fastidio

Forms

fastidio m (plural fastidi)^[1] Old Italian also had fastiggio and fastio, and dialect texts the plural fastidia.^[2][3] Northern forms include Old Paduan fastubio and Parmesan fastüdi.^[4]

Etymology

It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin fastīdium (“nausea, disgust, aversion”).^{[5][6][7][1][8]} The Latin noun is usually explained as fastus (“pride, disdain”) crossed with taedium (“weariness, boredom”); the OLD and Wiktionary reconstruct an older *fastitidium or *fastutīdium shortened by haplology, and Devoto explains it the same way.^{[9][1][10][11]} Nocentini calls the analysis probable and Sabatini–Coletti marks it with a “perhaps”.^[6][12] De Vaan lists the noun, with fastīdiōsus and fastīdīre, among the derivatives of the word for pride.^[13]

The Latin word also lived on in popular forms: Sicilian fastiu “dung”, Sardinian fastiziu, Old French and Old Occitan fasti, Catalan fàstic, Spanish hastío and Portuguese fastio.^[4][8] DEI and Körting add that French fâcher and Old Occitan fastigar presuppose a verb Vulgar Latin *fastīdicō.^[8][14]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is the Splanamento of Patecchio of Cremona (13th century); DELI's is Bono Giamboni (before 1292), for a feeling of annoyance and unease, and Zingarelli dates the word to 1268.^[3][5][15] Giamboni writes that people always think the things to come better than the present ones, out of fastidio for what they have.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian used the word for many kinds of displeasure: an unpleasant situation or an annoying act, waste matter and filth, a refusal to endure something, irritation and anxiety, nausea and stomach upset, an itch, and a general contempt.^[3] Giovanni Villani (before 1348) uses it for an act that causes trouble.^[5] Petrarch speaks of the fastidii of which life is full, and Boccaccio of praise so endless that it was a fastidio to hear.^[16] The sense “haughtiness” survives in Ariosto, whose lady is full of pride and disdain.^[7]

Today the word means above all annoyance and bother, especially in dare fastidio “to bother”, and in the plural troubles and worries, including trouble with the law; in the north it also means a slight physical ailment.^[7][15][17] The senses “filth” and “lice” are archaic or euphemistic.^[7][17]

Timeline

• 13th century – Patecchio of Cremona's Splanamento has the first record.^[3]
• Before 1292 – Bono Giamboni uses fastidio and fastidioso.^[5]
• Before 1348 – Giovanni Villani uses it for an act that causes trouble.^[5]
• 14th century – Infastidire is recorded.^[6]
• 16th century – French borrows it as fastide, now obsolete.^[18]

Meanings

Noun

1. annoyance, unease: the feeling caused by something one finds hard to bear: La musica alta dei vicini mi dà fastidio.^[7][17][15]
2. Weariness, aversion, disgust: Ormai provo fastidio per le sue lamentele.^[7][17][12]
3. A thing that causes trouble or worry, a nuisance; in the plural also trouble with someone or with the law: Quel lavoro gli ha portato solo fastidi.^[7][12][15]
4. A slight physical discomfort or ailment; nausea: Dopo pranzo ha sentito un leggero fastidio allo stomaco.^[7][17][10]
5. (literary) Haughtiness, disdain.^[7][15]
6. (archaic) Filth, rubbish.^[7][17][12]

Word family

• fastidioso
• infastidire
• fastidire
• fastidiare

Related words

• tedio
• fasto
• Latin fastidium

Usage notes

Dare fastidio is the usual way to say “to bother, annoy”: ti dà fastidio la radio? asks whether the radio bothers the listener.^[10][17] In literary use darsi fastidio means to take trouble over something.^[15]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
3. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
4. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
5. ^ 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
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 Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1603
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
11. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
12. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
13. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
14. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
15. ^ a b c d e f Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
16. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
17. ^ 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
18. ^ Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it