lettera

Forms

lettera f (plural lettere)^[1] Old forms include Old Italian littera and Old Italian lettra, the latter in Petrarch,^[2][3][4] and old texts spell it letera, lèttara and in many other ways.^[5][6]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin littera (“letter of the alphabet”), whose plural litterae meant “an epistle”, “literature” and “culture”.^[7][8][9][1] Under the influence of Ancient Greek γράμμα (grámma) and its plural γράμματα (grámmata) the Latin word took on all their senses.^[7][10] The word is Romance everywhere except Romanian: French lettre, Occitan letra, Catalan lletra, Spanish letra, Portuguese letra and Sardinian littera.^[8][11][10] In Romance the singular also took the sense “epistle” of the Latin plural; southern Italian dialects even have a singular with the plural ending ⟨-e⟩, and in Old French a single letter could be named with the plural.^[11] Welsh llythyr was borrowed from the Latin word.^[11][10]

The origin of the Latin word is uncertain.^[12][1] DELI suggests a Greek origin, perhaps through Etruscan, and Nocentini derives it from Ancient Greek διφθέρα (diphthéra, “prepared hide, parchment”), a proposal Ernout and Meillet made with a query and Peruzzi supported: the Romans imported hides to write on, and the Greek word was adapted with ⟨l-⟩ for ⟨d-⟩, as in Latin lacrima.^[7][8][1] Walde and Hofmann derived it from a form related to Latin linō (“to smear”), as a “smeared sign”, which de Vaan finds morphologically unconvincing.^[12][1]

Learned derivatives came later from Latin: letterato, letterale, letteratura and letterario.^[7][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Venetian pact of Aleppo of 1207–1208.^[5][8] DELI dates the sense “written message” to 1219, in the Tuscan Breve di Montieri, and the letter of the alphabet to Brunetto Latini, who died in 1294.^[7][9]

Semantic evolution

In the 13th and 14th centuries the plural lettere already meant learning and literature (Brunetto Latini), and the singular could mean doctrine (Giordano da Pisa, 1305).^[7] Per lettera meant “in Latin”, the language of written culture.^[10][5][4] Dante used lettera for the literal sense of a text (1304–1308) and for the shape and size of letters, and Dino Compagni for a legal document (1310–1312).^[7]

In printing lettera is a piece of type (1547), and on medals and prints it is the inscription (Cellini, before 1571).^[7] The lettera di cambio was a bill of exchange,^[4] and on the stock exchange lettera is still the offer price, the opposite of denaro.^[13][14][1] Dire a lettere di scatola, to say plainly, comes from the large letters that apothecaries painted on their jars, as Florio explained in 1598.^[7][4]

Timeline

• 1207–1208 – The Venetian pact of Aleppo has the first record.^[5]
• 1219 – The Breve di Montieri uses lettera for a written message.^[7]
• Before 1294 – Brunetto Latini uses it for a letter of the alphabet and, in the plural, for learning.^[7]
• 1304–1308 – Dante uses it for the literal sense of a text.^[7]
• 1310–1312 – Dino Compagni uses it for a legal document.^[7]
• 1547 – Claudio Tolomei uses it for printing type.^[7]
• 1598 – Florio explains lettere di scatola.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A letter of the alphabet: Il suo cognome comincia con la lettera B.^{[9][15][2][1]}
2. (mathematics) A letter used as a symbol for a quantity or a variable.^[9][2][13]
3. (printing) A piece of type.^[9][2][13]
4. An inscription on a coin, a medal or under a print.^[9][2][14]
5. The literal sense of a text, as opposed to its spirit: Ha seguito la lettera del contratto, non il suo spirito.^{[9][2][13][1]}
6. A letter, a written message sent to someone: Ho ricevuto una lettera da mia sorella.^{[9][15][2][1]}
7. (plural) literature and the humanities, as a subject of study: Si è laureata in lettere.^[7][1]
8. (finance) On the stock exchange, the offer of securities for sale and the price asked.^[13][14][1]

Word family

• letterina
• letterona
• letteraggine
• portalettere

Related words

• letterale
• letterario
• letteratura
• letteralmente
• letterato
• allitterazione
• traslitterare
• Latin littera
• French lettre

Usage notes

Set phrases include alla lettera (literally, word for word), a chiare lettere (plainly) and a lettere cubitali (in huge letters).^[9][13][14] The stressed vowel is now usually open, /ɛ/;^[1][15][14] Wiktionary gives a closed /e/ as the main form and the open one as traditional, while Devoto–Oli calls the closed vowel historical.^[1][15][14]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
3. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
4. ^ a b c d Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 588
5. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
6. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
8. ^ a b c d e Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
10. ^ a b c d Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2211
11. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
12. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
13. ^ a b c d e f Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
14. ^ a b c d e f Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
15. ^ a b c d Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier