grave

Forms

grave m or f by sense (plural gravi, superlative gravissimo)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin gravis (“heavy; serious”), heavy in both the physical and the moral sense.^[2][3][4][1] The DEI notes that the Latin adjective survived in central and southern Italy, Sardinia, Spain and Portugal (Spanish grave, Portuguese grave), while the rest of the Romance area, northern Italy included, used Vulgar Latin *grevis, remade after Latin levis (“light”).^[5][6] This gave the doublet greve, French grief, Occitan greu and Romanian greu.^[6][1] The GDLI, on the other hand, treats the Italian word as a learned one.^[7]

It goes back to Proto-Italic *gʷraus and Proto-Indo-European *gʷréh₂us (“heavy”), an adjective in ⟨-u-⟩ that Latin moved into the ⟨i⟩-stems, as in brevis.^[8][1] Its cognates include Ancient Greek βαρύς (barús, “heavy”), Sanskrit गुरु (gurú, “heavy”) and Gothic 𐌺𐌰𐌿𐍂𐌿𐍃 (kaurus, “heavy”).^[8][1][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Giacomo da Lentini, of the Sicilian school, in about 1230–1250, in a figurative sense: of something with harmful or dangerous causes or consequences.^[9][2][4]

Semantic evolution

Dante used the word for a heavy weight and a weighed-down body, and also for a reserved, dignified bearing.^[2] The sense “low in pitch” is recorded before 1332 in Maestro Alberto, “gravely ill” before 1400 in Franco Sacchetti, and “weighty, serious” of a person in Machiavelli in 1503.^[2] In Old Italian it could also mean pregnant, a sense the dictionaries now mark as obsolete.^[10][11]

The grave accent is named from 1494, in Luca Pacioli, and certainly from 1529 in Trissino.^[2] In the scientific prose of the Renaissance a grave was any heavy body: Leonardo da Vinci uses the noun before 1519, and Galileo's study of falling bodies made la caduta dei gravi a set phrase.^[2][12][13] As a musical term, for the low register and for a slow, solemn tempo, it passed into French (1703), English (1683, from French or Italian) and German (1732).^[14]

Timeline

• c. 1230–1250 – Giacomo da Lentini uses grave.^[9][4]
• 1300–1313 – Dante uses it for a heavy weight.^[2]
• Before 1332 – Maestro Alberto uses it of a low sound.^[2]
• Before 1400 – Franco Sacchetti uses it of a gravely ill person.^[2]
• 1494 – Luca Pacioli writes of the grave accent.^[2]
• Before 1519 – Leonardo da Vinci uses the noun for a heavy body.^[2]
• 1571 – The noun is recorded for the low register in music.^[14]
• 1683 – English grave is first recorded as a musical term.^[14]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (physics) Having weight, subject to the force of gravity (gravità).^[4][11][15]
2. heavy, weighty: Portava sulle spalle un sacco grave.^[4][16]
3. Weighed down by tiredness or sleep: Mi sento le palpebre gravi.^[4][16][17]
4. Hard to bear, painful, as a grief or loss.^[4][17]
5. serious, worrying: La situazione in città è grave.^[4][17]
6. Of a fault or error, serious, with bad consequences.^[4][11]
7. Of an illness or injury, dangerous, and of a patient, in serious condition: un ferito grave.^[4][15]
8. solemn, austere: of a voice, a tone or a manner.^[4][17][18]
9. Slow, sluggish.^[4][17]
10. (music) Low in pitch (basso), and as a direction for a slow, solemn tempo.^[4][11][15]
11. (linguistics) In accento grave, the grave accent (`).^[11][15]

Noun

1. (physics) A heavy body, subject to gravity, as in la caduta dei gravi.^[15][12]

Word family

• gravemente
• gravare
• gravezza
• gravità
• gravoso
• gravame
• gravitare
• gravitazione
• gravitazionale
• gravosità
• aggravare
• sgravare

Related words

• greve
• gravido
• bruto
• graveolente
• Latin gravis

Usage notes

The opposite of grave in the sense “heavy, serious” is lieve; in music it is acuto.^[11][18]

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 Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1865
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
8. ^ 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
9. ^ a b Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
10. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 527
11. ^ a b c d e f Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
12. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 7, 6
13. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
14. ^ a b c Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
15. ^ a b c d e Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
16. ^ a b Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
17. ^ a b c d e Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
18. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli