fata

Forms

fata f (plural fate)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin fāta (“goddess of fate”), from fātum (“fate”): its neuter plural, “the fates”, was personified and taken as a feminine singular.^{[2][3][4][5][1]} The personified Fates were very common in Latin inscriptions, also popular ones.^[6][7] According to Schmitt, Augustine brought the fairies into Christian vocabulary, but in the early 7th century Isidore of Seville still calls the three Parcae “the Fates”; these later merged with the supernatural lovers of the Breton romances.^[2]

The word is found across the Romance languages except Romanian: French fée, Occitan fada, Catalan fada, Spanish hada, Portuguese fada, Sardinian fada and Friulian fade, and it passed into Welsh ffawd.^[3][8][6]

The Latin noun is the neuter of fātus, the past participle of for (“to speak”), so the fate was “what has been said”.^[9][1] The verb goes back to Proto-Indo-European *bʰeh₂- (“to speak”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Giacomo da Lentini, of the Sicilian school, before 1250, for a very beautiful woman with supernatural powers, as in the popular tradition.^[2][4] The TLIO's first record is in the Florentine Chiaro Davanzati, in the second half of the 13th century.^[10]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian the fairy was a female being with magic powers who could do good or harm to people; the word was also used for the Parcae and, figuratively, to praise a woman's worth.^[10] The Tavola Ritonda has the fata Morgana of the Arthurian romances: Io sono veramente la fata Morgana.^[7][11] Boccaccio explains the Fates as tre fate who rule over human life.^[4] Fatato “enchanted” goes back to Medieval Latin fatatus in Salimbene (1281–1288) and is Italian before 1356.^[2]

The phrase fata morgana, of Sicilian origin, named the mirage seen over the Strait of Messina, where legend placed the fairy's home.^[2][3] Antonio Minasi's dissertation of 1773 on the phenomenon helped spread it, though miraggio later prevailed.^[2] Figuratively fata is a woman of great beauty or goodness, and mani di fata are hands skilled at sewing and needlework.^[4][5][12]

In the dialects the word also named animals thought to bring harm: Mantuan fada and Emilian feda mean the toad, and Calabrian fata the praying mantis.^[6][8]

Timeline

• Before 1250 – Giacomo da Lentini uses fata.^[2][4]
• Second half of the 13th century – Chiaro Davanzati uses the word in Florence.^[10]
• 1281–1288 – Salimbene writes Medieval Latin fatatus “enchanted”.^[2]
• Before 1356 – Italian fatato appears in A. Lancia.^[2]
• Before 1367 – The verb fatare is recorded.^[3]
• 1690 – Fatamorgana for the mirage of the Strait of Messina is recorded.^[3]
• 1773 – Minasi publishes his dissertation on the Fata Morgana.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A fairy: a female being of folklore and fairy tales with magic powers, usually used for good: la bacchetta magica della fata.^{[4][5][13][1]}
2. (figurative) A woman of great beauty, or a very kind or helpful one, a benefactress: Quella donna è stata una fata per noi.^{[4][5][14][12]}
3. (mythology) One of the Fates, a parca.^[4][13][15]

Word family

• fatato
• fatare
• sfatare
• fatamorgana
• fatina

Related words

• fato
• Latin fatum
• French fée

Usage notes

Fata morgana (also written fatamorgana) is a mirage in which distant objects seem to float in the air.^[13][3] Avere mani di fata is to be very skilled with one's hands, especially in needlework.^[13][5] Fata is also a form of the verb fatare “to enchant”.^[6][8]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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 f Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e f g h De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ a b c d e Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1604
7. ^ a b 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 Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b c Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
11. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti
12. ^ a b Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
13. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
14. ^ Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
15. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli