latino

Forms

latino (feminine latina, masculine plural latini, feminine plural latine)^[1] The oldest texts have Old Italian latin, Old Italian latì, Old Italian ladine and the northern Old Italian lain.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is learned: it is borrowed from Latin Latīnus (“of Latium”), the adjective of Latium.^[4][5][6][7] The Latin adjective is made from the name of the region with the suffix -īnus.^[1] The popular development of the same word is ladino, and in the Alpine area, Sardinia, Spain and Portugal it lived on with senses such as “clear” and “sly”: Sardinian ladinu (“clear”), Spanish ladino and Portuguese ladinho.^[8][3][9] The learned word is French latin (12th century), the source of the English word Latin, and Spanish latino.^[8][6]

Classical Latin derived latīnitās from it, in the sense “pure speech, free of barbarisms and solecisms”;^[4][6] Late Latin formed latinizāre “to translate into Latin” on the model of graecizāre.^[4][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is the Genoese part of Raimbaut de Vaqueiras's bilingual Contrasto, about 1190.^[2] DELI's earliest is the noun in the Ritmo laurenziano, at the end of the 12th century, where it means an Italian of the peninsula.^[4]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian latino meant the people and the language of ancient Latium and Rome, and also Italian and the Italians: Petrarch's Latin sangue gentile, “noble Italian blood”.^[2][10][11] Dante has the noun for the language before 1294.^[4][5] Because Latin was the regulated language of the learned, the noun also came to mean any speech or discourse, as in Dante's con preciso latin rispuose, “answered in precise words”, and even the song of birds.^[2][11] Another old sense, widespread in the dialects, is “easy, clear, smooth”: Dante writes sì che raffigurar m'è più latino, “so that recognising you is easier for me”.^[4][12][2] K. Jaberg studied this sense in an article on lenis and latinus.^[4] Villani uses the word for “willing, inclined”, and latino di bocca was a slanderer.^[13][3][12]

The adjective named ancient Rome from Tassoni (1614–1617) on.^[4] Tommaseo–Bellini (1869) records the mondo latino and the sense “Roman Catholic”, and Carducci (1881) uses latino for the peoples and cultures of Romance speech.^[4] The vela latina, the triangular lateen sail, is recorded from the 16th century.^[8] Since latino was a difficult language, the word also means anything unintelligible; the Sienese said that Alfieri's tragedies were written in latino.^[11][5]

Timeline

• c. 1190 – Raimbaut de Vaqueiras's Contrasto has the first record.^[2]
• End of the 12th century – The Ritmo laurenziano uses the noun for an Italian.^[4]
• Before 1294 – Dante uses latino for the language.^[4][5]
• 1304–1308 – Dante uses it for ancient Latium and for the language and literature of Rome.^[4]
• 16th century – The lateen sail is called vela latina.^[8]
• 1614–1617 – Tassoni uses latino for ancient Rome.^[4]
• 1869 – Tommaseo–Bellini records mondo latino and the sense “Roman Catholic”.^[4]
• 1881 – Carducci uses latino for the Romance-speaking peoples.^[4]
• 1995 – The Spanish noun latino “Latin American” enters Italian.^[14]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of ancient Latium or ancient Rome: le antiche città latine.^[5][10][13]
2. Of the Latin language: una parola latina.^[5][10][14]
3. Of the peoples and countries of Romance speech: il temperamento latino.^[5][10][12]
4. (religion) Roman Catholic, as opposed to the Eastern Churches: rito latino.^[5][10][14]
5. (nautical) Of a sail: lateen, triangular: vela latina.^[10][12][13]
6. (archaic) Italian.^[10][14][13]
7. (archaic, literary) Clear, easy to understand.^[10][14][12]

Noun

1. An inhabitant of ancient Latium or Rome, a Latin.^[5][10][14]
2. The Latin language: latino classico, latino volgare.^[5][14][13]
3. Latin as a school subject: Domani ho l'interrogazione di latino.^[5][14]
4. (figurative) Unintelligible language.^[5][11]

Word family

• latineggiante
• latineggiare
• latinismo
• latinista
• latinità
• latinizzare
• latinizzazione
• latinuccio
• latinamente
• latinaggine
• latinare
• latinesco

Related words

• ladino
• Lazio
• Latin Latinus

Usage notes

America latina is Latin America, and the Quartiere latino is the Latin Quarter of Paris.^[10][12] Latino is also used, invariable or with the Spanish plural latinos, for Spanish-speaking people in North America and people from Latin America (1995).^[14]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o 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 h i j k l De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
6. ^ a b c d Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
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 c d Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2176
9. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
11. ^ a b c d Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
12. ^ a b c d e f Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
13. ^ a b c d e Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
14. ^ a b c d e f g h i Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse