Etymologically
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italiano

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Pronunciation

  • /i.taˈlja.no/[1]

Forms

italiano (feminine italiana, masculine plural italiani, feminine plural italiane, superlative italianissimo)[1] Old Italian forms include taliano, ytaliano and italian.[2] Tommaseo notes that popular speech in several dialects still said Taliano.[3]

Etymology

It is from Italian Italia + -ano, formed like veneziano and siciliano from the names of their places.[4][5][6][7] Wiktionary derives it from Latin italiānus, but the Latin adjective is itself formed on the model of the Romance word.[1] DELI quotes Migliorini, for whom the appearance of the name was a sign of the coming together of the scattered parts of the peninsula: Medieval Latin had Italus and Italicus, but the vernacular had no common term, and in France all Italians were simply called Lombards.[4]

According to Nocentini the ethnic name first appears in its French form, Old French ytalien, in Brunetto Latini's French encyclopedia (1260–1266), and then in the Tuscan translation of that work.[5][4] The adjective long competed with italico, volgare, toscano and fiorentino as the name of the language, and won definitively only in the second half of the 19th century.[5]

Latin Italia and Italus follow Greek Ἰταλία (Italía) and Ἰταλοί (Italoí), at first the name of a people of Calabria, extended later to peninsular Italy and under Augustus to the whole of Italy south of the Alps.[5] The form Oscan Viteliú, on the coins of the Italic league against Rome (90 BC), has an initial ⟨v⟩, and ancient tradition linked the name with vitulus (“calf”); whether that is old or a folk etymology is uncertain.[5][4][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is in Bono Giamboni (before 1292).[4][8] The TLIO's first record is the Florentine translation of Brunetto Latini's Tesoro, from the late 13th century.[2] A Sienese collection of exempla of the same period, retelling Valerius Maximus, speaks of the Romans having captured “a great Italian” (uno grande ytaliano).[4]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian the word was used of places in the peninsula, of persons born there, of the language spoken in Italy, and of the ancient Italic peoples; as a noun it named an inhabitant of Italy.[2] From the 18th century italico was kept almost only for classical antiquity, while italiano prevailed in all other uses.[9] As the name of the language, based on 14th-century literary Florentine, it was established from the 16th century, but was mostly written outside Tuscany until the unification of Italy.[6][5]

The phrase all'italiana “in the Italian manner” is recorded from 1721; it can be ironic, implying cunning or improvisation.[4][10] Derivatives record the national debate: italianità (1821 for the language), italianizzare (1688) and italianista (1853).[4] English has Italian as a noun from 1422 and as the name of the language from 1485, and French italien is recorded about 1265.[11]

Timeline

  • 1260–1266 – Brunetto Latini uses French ytalien in the Tresor.[5][4]
  • Before 1292 – Bono Giamboni uses italiano.[4]
  • Late 13th century – The Florentine Tesoro translation has italiano.[2]
  • 1422 – English Italian “an Italian” is recorded.[11]
  • 1485 – English Italian is recorded for the language.[11]
  • 1688 – Italianizzare is recorded.[4]
  • 1721 – All'italiana is recorded.[4]
  • 1853 – Carducci uses italianista.[4]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Italian: of or from Italy: Mi piace molto la cucina italiana.[6][12][7]
  2. (dated) Having patriotic Italian feelings.[7]

Noun

  1. An Italian: a native or inhabitant of Italy: Molti italiani sono emigrati in Argentina.[6][7][10]
  2. The Italian language: Studia l'italiano da tre anni.[6][7][8]
  3. Italian language and literature as a school subject: Domani ho il compito di italiano.[6][7][10]

Word family

  • italianità
  • italianismo
  • italianista
  • italianistica
  • italianizzare
  • italianamente
  • italianizzazione
  • antitaliano

Usage notes

All'italiana means “in the Italian style”, often ironically.[10][12] Parlare italiano can mean figuratively “to speak plainly”.[8][13] The literary adjectives italo and italico also appear as the first element of compounds such as italo-americano.[9]

References

  1. ^ a b c 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 Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
  5. ^ a b c d e f g Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  6. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  7. ^ a b c d e f Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  8. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  9. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2124
  10. ^ a b c d Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
  11. ^ a b c Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
  12. ^ 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
  13. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli