favellare

Forms

favellare (first-person singular present favèllo, first-person singular past historic favellài, past participle favellàto, auxiliary avére)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *fabellāre (“to talk, converse”), formed from Latin fābella (“short story”), the diminutive of fābula (“tale, talk”).^{[2][3][4][5][6]} Wiktionary, Devoto–Oli and Devoto give it as the Late Latin fābellārī, and Tommaseo notes this form in the Greek–Latin glosses.^[1][7][8][9] Treccani explains the Latin verb instead as a diminutive of fābulor (“to talk”), from fārī (“to speak”).^[10] The GDLI calls it a learned word.^[11]

The same Latin verb gave Old French faveler, Old Occitan favelar, Romansh favler and the Logudorese faeddare.^[3][12] The noun favella is a back-formation from the verb, though it is recorded earlier, as Old Italian favela, in the Monza Glossary of the late 9th century.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the form fabellare in the Ritmo cassinese, of the late 12th century: Eo, siniuri, s'eo fabello (“I, my lords, if I speak”).^[2][11][3] The form favellare appears in Giacomo da Lentini, before 1250, with the same sense, to speak.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In the 13th and 14th centuries the verb was the ordinary word for speaking: Dante writes Opera naturale è ch'uom favella (“It is nature's work that man speaks”), and in Boccaccio a woman is urged Dillo, favella, scuopri il tuo disio (“Say it, speak, reveal your wish”).^[11][9] The infinitive was also used as a noun, for speech or the sound of people talking, from the 14th century.^[4][6][9]

In the 16th century Varchi held that favellare and parlare mean the same, but parlare had more uses and was more common, and Tommaseo noted in the 19th century that the word was still alive in Tuscany.^[9] Today it is literary or used in jest.^[7][4] A rare transitive use, to express, is found in Manzoni.^[10][4]

Timeline

• Late 9th century – The noun favela appears in the Monza Glossary.^[2]
• Late 12th century – Fabellare is recorded in the Ritmo cassinese.^[2][4]
• Before 1250 – Giacomo da Lentini uses favellare.^[2]
• Before 1292 – Favella appears in B. Giamboni.^[2][3]
• Before 1321 – Dante uses favella for a particular language.^[2]
• Before 1375 – The infinitive is used as a noun.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive, literary) To speak, to talk; also used in jest: Mi fissava muto, senza favellare.^{[4][7][10][1]}
2. (transitive, literary, rare) To express, to utter.^{[4][6][10][1]}

Noun

1. (literary) Speech, talk; a way of speaking, idiom: il favellare toscano.^{[4][6][10][1]}
2. (archaic) A locution, a turn of speech.^[6][9]

Word family

• favella
• favellatore
• rifavellare

Related words

• fabulare
• favola
• parlare
• Latin fābella

Usage notes

The proverb chi favella erra says that whoever speaks makes mistakes.^[10]

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 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 Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
6. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
7. ^ a b c Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
8. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier, p. 179
9. ^ a b c d e Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
10. ^ a b c d e f Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
11. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 5, 743
12. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter