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fede

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Pronunciation

Forms

fede f (plural fedi)[1] Old forms include Old Italian fe, Old Italian fé, Old Italian fee, Old Italian fei and Old Italian fide.[2] The shortened fé survives in poetry and literary use.[3][4][5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin fidem (“trust; faith; loyalty”).[3][6][7][1] With the Latin derivatives fidēlis and fidēlitās it gave fedele and fedeltà.[3] Battaglia's dictionary (GDLI) calls it a learned word that spread through the Romance languages by way of the Church;[8][3][6] DELI and Nocentini treat it as an inherited Latin word.[8][3][6]

The same word is French foi, Occitan fe, Catalan fe, Spanish fe and Portuguese fé; Dalmatian faid and Romansh feit continue it too.[6][9][10]

The Latin noun belongs with fīdō (“to trust”) and fīdus (“faithful”).[6][11] De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *fiþē- and Proto-Indo-European *bʰidʰ-eh₁- (“faith”), from the root of Proto-Indo-European *bʰeydʰ- (“to trust”), which also gave Ancient Greek πείθομαι (peíthomai, “to be persuaded, obey”).[11][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in the bilingual Contrasto of the troubadour Raimbaut de Vaqueiras, about 1190, whose Italian lines are Genoese.[2] DELI's first date is Giacomo da Lentini (before 1250), who uses fede for firm belief in something: in one of his poems the lover looks at a painted likeness of his lady as a man who trusts to be saved by his faith without seeing.[3][8]

Semantic evolution

DELI dates the religious sense, assent to a revealed truth, to Bono Giamboni (before 1292), and “loyalty, faithful keeping of one's word” to Guittone d'Arezzo (before 1294).[3] From the Christian faith the word came to mean a religion in general, and later any set of political or philosophical convictions.[2][7][5] The Old Italian oath in fede di Dio and the exclamation affé, from a fé “by my faith”, recorded before 1470, belong here, as does Boccaccio's gnaffe, from per mia fe.[2][6][13]

The wedding ring is fede because it was the anulus fidei, the “ring of faith”, a sign of faithfulness from Saint Ambrose to the medieval novella;[3][14] DELI finds this sense in a 14th-century translation of the Golden Legend, while DEI dates it only to the 19th century.[3][14] The sense “written testimony, certificate” appears in 1437 and survives in fede di nascita and fede di battesimo.[3][15][16] Alta fedeltà (1959), from the derivative fedeltà, is a calque of English high-fidelity.[3]

German borrowed the word in the sense “faith” in the 1580s and as a term for a testimonial in 1728.[17]

Timeline

  • c. 1190 – Raimbaut de Vaqueiras' Contrasto has the first record in Genoese.[2]
  • Before 1250 – Giacomo da Lentini uses fede for firm belief.[3][7]
  • Before 1292 – Bono Giamboni uses it for religious faith.[3]
  • Before 1294 – Guittone d'Arezzo uses it for loyalty.[3]
  • 14th century – A translation of the Golden Legend uses it for the wedding ring.[3]
  • 1437 – The sense “certificate” is recorded.[3][17]
  • Before 1470 – The exclamation affé is recorded.[6]
  • 1585–1589 – German borrows the word as foede.[17]
  • 1959 – Alta fedeltà “high fidelity” is recorded.[3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Firm belief in something or someone, held from conviction or trust rather than proof; confidence: Ha molta fede nelle proprie forze.[7][4][15]
  2. (theology) In Christianity, the first of the three theological virtues, by which one believes what God has revealed.[7][4][5]
  3. religion, creed: È cresciuto nella fede ortodossa.[7][15][5]
  4. The principles one holds, especially in politics or philosophy: Non ha mai nascosto la sua fede liberale.[7][4][15]
  5. faithfulness, loyalty; the keeping of a promise or agreement: tenere fede a un impegno.[7][4][15]
  6. wedding ring: Si tolse la fede e la posò sul tavolo.[7][4][15][1]
  7. Testimony, attestation, (bureaucratic) a certificate: fede di battesimo.[4][15][16]

Word family

  • fedele
  • fedeltà
  • fededegno
  • affé
  • fedina

Usage notes

Buona fede and mala fede (also written buonafede, malafede) are honest intention and deceitful intention.[4][5][18] In fede closes a signed statement, far fede is “to bear witness, be proof”, and uomo di poca fede is said jokingly of someone who doubts others.[7][16][5]

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 e f g h i j k l m n o p q Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
  5. ^ a b c d e f Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  6. ^ a b c d e f g 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 Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 5
  9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  10. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
  11. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  12. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier, p. 179
  13. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 429
  14. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1612
  15. ^ a b c d e f g Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  16. ^ a b c Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
  17. ^ a b c Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
  18. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana