Etymologically
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familiare

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Pronunciation

  • /fa.miˈlja.re/[1]

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

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