fedele

Forms

fedele m or f by sense (plural fedeli, superlative fedelissimo)^[1] Early forms include Old Italian fidele, Old Italian fedhel and Old Italian feel.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin fidēlis (“faithful, loyal”), formed from fidēs (“faith, trust”) with the suffix -ēlis.^{[3][4][5][6][1]} Nocentini counts it among the words of the inherited stock, while DEI and the GDLI call it a learned word.^[4][7][8]

The same Latin adjective gave Old French feoil, Old Occitan fezel, Catalan fehel, Spanish fiel and Portuguese fiel.^[4][9] Modern French fidèle was taken again from Latin by the learned route.^[4][9] Romanian has no outcome of it.^[7]

The Latin noun belongs with fīdō (“to trust”) and foedus (“treaty”).^[10] De Vaan traces the family to Proto-Indo-European *bʰeydʰ- (“to trust”), the root of Ancient Greek πείθομαι (peíthomai, “to be persuaded, obey”).^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Ritmo di sant'Alessio, a poem from the Marche of the second half of the 12th century.^[2] DELI's first dated sense, from the 13th-century Storie de Troia et de Roma, is “keeping the faith one has given, constant in affection”: the text calls Saguntum nobilissima citate e fidelissima alli Romani, “a most noble city and most loyal to the Romans”.^[3][11]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian the adjective covered loyalty to friends, allies and lords, and in particular the feudal bond; faithfulness in love and marriage; constancy of God, of feelings and of animals, above all dogs; and a report that can be trusted.^[2] As a noun it named the supporter of a lord or a party, and, in the Novellino and the Tavola ritonda, a vassal.^[2][12] Treccani notes that among the Lombards the king's companions in arms were called fedeli.^[13]

The religious sense, “Christian believer”, goes back to Latin, where Lactantius already used it,^[7] and Guittone d'Arezzo used the noun for a follower before 1294.^[3] Dante's siate fedeli (Paradiso 5) urges keeping vows.^[11] The sense “exact, true to the facts” appears before 1349 in Busone da Gubbio.^[3]

In the 20th century the noun fedeltà gave alta fedeltà, a calque of the English high fidelity, and the adjective is used of sound equipment that reproduces sound faithfully.^[3][5][13] In 1748 Pope Benedict XIV granted the title fedelissimo to King John V of Portugal and his successors.^[13]

Timeline

• 1150–1200 – The adjective is recorded in the Ritmo di sant'Alessio (Marche).^[2]
• 13th century – The Storie de Troia et de Roma use it for loyalty.^[3]
• Before 1292 – Bono Giamboni uses fedeltà.^[3]
• Before 1294 – Guittone d'Arezzo uses the noun for a follower.^[3]
• Before 1349 – Busone da Gubbio uses it for exactness.^[3]
• 1748 – Benedict XIV grants the title fedelissimo to John V of Portugal.^[13]
• 1957 – The magazine Oggi uses English high fidelity, soon rendered alta fedeltà.^[3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. faithful, loyal: keeping one's word and commitments, constant in affection, friendship or a relationship (also with a): È rimasta fedele ai suoi principi.^[5][14][15]
2. Of an animal, attached to its master: un vecchio cane fedele.^[5][14][16]
3. Of a thing, dependable, never letting down its user: la mia fedele bicicletta.^[5][14][17]
4. Regular, habitual: una lettrice fedele della rivista.^[5][14][17]
5. accurate, true to the facts or to the original: una versione fedele del romanzo.^[5][15][16]
6. Of a person, keeping strictly to the facts or to the original: una storica fedele ai documenti.^[5][13]
7. Of sound equipment, reproducing sound with a high degree of fidelity.^[5][13]

Noun

1. A believer, a member of a religious faith, especially a Christian: La messa era piena di fedeli.^[5][17][16]
2. A follower or supporter of a cause, a person, a party: i fedeli del vecchio leader.^[15][17][16]
3. (historical) In the Middle Ages, a vassal bound to his lord by an oath of fealty.^[15][18][13]

Word family

• fedeltà
• infedele
• infedeltà
• fedelmente

Related words

• fede
• fido
• Latin fidēlis
• French fidèle

Usage notes

Tommaseo distinguished fedele, said of faith in love, friendship, religion and obedience and also of animals, from fidato, which concerns reliability and safety more than affection.^[19] The superlative is fedelissimo.^[1]

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 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 Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ 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
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1612
8. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
9. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ 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
11. ^ 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
12. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 430
13. ^ a b c d e f g Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
14. ^ a b c d Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
15. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
16. ^ a b c d Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
17. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
18. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
19. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET