500–401 BC

Italian words from Latin words first recorded in the 5th century BC

63 Italian words inherited from a Latin word whose earliest known written record dates from the 5th century BC, earliest Latin record first.

avere
451 BC–450 BC

from Latin habeo

It is inherited from Latin habeō (“to have, hold”). The verb is found in every Romance language: French avoir, Occitan aver, Catalan aver, Spanish haber, Portuguese haver, Sardinian àere, Romanian…
cosa
451 BC–450 BC

from Latin causa

It is inherited from Latin causa (“cause, reason; lawsuit”), which through the sense “affair, business” took the place of rēs (“thing”) in speech. The Latin diphthong “au” became “o”, as in other…
falso
451 BC–450 BC

from Latin falsus

It is inherited from Latin falsus (“false, mistaken”), originally the past participle of fallō (“to deceive”). DELI notes that the adjective is the inherited word, while falsare, falsario and…
famiglia
451 BC–450 BC

from Latin familia

It is inherited from Latin familia (“the slaves of a household; household”), from famulus (“servant”). The cluster /lj/ became /ʎ/, as in other popular words. DEI calls the word popular throughout…
figlio
451 BC–450 BC

from Latin filius

It is inherited from Latin fīlius (“son”). DÉRom reconstructs Proto-Romance */ˈɸili-u/, found in every Romance language; French and Franco-Provençal continue the nominative */ˈɸili-u-s/. It is…
fuggire
451 BC–450 BC

from Latin fugio

It is inherited from Late Latin fugīre (“to flee”), an infinitive which from the 4th century replaced classical ⟨fugere⟩. DEI says the change of conjugation was modelled on the perfect fūgī, and…
furto
451 BC–450 BC

from Latin furtum

It is inherited from Latin fūrtum (“theft; stolen goods”), derived from fūr (“thief”). DELI and GRADIT explain the Latin noun as the past participle of an unrecorded verb ⟨*fūrere⟩ “to steal”, and…
giudice
451 BC–450 BC

from Latin iudex

It is inherited from Latin iūdex (“judge”), from the accusative iūdicem. GDLI calls it a semi-learned word. The word is pan-Romance: French juge (the source of the English judge), Occitan jutge…
giusto
451 BC–450 BC

from Latin iustus

It is inherited from Latin iustus (“just, lawful”), “in keeping with the law”, from iūs (“law, right”). The Latin word was both an adjective and, later, a noun. The GDLI calls the Italian word…
leggere
451 BC–450 BC

from Latin lego

It is inherited from Latin legō (“to gather, collect; to read”). The GDLI calls it a learned word. The Latin verb lives on in French lire, Occitan legir, Spanish leer and Portuguese ler. The first…
lingua
451 BC–450 BC

from Latin lingua

It is inherited from Latin lingua (“tongue; language”), which already had both senses, as Greek did. The same word is French langue, Occitan lenga, Catalan llengua, Spanish lengua, Portuguese…
luce
451 BC–450 BC

from Latin lux

It is inherited from Latin lux (“light; daylight, day”), from the accusative ⟨lūcem⟩. The GDLI calls it a learned word, but DELI, Nocentini and Wiktionary treat it as inherited. The same Latin word…
ma
451 BC–450 BC

from Latin magis

It is inherited from Latin magis (“more; rather”). It went through an older form Old Italian mai, recorded in early texts, which lost its last vowel; DELI ties the loss to the general dislike of…
maggiore
451 BC–450 BC

from Latin maior

It is inherited from Latin maior (“greater, older”), the comparative of magnus (“great”). Sabatini–Coletti notes that the ⟨gg⟩, /ddʒ/, is the usual Tuscan outcome of Latin /j/ between vowels. The…
mai
451 BC–450 BC

from Latin magis

It is inherited from Latin magis (“more; rather”). DELI notes that the Latin word was easily cut short at the end of a phrase, and Devoto ties the full form ⟨mai⟩ to magis in final position, as in…
padrone
451 BC–450 BC

from Latin patronus

It is inherited from Latin patrōnus (“protector, patron”), a derivative of pater (“father”). In Rome the patron was the powerful man in relation to those he protected: the former master of freed…
pena
451 BC–450 BC

from Latin poena

It is inherited from Latin poena (“fine; punishment; suffering”), which Latin had taken from Ancient Greek ποινά (poiná, “compensation, price of blood; penalty”), the Doric form of ποινή (poinḗ)…
più
451 BC–450 BC

from Latin plus

It is inherited from Latin plūs (“more”), the comparative of multus (“much”). The /l/ after /p/ became /j/, as regularly in Italian. Latin already used the word with an adjective in place of a…
porto
451 BC–450 BC

from Latin portus

1. The harbour is inherited from Latin portus (“passage, entrance; harbour”), a word of Indo-European origin related to Latin porta (“gate”). The sense “passage” survives in Spanish puerto and…
pulire
451 BC–450 BC

from Latin polio

It is inherited from Latin polīre (“to polish, to smooth”). Sabatini–Coletti call it the popular form beside the learned polire. The same verb is French polir, Occitan polir, Catalan polir and…
rompere
451 BC–450 BC

from Latin rumpo

It is inherited from Latin rumpō (“to break, burst”). The verb survives in nearly the whole Romance area: French rompre, Occitan rompre, Catalan rompre, Spanish romper, Portuguese romper, Sardinian…
servo
451 BC–450 BC

from Latin servus

It is inherited from Latin servus (“slave”). The Latin word is panromance: French serf, Occitan ser, Spanish siervo, Portuguese servo, Sardinian servu and Old Romanian ⟨șerb⟩, and DÉRom reconstructs…
sole
451 BC–450 BC

from Latin sol

It is inherited from Latin sōl (“sun”), from the accusative ⟨sōlem⟩. The Latin noun survives in Occitan sol, Catalan sol, Spanish sol, Portuguese sol, Sardinian sole and Romanian soare; French…
tagliare
451 BC–450 BC

from Latin talio

It is inherited from Late Latin tāliō (“to cut, prune”), recorded from the 6th century in the writings of the Roman land surveyors, a verb formed from Latin tālia, a variant of tālea (“cutting, slip…
terzo
451 BC–450 BC

from Latin tertius

It is inherited from Latin tertius (“third”), the ordinal formed from trēs (“three”). The same word is French tiers, Occitan tertz, Catalan ters, Friulian terts and Romansh terz; Spanish tercio and…
togliere
451 BC–450 BC

from Latin tollo

It is inherited from Latin tollō (“to lift, raise; to take away, remove”). DELI points out that the regular outcome was Old Italian torre, from a form with ⟨-lr-⟩ assimilated, and DEI explains the…
uno
451 BC–450 BC

from Latin unus

It is inherited from Latin ūnus (“one; single, alone”). The Latin word served both as a numeral and in the sense “same” (“uno tempore” “at one time”); already in Plautus it can mark a single person…
uomo
451 BC–450 BC

from Latin homo

It is inherited from Latin homō (“human being, man”), continued in the nominative, while the plural ⟨uomini⟩ continues hominēs. Few Latin nouns for persons survive in the nominative in Italian…
vivere
451 BC–450 BC

from Latin vivo

It is inherited from Latin vīvō (“to live”), from Proto-Italic *gʷīwō, from Proto-Indo-European *gʷíh₃weti (“to live, be alive”). The verb is pan-Romance: French vivre, Occitan viure, Catalan viure…
a
450 BC

from Latin ad

It is inherited from Latin ad (“to, towards; near”). Before a vowel the form “ad” is kept, and the preposition is the same as the prefix a- that doubles the following consonant (“accanto”…
con
450 BC

from Latin cum

It is inherited from Latin cum (“with”), Old Latin ⟨com⟩, from Proto-Italic *kom, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱóm (“next to, with”). In Latin compounds it appears as the prefixes ⟨con-⟩ and ⟨co-⟩. The…
da
450 BC

from Latin de

It is inherited from Latin dē (“from, down from”) joined to ab (“from, away from”), prepositions that both expressed motion away from a place. Nocentini sees in it the strengthening of short…
danno
450 BC

from Latin damnum

It is inherited from Latin damnum (“loss, damage; expense; fine”). The Latin cluster ⟨-mn-⟩ became ⟨-nn-⟩ in the popular word, while learned spellings such as damno and dampno kept it. DELI and the…
di
450 BC

from Latin de

It is inherited from Latin dē (“from, down from; about”), with the unstressed ⟨e⟩ raised to ⟨i⟩ because the word leans on the one that follows. The Italian form already appears in a Medieval Latin…
difendere
450 BC

from Latin defendo

It is inherited from Latin dēfendō (“to ward off; to protect”). The Latin verb is a compound of dē- (“away”) and *fendō (“to strike”), which is found only in compounds, as in offendō. Its first…
doppio
450 BC

from Latin duplus

It is inherited from Latin duplus (“double, twice as much”), formed from duo (“two”) and the suffix -plus of such adjectives. Sabatini–Coletti calls it the popular form beside the learned doublet…
dove
450 BC

from Latin de

It is inherited from Latin dē (“from”) and ubi (“where”), the phrase ⟨dē ubi⟩ “from where”, which took the place of the simple adverb. The simple Latin word survives as literary ove. Wiktionary…
e
450 BC

from Latin et

It is inherited from Latin et (“and; also”). The same conjunction is French et, Occitan e, Catalan i, Spanish y, Portuguese e and Sardinian e. The variant ed keeps the Latin final consonant before a…
età
450 BC

from Latin aetas

It is inherited from Latin aetās (“age, lifetime; period”), from the accusative. The older forms Old Italian etate and Old Italian etade were shortened. DELI treats it as a learned word, but the LEI…
forte
450 BC

from Latin fortis

It is inherited from Latin fortis (“strong, brave”). The word is panromance: French fort, Occitan fort, Catalan fort, Spanish fuerte, Portuguese forte and Sardinian forte, and Romanian foarte…
già
450 BC

from Latin iam

It is inherited from Latin iam (“now, already”). The word is common to most of the Romance languages: French ja, Occitan ja, Catalan ja, Spanish ya, Portuguese já and Sardinian ja, with Friulian…
gli
450 BC

from Latin ille

The article and the pronoun are both inherited from Latin ille (“that”) with the first syllable lost: the article is the nominative plural ⟨illī⟩ “those”, the pronoun the dative singular ⟨illī⟩ “to…
il
450 BC

from Latin ille

It is inherited from Latin ille (“that”), from the accusative ⟨illum⟩ shortened in unstressed position before a noun. The article is a Romance innovation drawn from the Latin demonstrative; only…
la
450 BC

from Latin ille

1. The article and pronoun is inherited from Latin illa (“that”), the feminine of the demonstrative ⟨ille⟩ “that”, in its nominative ⟨illa⟩ and accusative ⟨illam⟩. The demonstrative was already used…
le
450 BC

from Latin ille

The article and the object pronoun “them” are inherited from Latin ille (“that”) in the feminine plural, with the first syllable lost. Most dictionaries start from the nominative plural ⟨illae⟩…
lungo
450 BC

from Latin longus

It is inherited from Latin longus (“long; distant”), continuing its accusative longum. The word is found across the Romance languages: French long, Occitan lonc, Catalan llong, Old Spanish luengo…
mano
450 BC

from Latin manus

It is inherited from Latin manus (“hand”), from the accusative ⟨manum⟩. The word lives on in every Romance language, as French main, Occitan man, Catalan mà, Spanish mano, Portuguese mão, Sardinian…
meno
450 BC

from Latin minus

It is inherited from Latin minus (“less”), the neuter of minor (“smaller”) used as an adverb. The adjective serves as the comparative of parvus (“small”). The same word is French moins, Occitan…
moglie
450 BC

from Latin mulier

It is inherited from Latin mulier (“woman”), continuing the nominative, as do a few other names of persons such as uomo, ladro and sarto. The other Romance languages, and the Italian dialects of the…
né
450 BC

from Latin nec

It is inherited from Latin nec (“and not, nor”). The Latin word is the shortened form of neque used before consonants, a compound of the negation ne (“not”) and the enclitic -que (“and”). The word…
o
450 BC

from Latin aut

1. The conjunction is inherited from Latin aut (“or”). The Latin word lives on in every Romance language in its popular form: French ou, Occitan o, Catalan o, Spanish o, Portuguese ou, Sardinian o…
oro
450 BC

from Latin aurum

It is inherited from Latin aurum (“gold”), pronounced early as “ōrum”: Festus notes that country people called the gilthead fish “orata” after the colour of gold, which they said “orum”. The word…
parte
450 BC

from Latin pars

It is inherited from Latin pars (“part, share”), from the accusative ⟨partem⟩. The word is panromance: French part, Occitan part, Catalan part, Spanish parte, Portuguese parte, Sardinian parte and…
per
450 BC

from Latin per

It is inherited from Latin per (“through, across; during; by means of”). In Italian it also took over many uses of prō (“in front of; for”), and Devoto described it as a blend of the two Latin…
popolo
450 BC

from Latin populus

It is inherited from Latin populus (“people, body of citizens”). DELI calls the Tuscan form learned and DEI semi-learned, since it keeps the /p/ between vowels, while the Old Italian forms with /v/…
quando
450 BC

from Latin quando

It is inherited from Latin quandō (“when”), the Latin interrogative adverb and temporal conjunction. The DÉRom reconstructs a Proto-Romance adverb and conjunction ⟨*/ˈkuand-o/⟩, which every Romance…
se
450 BC

from Latin se

1. The conjunction “if” is inherited from Late Latin se(d), a Late Latin form recorded from the 6th century, which DELI, GRADIT, Sabatini–Coletti and the GDLI explain as a blend of Latin sī (“if”)…
si
450 BC

from Latin se

1. The pronoun is inherited from Latin sē (“himself, herself, itself, themselves”), the Latin reflexive pronoun: “si” is the unstressed clitic form beside the stressed sé. GRADIT and Treccani add a…
suo
450 BC

from Latin suus

It is inherited from Latin suus (“his, her, their own”). The word is panromance: French son and sien, Occitan so, Catalan son, Spanish su and suyo, Portuguese seu, Sardinian suu, Friulian so and…
sé
450 BC

from Latin se

It is inherited from Latin sē (“himself, herself, themselves”), the reflexive pronoun. The same pronoun is French soi, Occitan se, Catalan se, Portuguese si, Sardinian se, Spanish sí and Romanian…

All Italian words inherited from Latin, by century →