frontiera

Forms

frontiera f (plural frontiere)^[1] Old Italian also wrote frontera, plural frontere.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old Occitan frontiera according to Nocentini, Devoto–Oli, Treccani and Wiktionary.^[4][5][6][1] GRADIT, Sabatini–Coletti, Zingarelli, DEI and the GDLI give French as the source instead: borrowed from Old French frontiere, which the GDLI dates to 1213 in the sense “front line of an army” and “border fortress”.^{[7][8][9][10][3]} The Gallo-Romance word is formed from Old French front (“forehead; front”) (the GDLI says from the adjective frontier (“facing, adjoining”)), from Latin frons (“forehead, front”).^[3][7][4] The same formation gave French frontière, Catalan frontera, Spanish frontera and Portuguese fronteira.^[11][10] Tommaseo cites Medieval Latin frontaria for the borders that face whoever comes.^[12]

De Vaan finds no plausible etymology for frons.^[13][1] Older comparisons with Celtic and Germanic words meaning “side” or “steep” are, in his view, not specific enough.^[13][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in an anonymous Tuscan poem copied in Venice, of 1267.^[2] In the oldest texts the word is military: a border zone held by troops, a battle front, a fortified town on a border, and the front rank of a drawn-up force.^[2] DELI dates the sense “line that bounds a state's territory” to the 13th century, in the chronicle of Ricordano Malispini, where strong castles on the frontiere are “the keys to the entrance of the kingdom”.^[14][3]

Semantic evolution

Giovanni and Matteo Villani use the word, usually in the plural, for the borders a lord garrisons, and Machiavelli for frontier fortresses.^[3][12] The old senses “front” and “front rank of an army” are now obsolete.^[9][15]

From the history of the United States came the sense of a thinly and recently settled region on the edge of colonised land, especially the West.^[7][6] John F. Kennedy's “new frontier” of 1960 gave Italian nuova frontiera, a bold new goal.^[5][6] Figuratively the word names the line between two fields or ideas and, mostly in the plural, the furthest limit reached by a science, and di frontiera means advanced, at the cutting edge.^[7][9][16] In mathematics it is the boundary of a set.^[7][9]

Timeline

• 1213 – French frontière is recorded.^[3]
• 1267 – An anonymous Tuscan poem in a Venetian copy uses frontiera.^[2]
• 13th century – Ricordano Malispini uses it for the border of a state.^[14]
• 1960 – John F. Kennedy speaks of a “new frontier”.^[5][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. border, frontier: the line, or the strip of land along it, that bounds the territory of a state: Alla frontiera ci controllarono i documenti.^[7][5][8]
2. In American history, a thinly settled region at the edge of colonisation, especially in the West.^[7][6]
3. (figurative) A dividing line between two things or ideas.^[7][8][16]
4. (figurative, often plural) The furthest limit reached in a field: le frontiere della scienza (the frontiers of science).^[7][5][9]
5. (mathematics) The boundary of a set.^[7][5][9]
6. (obsolete) The front, or the front rank of an army.^[9][15][2]

Related words

• fronte
• confine
• French frontière
• English frontier
• Latin frons

Usage notes

A separate, obsolete frontiera was an ornament worn on the forehead, recorded in a Florentine account book and in Tassoni.^[10][3][12] Common phrases are incidente di frontiera (border incident), polizia di frontiera (border police) and di frontiera (cutting-edge).^[7][16]

References

1. ^ a b c d e 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 Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
4. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b c d e f Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d e Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
8. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
9. ^ a b c d e f g Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
10. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1723
11. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
12. ^ a b c Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
13. ^ 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
14. ^ a b Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
15. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
16. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana