Etymologically
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lettera

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈlet.te.ra/[1]
  • Traditional: /ˈlɛt.te.ra/[1]

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
  • 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