influenza

Forms

influenza f (plural influenze)^[1] Old Italian forms include influenzia, enfluenza, enfluença and the Tuscan infruenza.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Medieval Latin influentia, a learned word.^[4][5][6][3] The Medieval Latin noun is formed on īnfluēns, the present participle of īnfluō (“to flow in”), with the suffix -ia.^[1][7][8] In the language of astrology it meant the action of the stars on a person's character and fate.^[9][3][8] The French equivalent influence is recorded from the 13th century.^[9][3]

DEI considers the sense “ascendancy, sway over others” a borrowing from French.^[9] DEI also has a separate article for the medical sense, but links it to the first, and the other dictionaries keep the word as one.^[9][4][6] Before it named the modern disease, the word was used of any contagious illness, the plague included.^[9][4] In older medicine the Latin noun also translated the Hippocratic Greek word for a flow of blood.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Restoro d'Arezzo, in 1282, in the astrological sense: the action of the heavenly bodies on human character and destiny and on natural and weather phenomena.^[2][10] DELI's first date, from Dante (1304–1308), is for the wider sense “action exerted by something on places, events or people”.^[4][6]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian the word already had a range of senses: the influence of the stars, influence in general, the phrase avere influenza “to exert one's power”, a manifestation of God's will, an impulse sent by a main organ to the rest of the body, a flow of liquid, influenza di freddo for a wave of cold air, and a contagious disease.^[2] Dante writes of Plato's doctrine in Paradiso 4: S'elli intende tornare a queste ruote / l'onor de la influenza e 'l biasmo (“if he means that the honour and blame of their influence return to these spheres”).^[3][11] Manzoni's don Ferrante still asks e lor signori mi vorranno negar l'influenze? (“and will these gentlemen deny me the influences?”), blaming the plague on a conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter.^[11]

Matteo Villani, before 1363, uses the word in the general sense of “contagion”.^[4] In the modern medical sense the dictionaries record it only from the 19th century, but the word passed with the epidemic of 1743, which spread from Italy across Europe, into English (1743) and French (1782), so it must be older.^[4][12] A letter of Salvator Rosa of 1667 already speaks of measles and of l'influenza mortale che ne corre (“the deadly influenza going round”), close to the modern sense.^[4] English has shortened the loan to flu, and German borrowed it in the 1780s.^[13]

The sense “authority, prestige” appears in Mazzini, before 1872, though A. Cesari had noted the new phrase perder l'influenza e la considerazione in 1810.^[4] The physical sense “action at a distance” was in general use by 1865–1866, when I. U. Tarchetti wrote of una specie di attrazione o d'influenza magnetica (“a sort of attraction or magnetic influence”), and Tommaseo–Bellini recorded it in 1869.^[4] In international law a zona or sfera d'influenza is a territory that a state controls politically and economically without holding sovereignty over it.^[7][11]

Timeline

• 1282 – Restoro d'Arezzo uses influenza for the influence of the stars.^[2][10]
• 1304–1308 – Dante uses it for the action of something on places, events or people.^[4][6]
• Before 1363 – Matteo Villani uses it for contagion.^[4]
• 14th century – G. Colombini uses it for “ascendancy”.^[9]
• 1667 – Salvator Rosa uses it in a sense close to the modern disease.^[4][13]
• 1743 – English borrows influenza during an epidemic that began in Italy.^[14][13][4]
• 1782 – French influenza is first recorded.^[4][9]
• 1780s – German Influenza is first recorded.^[13]
• 1810 – A. Cesari notes the new phrase perder l'influenza.^[4]
• 1828 – Leone has influenza for “epidemic”.^[15]
• 1865–1866 – I. U. Tarchetti writes of a magnetic influenza.^[4]
• Before 1872 – Mazzini uses the word for authority and prestige.^[4]
• 1874 – The disease, with catarrh and fever, is recorded in a dictionary.^[15][9]

Meanings

Noun

1. influence: the action that something exerts on events or people: L'influenza della musica africana sul jazz è evidente.^[6][7][10]
2. Ascendancy, prestige: the power to sway others: È un imprenditore con molta influenza in città. Zona or sfera d'influenza is a territory a state controls without sovereignty.^[6][7][10]
3. (astrology) The action of the heavenly bodies on human affairs and destiny.^[10][8][16]
4. (medicine) influenza, flu: an acute, contagious viral disease with fever and respiratory symptoms: Mia sorella è rimasta a letto una settimana con l'influenza.^[6][8][10]
5. (veterinary) A similar viral disease of animals, especially horses.^[6]
6. (physics) The action of some bodies on others at a distance: influenza elettrica is electrical induction.^[10][6]
7. (obsolete) The flowing of a liquid.^[6][10][8]

Word family

• influenzale
• influenzare
• parainfluenza

Related words

• influente
• influire
• influsso
• French influence
• English influenza
• Latin influentia

Usage notes

Influenza is also the third person singular present indicative and the imperative of influenzare.^[17] The disease of birds that can pass to humans is influenza aviaria.^[7][1] An older form is influenzia.^[16][11]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ 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, p. 7, 964
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
5. ^ 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 De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ 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
8. ^ a b c d e 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 h i Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2019
10. ^ a b c d e f g h Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
11. ^ a b c d Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
12. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti
13. ^ a b c d Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
14. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
15. ^ a b Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 557
16. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
17. ^ Wikizionario (Italian Wiktionary), it.wiktionary.org