felice

Forms

felice m or f by sense (plural felici, superlative felicissimo)^[1] Old and dialect forms include Old Italian filice and Old Italian felize.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin fēlīx (“fruitful; fortunate, happy”), from the accusative ⟨felicem⟩.^[4][5][6][1] The Latin adjective first meant “fruitful, productive”: Festus records that Cato called trees that bear fruit ⟨felices⟩ and those that do not ⟨infelices⟩, and only later did it come to mean “favoured by the gods, fortunate” and “happy”.^[2] It survives as a popular word only in Romanian ferice (“happy; happiness”).^[7][8] Spanish feliz matches the Italian word.^[5]

Latin fēlīx shares a root with fēcundus (“fertile”), the root of suckling and nourishing.^[4][5][9] De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *fēl(w)ī- (“suckling, with young”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁-l(u)-i-, and compares Ancient Greek θηλή (thēlḗ, “nipple”) and Ancient Greek θῆλυς (thêlus, “female”); the sense developed from “with young” to “fruitful” and then “fortunate”.^[10] Wiktionary takes the base to Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁(y)- (“to suckle”).^[1] Devoto connects fecondo, femmina and figlio with the same root.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in Guittone d'Arezzo, before 1294, in the sense “content, satisfied in the soul”: “e mostra omo felice / vertù ovrando” (and shows a man happy by practising virtue).^[3] DELI dates the sense “fully satisfied in one's wishes” to Dante, before 1321, and “successful in what one undertakes” to Dante's Convivio (1304–1308), the date GRADIT gives for the word; the Convivio itself glosses being felice as being content.^[4][6][3]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian the adjective also meant “admitted to the bliss of Paradise”, as in Dante's Beatrice, “ridere e felice” (smiling and blessed), and of plants “thriving, luxuriant”, an echo of the Latin “fruitful”.^[3] Francesco da Barberino, before 1348, uses it for something begun under good auspices.^[4] Felicità is in Guittone, before 1294, and felicitare “to make happy” in Dante.^[4]

The reflexive felicitarsi “to congratulate” (1747, Scipione Maffei, with transitive felicitare in this sense in Gregorio Leti in 1663) and felicitazioni “congratulations” (before 1764, Algarotti) are calques of French féliciter and félicitation.^[4][8] Modern Italian uses the adjective for apt, well-chosen things as well as happy people, and in courtesy formulas such as felice di conoscerla.^[6][12][9] Felice is also a given name, from the Latin name Felix.^[1]

Timeline

• Before 1294 – Guittone d'Arezzo uses felice and felicità.^[3][4]
• 1304–1308 – Dante's Convivio uses it for success in one's undertakings.^[4][6]
• Before 1321 – Dante uses it for a person fully satisfied in their wishes.^[4]
• Before 1348 – Francesco da Barberino uses it for a happy beginning.^[4]
• 1663 – Gregorio Leti uses felicitare “to congratulate”.^[4]
• Before 1764 – Francesco Algarotti uses felicitazioni.^[4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. happy, fully satisfied with one's condition: Da quando vive al mare è una donna felice.^[6][12][13]
2. glad, pleased about something, also in polite formulas such as felice di conoscerla: Siamo felici del tuo successo.^[6][12][9]
3. lucky, fortunate, in exclamations: Felice te che hai già finito!^[6][12][9]
4. Bringing or marked by happiness: Ricordo un'estate felice in campagna.^[6][13]
5. (figurative) Successful, apt, well chosen: una battuta felice.^{[6][13][9][1]}
6. Skilful in what one does: avere la mano felice, to have a deft touch.^[6][9]
7. (obsolete, literary) Fertile, fruitful.^[1][3]

Word family

• felicità
• felicitare
• felicitazione
• felicemente
• infelice
• infelicità

Related words

• fecondo
• femmina
• Latin fēlīx

Usage notes

A different, obsolete félice, stressed on the first syllable, is an old southern form of felce “fern” (14th–16th centuries).^[8][2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
3. ^ a b c d e f Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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 i j De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1613
9. ^ a b c d e f Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier, p. 180
12. ^ 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
13. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse