “guard, constable” and a prince's or prelate's confidant are now obsolete;^[9][10][4] Boccaccio has a man who si mise per famigliare with Currado Malaspina.^[9][10][4] The senses “intimate, well known” and “friendly” were also there from the start.^[8]

The spelling famigliare, after famiglia, has long competed with familiare;^[2][11] Panzini in 1905 noted that modern spelling considered it the less good form.^[2][11] The feminine noun familiare, an estate car, is a 20th-century sense: Battaglia's supplement quotes La Repubblica of 1993, which glosses it as station wagon.^[7]

Timeline

• 1268 – Andrea da Grosseto has the first record.^[8][9]
• 1304–1308 – Dante uses cura familiare in the Convivio.^[2]
• 1905 – Panzini judges famigliare the less good spelling.^[2]
• 1993 – La Repubblica uses familiari for estate cars.^[7]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of the family, typical of a family: la vita familiare, un'azienda familiare.^[4][11][9]
2. Designed for a family, family-sized: Ho preso la confezione familiare.^[4][11][12]
3. familiar, well known from long use: Quella voce mi è familiare.^[4][11][9]
4. Informal, friendly, simple: Parla sempre con un tono familiare.^[4][12][13]

Noun

1. A relative, a member of one's family: Ha passato il Natale con i suoi familiari.^[4][11][1]
2. (feminine) An estate car, a station wagon.^[4][13][1]
3. (obsolete) A servant, a courtier, a guard.^[4][9][10]

Word family

• familiarità
• familiarizzare
• familiarmente
• familiaresco

Related words

• famiglia
• Latin familiāris
• French familier

Usage notes

Familiare and the less common famigliare are both accepted.^[11][13][10] The phrase alla familiare means simply, without ceremony.^[13][10]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ 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
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1592
7. ^ a b c d Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
8. ^ a b c d e Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
9. ^ a b c d e f g Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
10. ^ a b c d e Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
11. ^ a b c d e f g Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
12. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
13. ^ a b c d Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana