300–201 BC

Italian words from Latin words first recorded in the 3rd century BC

287 Italian words inherited from a Latin word whose earliest known written record dates from the 3rd century BC, earliest Latin record first (page 2).

mettere
240 BC–207 BC

from Latin mitto

It is inherited from Latin mittō (“to send; to let go”). The Latin verb already moved from “send” to “put” in Late Latin: the Vulgate uses it in Luke 5:37 for putting new wine into old wineskins…
mezzo
240 BC–207 BC

from Latin medius

It is inherited from Latin medius (“middle”), the adjective, and its neuter medium (“the middle, the space between”), used as a noun. The word came down through popular speech, while medio is the…
mille
240 BC–207 BC

from Latin mille

It is inherited from Latin mīlle (“thousand”). The word is found throughout Romance: French mille, Occitan mil, Catalan mil, Spanish mil, Portuguese mil and Sardinian milli, while Romanian mie…
molto
240 BC–207 BC

from Latin multus

It is inherited from Latin multus (“much, many”), and as an adverb the Latin neuter multum (“much”). The word is panromance: Old French mout, Occitan molt, Catalan molt, Spanish mucho, Portuguese…
nave
240 BC–207 BC

from Latin navis

It is inherited from Latin nāvis (“ship”), through the accusative form. The Latin word lives on in most Romance languages: French nef, Occitan nau, Catalan nau, Spanish nave, Portuguese nave…
ogni
240 BC–207 BC

from Latin omnis

It is inherited from Old Italian onne, inherited from Latin omnis (“all, every”). DELI starts from a form omnim for the usual accusative omnem, if a reading in a passage of the Itala is correct, as…
poco
240 BC–207 BC

from Latin paucus

It is inherited from Latin paucus (“few, little”), from the accusative ⟨paucum⟩; the Latin adjective was used mostly in the plural, ⟨pauci⟩ “few”. The word is continued across the Romance languages…
prego
240 BC–207 BC

from Latin precor

Both uses come from pregare (“to pray; to ask”): the noun “prayer” is formed from the verb with no suffix, and the interjection is its first person singular present, “I pray (you)”. The verb…
prezzo
240 BC–207 BC

from Latin pretium

It is inherited from Latin pretium (“price, value”). The Latin /tj/ became the voiceless affricate /ts/, the regular Tuscan outcome. The same Latin word gave the doublet pregio, which Körting…
rispondere
240 BC–207 BC

from Latin respondeo

It is inherited from Late Latin respŏndere (“to answer”), the Late Latin form of the classical verb, which had a long /ē/ in the infinitive and moved to the third conjugation; DELI dates the new…
santo
240 BC–207 BC

from Latin sanctus

It is inherited from Latin sānctus (“sacred, inviolable”), properly the past participle of sanciō (“to make sacred and inviolable, ratify”). The word is found throughout Romance: French saint…
sedere
240 BC–207 BC

from Latin sedeo

It is inherited from Latin sedeō (“to be seated, sit”). The verb is panromance: French seoir, Occitan sezer, Catalan seure, Sardinian sèzzere and Romanian ședea; in Spanish and Portuguese it merged…
terra
240 BC–207 BC

from Latin terra

It is inherited from Latin terra (“dry land, earth; country”). The word is panromance: French terre, Occitan terra, Catalan terra, Spanish tierra, Portuguese terra, Sardinian terra and Romanian…
vedere
240 BC–207 BC

from Latin video

It is inherited from Latin videō (“to see; to notice, consider”). The literary present ⟨veggio⟩ continues the Latin first person ⟨videō⟩ directly, and the participle ⟨veggente⟩ is formed on it. The…
venire
240 BC–207 BC

from Latin venio

It is inherited from Latin veniō (“to come; to arrive; to happen”). The verb is panromance: French venir, Occitan venir, Catalan vindre, Spanish venir, Portuguese vir, Sardinian bènnere, Romansh…
vino
240 BC–207 BC

from Latin vinum

It is inherited from Latin vīnum (“wine”). The Latin noun was neuter, and became masculine in the spoken language; Petronius already has a masculine vinus. The old Italian plural in ⟨-a⟩ and the…
volare
240 BC–207 BC

from Latin volo

It is inherited from Latin volō (“to fly”), which Latin also used for moving swiftly, as when Cicero writes that letters “flew” to Pompey at Capua. The verb survives in all of the Romance languages…
altro
235 BC–201 BC

from Latin alter

It is inherited from Latin alter (“the other (of two)”), from the accusative alterum. In classical Latin the word meant “the other of two”, while alius (“another, different”) meant “another” among…
amare
235 BC–201 BC

from Latin amo

It is inherited from Latin amō (“to love”). The verb is found in nearly all the Romance languages, though not in Romanian: French aimer (older Old French amer, from the 9th-century “Sequence of…
amico
235 BC–201 BC

from Latin amicus

It is inherited from Latin amīcus (“friend; friendly”), from amō (“to love”). Nocentini and the LEI count it among the words inherited from Latin, while DELI calls it a learned word. It continues in…
amore
235 BC–200 BC

from Latin amor

It is inherited from Latin amor (“love”), from the accusative ⟨amorem⟩. The Latin noun is formed from amō (“to love”) with the suffix -or, as clāmor is from clāmō. The word is continued in nearly…
anno
235 BC–201 BC

from Latin annus

It is inherited from Latin annus (“year”), from the accusative ⟨annum⟩. The word survives in every Romance language: French an, Occitan an, Catalan any, Spanish año, Portuguese ano, Sardinian annu…
apparire
235 BC–201 BC

from Latin appareo

It is inherited from Latin appārēre (“to become visible, appear”), which moved to the conjugation in ⟨-ire⟩. DEI and Prati start instead from the inchoative Late Latin *apparēscere, and Nocentini…
aprire
235 BC–201 BC

from Latin aperio

It is inherited from Latin aperiō (“to open, uncover”). Sabatini–Coletti notes the loss of the vowel before the stress. The Latin verb survives in Friulian avrî, Romansh avrir, Spanish abrir and…
cantare
235 BC–201 BC

from Latin canto

It is inherited from Latin cantō (“to sing”), the frequentative or intensive of canō (“to sing”). In Latin the derived verb took the place of the irregular older verb as early as the 3rd century BC…
carne
235 BC–201 BC

from Latin caro

It is inherited from Latin carō (“flesh, meat”), continued in the form of its accusative “carnem”. The word survives in every Romance language: French chair, Occitan carn, Catalan carn, Spanish…
chiaro
235 BC–200 BC

from Latin clarus

It is inherited from Latin clārus (“loud; bright, clear; famous”). The word is pan-Romance: French clair, Occitan clar, Catalan clar, Sardinian giaru and Romanian chiar (“just, exactly”), which…
collo
235 BC–201 BC

from Latin collum

It is inherited from Latin collum (“neck”), which in early Latin was also masculine, collus. The word lives on in all the Romance languages except Romanian: French cou, Occitan col, Catalan coll…
comune
235 BC–201 BC

from Latin communis

It is inherited from Latin commūnis (“shared, common; public”). DELI regards the whole family as learned, while the LEI, which finds the Latin word continued in every Romance language except…
contro
235 BC–200 BC

from Latin contra

It is inherited from Old Italian contra, inherited from Latin contrā (“opposite, against”). The form in -a is well represented in the dialects, and in southern Italy it is the usual one, while DEI…
correre
235 BC–201 BC

from Latin curro

It is inherited from Latin currō (“to run”), a verb of Indo-European origin. The verb survives across the Romance languages: French courir (rarely courre), Occitan corre, Catalan córrer, Spanish…
due
235 BC–201 BC

from Latin duo

It is inherited from Latin duo (“two”). GRADIT and Wiktionary take it from the feminine duae, while DEI and Devoto start from the masculine Late Latin dui of later Latin that replaced classical…
fatto
235 BC–201 BC

from Latin factum

It is inherited from Latin factum (“deed, act”), the noun use of factus (“made, done”), the past participle of faciō (“to make, do”), which gave fare. Nocentini notes that the participle took both…
fiamma
235 BC–201 BC

from Latin flamma

It is inherited from Latin flamma. The word is pan-Romance: French flamme (borrowed as English flame and German Flamme), Occitan flama, Catalan flama, Spanish llama, Portuguese chama, Sardinian…
fonte
235 BC–200 BC

from Latin fons

It is inherited from Latin fōns (“spring, source”), from the accusative fontem. The word is found in most Romance languages: Occitan fon, Catalan font, Spanish fuente, Portuguese fonte and Friulian…
forma
235 BC–201 BC

from Latin forma

It is inherited from Latin forma (“form, shape; mould; beauty”). DELI, however, classes it with its derivatives among the learned words taken from Latin. The word is found across Romance: French…
gente
235 BC–201 BC

from Latin gens

It is inherited from Latin gens (“clan, family; people, nation”), from the accusative ⟨gentem⟩, a noun related to gignō (“to beget”). It is panromance: French gent, Occitan gen, Catalan gent, Old…
ieri
235 BC–201 BC

from Latin heri

It is inherited from Latin heri (“yesterday”). The word is found throughout the Romance languages: French hier, Occitan er, Catalan ahir, Spanish ayer, Sardinian eris and Romanian ieri; Old…
intero
235 BC–201 BC

from Latin integer

It is inherited from Latin integer (“untouched, whole, intact”), from the accusative, through a spoken form Vulgar Latin *intĕgrum stressed on the second syllable, in place of the classical stress…
lavare
235 BC–201 BC

from Latin lavo

It is inherited from Latin lavō (“to wash”). The verb is found in all the Romance languages: French laver, Occitan lavar, Catalan lavar, Spanish lavar, Portuguese lavar and Romanian la. The DÉRom…
lettera
235 BC–201 BC

from Latin littera

It is inherited from Latin littera (“letter of the alphabet”), whose plural litterae meant “an epistle”, “literature” and “culture”. Under the influence of Ancient Greek γράμμα (grámma) and its…
lieto
235 BC–201 BC

from Latin laetus

It is inherited from Latin laetus (“glad, joyful; fertile, rich”). DELI and Nocentini explain that the Latin adjective first meant “fertile, fruitful”, a word of the farming world, and that this…
mente
235 BC–201 BC

from Latin mens

It is inherited from Latin mentem (“mind”), the accusative of the Latin noun. DELI and DEI call it a learned word, while Nocentini counts it among the inherited words: it is pan-Romance, with…
migliore
235 BC–201 BC

from Latin melior

It is inherited from Latin melior (“better”), from the accusative ⟨meliōrem⟩, which served in Latin as the comparative of bonus (“good”). The same word is French meilleur, Occitan melhor, Catalan…
naso
235 BC–200 BC

from Latin nasus

It is inherited from Latin nāsus (“nose”). The same word is French nez, Occitan nas, Catalan nas, Sardinian nasu and Romanian nas, while Spanish naso and Portuguese naso mean a big nose. Latin also…
nato
235 BC–201 BC

from Latin natus

It is inherited from Latin nātus (“born; son”), the past participle of nāscor (“to be born”). The Latin word had an older form gnātus, which shows its link with gignō (“to beget”), so that it first…
no
235 BC–200 BC

from Latin non

It is inherited from Latin nōn (“not”), with the final ⟨-n⟩ dropped when the word stands alone; the proclitic form before a verb kept it as non. Several Romance languages split the Latin word in the…
non
235 BC–200 BC

from Latin non

It is inherited from Latin nōn (“not”). The Latin word comes from ⟨*ne oinom⟩ “not one”, from the negative particle ne and the archaic neuter of ūnus (“one”), still seen in the old forms ⟨noenum⟩…
nove
235 BC–201 BC

from Latin novem

It is inherited from Latin novem (“nine”). The same word is French neuf, Occitan nou, Catalan nou, Spanish nueve, Portuguese nove, Sardinian noe, Romansh nuf, Friulian nuf and Romanian nouă…
oggi
235 BC–201 BC

from Latin hodie

It is inherited from Latin hodiē (“today”), literally “on this day”. De Vaan explains the Latin word as a compound of hic (“this”) and diēs (“day”), probably in an old ablative; the form of the…
opera
235 BC–201 BC

from Latin opera

It is inherited from Latin opera (“work, effort; a day's work; day labourer”), originally the plural of the neuter opus (“work”), taken as a feminine singular as early as Plautus. DELI explains the…
palazzo
235 BC–201 BC

from Latin palatium

It is inherited from Latin palātium (“palace”), originally the name of the Palatine Hill in Rome, Palātium, where Augustus fixed the emperors' residence, and then the imperial palace that stood…
passo
235 BC–201 BC

from Latin passus

1. The adjective “withered” is inherited from Latin passus (“spread out”), the past participle of pandō (“to spread out”), because grapes and other fruit were spread out in the sun to dry. Latin…
perdere
235 BC–200 BC

from Latin perdo

It is inherited from Latin perdō (“to destroy, waste; to lose”), formed from per- (“beyond”), here marking a turn for the worse, and dō (“to give”). The verb is pan-Romance: French perdre, Occitan…
primo
235 BC–201 BC

from Latin primus

It is inherited from Latin prīmus (“first”), the superlative of the old adverb prī (“before”). The Latin word comes from an older ⟨*prīsmos⟩, attested in Paelignian ⟨prismu⟩. Nocentini compares the…
provare
235 BC–201 BC

from Latin probo

It is inherited from Latin probō (“to approve, test, prove”), a verb formed from the adjective probus (“good, upright”), so that it first meant “to find good, to approve”. The same verb is French…
ridere
235 BC–201 BC

from Latin rideo

It is inherited from Late Latin rīdere (“to laugh”), the form used by Christian writers from the 4th century in place of classical ⟨rīdēre⟩, moved to the third conjugation after the perfect ⟨rīsī⟩…
salvo
235 BC–200 BC

from Latin salvus

It is inherited from Latin salvus (“whole, unharmed, safe”). The same word is French sauf, Occitan salf, Catalan salf, Spanish salvo, Portuguese salvo, Logudorese salvu and Friulian salf; it is…
segno
235 BC–200 BC

from Latin signum

It is inherited from Latin signum (“mark, sign; standard; image; constellation”). DELI gives the Latin vowel as long, Nocentini and GRADIT as short. The word is found across the Romance languages…
solo
235 BC–201 BC

from Latin solus

It is inherited from Latin sōlus (“alone, only”); the adverb continues sōlum (“only”), the adverbial neuter of the adjective. In Old Italian, Old French and Old Occitan the adverbial form did not…

All Italian words inherited from Latin, by century →