fievole

Forms

fievole m or f by sense (plural fievoli)^[1] Old forms include fievile, fiebole, flevole and fievre.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin flēbilis (“tearful, lamentable”), from fleō (“to weep”).^[5][6][7][1] The learned doublet is flebile.^[5][1] The word is Italian and Gallo-Romance: French faible, Old Occitan frevol, Friulian flever and Catalan feble, from which Spanish feble comes, and Portuguese febre, said of a coin under its weight.^[6][8][3] It is widespread in the southern dialects, as in Sicilian fivulu (“frail”).^[9][8]

The change from “weeping” to “weak” is Romance, and rests on seeing tears as a sign of weakness.^[6] The Latin verb meant loud weeping with cries of grief;^[6][10] Nocentini compares Old High German bellan (“to bark”) and Latvian bilot (“to weep”), and de Vaan derives it from Proto-Indo-European *bʰleh₁- (“to bleat, cry”), the root of Old Church Slavonic блѣꙗти (blějati) and Old English blǣtan.^[6][10] The /o/ in the middle syllable for Latin /i/ is a velarization before /l/ in a word stressed on the third-last syllable.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Brunetto Latini's Florentine Rettorica of about 1260–1261, where men, in many things weaker (più fievoli) than the beasts, surpass them in being able to speak; the sense is “lacking strength”.^[2][12][13]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian fievole covered physical weakness, moral weakness that gives in to temptation, small worth, fragility (“easily broken”) and a sound barely heard; of coins it meant of lower value, with less precious metal.^[2] Dante's Virgil urges him on in Inferno 24: Parlando andava per non parer fievole (“I went on talking so as not to seem weak”).^[12][13]

The sense of weak in body is now archaic, and the word is used almost only of a faint voice or sound.^[14][15] The derived verb affievolire dates from the late 13th century.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 1260–1261 – Brunetto Latini uses fievoli in the Rettorica.^[2]
• 1270s – The verb affievolire is recorded.^[6]
• 1300s – The old variant fievile is recorded.^[9]
• Early 1300s – Dante uses fievole in Inferno 24.^[12]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of a voice or sound, faint, weak, barely heard.^[7][15][11]
2. Of light, dim.^[1]
3. (archaic) Of a person, weak, listless.^[7][15][1]

Word family

• affievolire
• fievolezza
• fievolmente
• infievolire

Related words

• flebile
• fleto
• Latin fleo
• French faible

Usage notes

Fievole is the popular form, flebile the learned one; both come from Latin flēbilis.^[11][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975)
4. ^ Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
5. ^ a b Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, 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 De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
8. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1636
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 c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
12. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
13. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
14. ^ Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
15. ^ 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