febbre

Forms

febbre f (plural febbri)^[1] Old forms include Old Italian fevra, Old Italian febra, Old Italian febre, Old Italian fievre and Old Italian frebbe.^[2] Febbra belongs with the febra of northern Italy, French, Occitan and Catalan.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin febris (“fever”), from its accusative.^[4][5][6][1] The doubling of /b/ before /r/ is regular in Tuscan, as in fabbro.^[4][7][8]

The word is panromance: French fièvre, Occitan feure, Catalan febre, Portuguese febre, Sardinian frèbba (also frèa (“fear”)), and Romanian fiori (“shivers”).^[5][9] The Latin word also passed into the Insular Celtic languages and into Germanic.^[3]

The origin of the Latin word is uncertain.^[4][10] De Vaan and Wiktionary trace it through Proto-Italic *feχwri- to Proto-Indo-European *dʰegʷʰris, from Proto-Indo-European *dʰegʷʰ- (“to burn, warm”), with Ancient Greek τέφρα (téphra, “ashes”) as a cognate.^[11][1] Nocentini and Devoto prefer a reduplicated form meaning “shivering”, comparing Lithuanian drugỹs (“shivering”) and Russian дрожать (drožatʹ, “to tremble”).^[5][8] Isidore's derivation from the word for heat is a guess of the ancients.^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

The oldest form is fevra, early in the 13th century, in the northern poem Della caducità della vita umana, which tells the reader that a wretched fever throws him into bed: una vil fevra en lo leto te zeta.^[4][12] The TLIO's first record is a Roman text of 1252–1258, and the form febbre is first found in Dante.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian medicine named many kinds of fever: febbre continua, effimera, putrida, and the recurring quotidiana, terzana and quartana.^[2] The figurative sense “burning passion, intense desire” is already in Dante, and the Old Italian texts use the word for an affliction of the mind.^[4][2]

The plural le febbri came to mean malaria.^[6][13] Febbre gialla (18th century) translates scientific Latin febris flava, like French fièvre jaune and English yellow fever, and febbre Q (1945) is English Q fever.^[3] In popular speech febbre is also a herpes sore on the lips (1965).^[4][6]

Timeline

• Early 13th century – Fevra appears in Della caducità della vita umana.^[4]
• 1252–1258 – A Roman text has the TLIO's first record.^[2]
• Before 1321 – Dante uses febbre, also for a burning passion.^[4]
• About 1350 – Febbrile appears in the Italian translation of Crescenzi.^[4]
• 1684 – Francesco Redi uses febbrifugo.^[4]
• 1945 – Febbre Q is recorded.^[3]
• 1950 – Febbricola “low persistent fever” is recorded.^[4]
• 1965 – The sense “cold sore” is recorded.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. fever: a rise in body temperature above normal, a defence against illness or injury, with faster breathing and heartbeat: Stanotte gli è salita la febbre.^[6][13][7]
2. The name of various diseases with fever (febbre gialla, febbre da fieno).^[13][7][14]
3. (in the plural, popular) malaria or similar diseases.^[6][13]
4. (popular) A cold sore, herpes on the lips.^[6][14]
5. (figurative) A burning passion, an intense desire; excitement, frenzy.^[6][7][14]

Word family

• febbrone
• febbricola
• febbriciattola
• febbretta
• febbrifugo
• sfebbrare

Related words

• febbrile
• febbricitante
• febbricitare
• Latin febris
• French fièvre

Usage notes

Febbre da cavallo “horse fever” is a very high fever.^[13][14] Avere la febbre addosso means to be very anxious or agitated, and far venire la febbre to make someone anxious.^[6][14][15]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ a b c d Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1610
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
5. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ 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
7. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
8. ^ a b Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
9. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
10. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
11. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
12. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 5, 764
13. ^ 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
14. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
15. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana