Etymologically
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gas

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Pronunciation

Forms

gas m (uncountable)[1] Older Italian forms are gaz, the Tuscan gasse (still in Zingarelli in 1970) and gasso (1793).[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from New Latin gas, a word coined by the Flemish physician and chemist Jan Baptist van Helmont (1577–1644) for the “subtle spirit” he discovered.[2][5][6][1] He made it by slightly altering Latin chaos, Ancient Greek χάος (kháos, “void, formless matter”), saying that he named the vapour so because it was not far from the chaos of the ancients.[2][7][5] The treatise in which he used it was published after his death, in 1648.[2][6] Paracelsus had already used the Latin word for a vapour produced by cold, so van Helmont linked a likeness of names to a likeness of substances.[2][6] In Flemish the ⟨g⟩ is a spirant close to the sound of ⟨ch⟩, which made the change small.[7]

DEI holds that the word became international through French gaz, recorded from 1670.[3][6] An older explanation, which Zaccaria still gives, derived the coinage from Dutch geest (“spirit”), like German Geist; the GDLI notes that it was given up.[8][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first Italian record is in the physician Lionardo da Capua in 1683, for matter that tends to fill all the space available to it.[2][6][4]

Semantic evolution

The sense “a volatile substance given off by fermentation or decay” is in Targioni Tozzetti in 1773, and DEI cites Volta in the 18th century.[4][3] The GDLI notes that French gaz took its modern sense in the later 18th century through the work of Priestley.[7] With street lighting the word entered everyday speech: Tommaseo in 1840 wrote of lampioni a gasse, and private gas lighting began in Rome in 1843.[2][9] DELI quotes the observation that between 1861 and 1881 the word spread to every city.[2]

The First World War brought the gas asfissiante, a translation of French gaz asphyxiant.[2][3] Later derivatives include gasolina (1892), from English gasoline, gasolio (1942), from English gasoil, and gasdotto “gas pipeline” (1940).[5] In the kitchen il gas is both the fuel and the stove, and dare gas means to step on the accelerator.[6]

Timeline

  • 1648 – Van Helmont's Ortus Medicinae introduces New Latin gas.[2][5]
  • 1670 – French gas, gaz is recorded.[3][6]
  • 1683 – Lionardo da Capua uses gas in Italian.[2][6]
  • 1793 – The Tuscan adaptation gasso is recorded.[2]
  • 1840 – Tommaseo writes lampioni a gasse, gas lamps.[2]
  • 1843 – Private gas lighting begins in Rome.[9]
  • 1915 – Gas asfissiante, poison gas, is recorded.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A gas: matter in the state in which it has no shape or volume of its own and expands to fill the space available: L'ossigeno è un gas.[6][10][11]
  2. (physics) A substance above its critical temperature, which cannot be liquefied by pressure alone.[6][10][11]
  3. Fuel gas supplied for domestic or industrial use; the supply itself: Ricordati di chiudere il gas.[6][1]
  4. Poison gas: un attacco con il gas.[6][1]
  5. (by extension) A gas stove, the cooker: Ho lasciato la pentola sul gas.[6]
  6. (motoring) The fuel mixture fed to an engine, dare gas, to accelerate, a tutto gas, at full throttle.[6][1]

Word family

  • gassoso
  • gassosa
  • gasare
  • gassare
  • gasdotto
  • gasolio
  • gasolina
  • gassificare
  • gasometro
  • gasista
  • gasogeno
  • caos
  • Latin chaos
  • French gaz

Usage notes

Gas is invariable: i gas.[6][10] Set phrases include camera a gas “gas chamber”, gas di scarico “exhaust gas” and gas serra “greenhouse gas”, which the GDLI's supplement records.[6][7]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n 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 Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1768
  4. ^ a b c Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 13, 1296
  5. ^ a b c d 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 k l m n o p De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  7. ^ a b c d e Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
  8. ^ Zaccaria, Enrico (1901), L'elemento germanico nella lingua italiana: lessico con appendice e prospetto cronologico, Bologna: Treves
  9. ^ a b Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti
  10. ^ 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
  11. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli