Etymologically
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furto

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Pronunciation

Forms

furto m (plural furti)[1] Old Italian forms include furtu, furt and fruto.[2] DEI records fruto in Old Genoese and fulto in Old Neapolitan.[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin fūrtum (“theft; stolen goods”), derived from fūr (“thief”).[4][5][6][1] DELI and GRADIT explain the Latin noun as the past participle of an unrecorded verb ⟨*fūrere⟩ “to steal”, and Wiktionary likewise describes it as formed as if on a real verb.[4][6][7][1] De Vaan doubts that the noun can be derived directly from the word for thief, and follows Forssman, who reconstructs it with a short vowel as the zero grade of the same root.[8] The learned furtivo comes from Latin furtīvus, and refurtiva from the phrase ⟨res furtīva⟩ “thing from a theft”.[4][5]

The word is pan-Romance: Old French furt, Old Occitan furt, Catalan furt, Spanish hurto, Portuguese furto, Sardinian furtu and Romanian furt, with verbs such as furtar, hurtar and furtar “to steal”.[5][9][3]

The Latin word for thief cannot be separated from Ancient Greek φώρ (phṓr, “thief”), which Nocentini connects with φέρω (phérō, “to carry (off)”).[5][8] Its unexpected ⟨ū⟩ led some scholars to assume a borrowing from Greek, perhaps through Etruscan;[5][8] Nocentini and de Vaan prefer an inherited word, since Latin changed ⟨-ōr⟩ to ⟨-ūr⟩ around 200 BC, and de Vaan reconstructs Proto-Indo-European *bʰōr (“thief”).[5][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is a document from Montieri, near Siena, of 1219, where furto means the stolen goods.[2][4][6] The sense “the taking of someone else's property” is in Bono Giamboni before 1292.[4]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian used furto for the act of stealing, for kidnapping, for any scheme to obtain money dishonestly, and for the stolen object itself; the phrases a furto and di furto meant “by stealth”.[2] Following Latin furtum, the word could also mean a secret or adulterous love affair, which poets called furti d'amore.[2][10] The adjective furtivo meant “stolen” in Matteo Villani, before 1363, and “secret, done by stealth” already in Domenico Cavalca, before 1342.[4]

In modern law furto is the taking of movable property from its holder for profit, without violence against the person, distinct from rapina.[10][11] Everyday Italian also uses the word for a price that is far too high and for passing off someone else's ideas as one's own, and medicine for the diversion of blood flow from its normal course, as in furto della succlavia.[6][12]

Timeline

  • 1219 – A document from Montieri uses furto for stolen goods.[2][4]
  • Before 1292 – Bono Giamboni uses furto for the act of stealing.[4]
  • Before 1342 – Domenico Cavalca uses furtivo “secret”.[4]
  • Before 1363 – Matteo Villani uses furtivo “stolen”.[4]
  • 1895 – Refurtiva “stolen goods” is recorded.[5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. theft: the taking of something that belongs to someone else; the thing stolen: Hanno denunciato il furto della bicicletta.[6][12][11][1]
  2. (by extension) A price or fee far higher than the thing is worth: Quaranta euro per una pizza? È un furto![6][12]
  3. plagiarism, presenting someone else's ideas or work as one's own.[6][12][1]
  4. (medicine) A steal: the diversion of blood flow from its normal course.[6]

Word family

  • furtivo
  • refurtiva
  • antifurto
  • furtarello

Usage notes

Legal and common phrases include furto con scasso (burglary, theft by breaking in), furto con destrezza (pickpocketing), furto d'uso (taking something only to use it briefly and return it) and furto d'identità (identity theft).[6][12][10]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f 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 Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1738
  4. ^ 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
  5. ^ a b c d e f g Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  7. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
  8. ^ a b c d de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  10. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
  11. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  12. ^ a b c d e Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier