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frase

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Etymology and origin of the Italian word frase

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
before 1556, Giovanni Della Casa
Borrowed from
Latin phrasis
Ultimate origin
Ancient Greek φράζω
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin phrasis
English phrase
French phrase
Italian frase

Pronunciation

Forms

frase f (plural frasi)[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin phrasis (“diction, style”), a learned borrowing, from Ancient Greek φράσις (phrásis, “expression, way of speaking”), a noun formed from φράζω (phrázō, “to point out, tell”).[2][3][4][1][5] Quintilian uses the Latin word in the sense of ēlocūtiō (“style”).[6][7] The origin of the Greek verb is uncertain.[2][8]

The same word is French phrase, recorded in 1546, and Spanish frase;[3][6][7] Nocentini notes that it spread through the European languages.[3][6][7] The set phrase frase fatta is a calque of phrase faite (1835).[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is in Giovanni Della Casa, before 1556, for an independent unit of language with a complete meaning.[2][4] Nocentini dates the word to 1547 and Zingarelli to 1554.[3][8] In Della Casa it is used of the style of a piece of writing, of which some words or the whole phrasing may seem affected.[9]

Semantic evolution

From the start the word covered both a sentence and a turn of phrase: Tasso and Tassoni speak of phrases proper to one language, and Baretti of “the commonest phrases” as the basis of every language.[9] Tommaseo–Bellini notes that the French use phrase for a whole clause or more, while Italians used frase for a group of words whose meaning differs from that of each word alone.[10]

The musical sense, a complete unit of melody, appears in 1834.[2] Derivatives followed: fraseggiare (1651), frasario (1722 for a collection of an author's phrases, 1798 for a person's habitual phrases) and fraseggio (before 1883).[2] Fraseologia (1676) comes from humanist Latin phraseologia, coined in the 16th century by Michael Neander.[3] In modern linguistics frase is the technical term for the sentence, and in computing it names a string of symbols that forms an instruction.[4]

Timeline

  • 1547 – Nocentini's date for the first record.[3]
  • Before 1556 – Giovanni Della Casa uses the word.[2][4]
  • 1651 – Fraseggiare is recorded.[2]
  • 1676 – Fraseologia is recorded.[3]
  • 1834 – The musical sense appears.[2]
  • 1835 – Frase fatta is recorded, after French phrase faite.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (linguistics) A sentence: a unit of language with a complete meaning, which can stand on its own: Questa frase non ha il verbo.[4][11][12]
  2. An expression, a phrase: words used to say something: Non trovava la frase adatta per scusarsi.[4][11][8]
  3. (music) A musical phrase, a group of motifs with a more or less complete sense.[4][11][8]
  4. (puzzles) A word game whose solution is a sentence rather than a single word.[11]
  5. (computing) A finite sequence of symbols that represents an instruction.[4]

Word family

  • frasario
  • fraseggiare
  • fraseggio
  • fraseologia
  • fraseologico
  • frastico
  • French phrase
  • Ancient Greek φράσις (phrásis)

Usage notes

Frase usually corresponds to English sentence as well as phrase.[1] A frase fatta is a stock phrase or cliché, and in the plural frasi can mean empty words, as in sono solo frasi.[8][13][14]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ 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
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  4. ^ 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
  5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1708
  7. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
  8. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  9. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 6, 304
  10. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
  11. ^ 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
  12. ^ Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  13. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
  14. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana

Related etymologies

  • no · also from Latin
  • cosa · also from Latin
  • a · also from Latin
  • mio · also from Latin
  • uno · also from Latin
  • si · also from Latin
  • sapere · also from Latin
  • fare · also from Latin
Cite this entry

“Frase.” Etymologically, 22 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/it/frase. Accessed 23 Oct. 2026.

Last edited on . ·