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licenziare

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Etymology and origin of the Italian word licenziare

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
c. 1292–1293, Dante, Vita nuova
Borrowed from
Latin licentio
Ultimate origin
Latin licet

Pronunciation

  • /li.t͡ʃenˈt͡sja.re/[1]

Forms

licenziare (first-person singular present licènzio, first-person singular past historic licenziài, past participle licenziàto, auxiliary avére)[1] Old forms include lecenziare, licensiare and licenzare.[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Medieval Latin licentiāre (“to give leave”), a verb formed from Latin licentia (“freedom, permission”).[4][5][6][1] GRADIT dates the Medieval Latin verb to 1115.[6] The TLIO explains it instead as a derivative of the Italian licenza (Old Italian licenzia).[3] French licencier, recorded from the 14th century, is the parallel French formation.[7][2]

licentia comes from licēns (“free, unrestrained”), the present participle of licet (“it is allowed”).[1] De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *lik-ē- (“to be available, have the value of”) and finds no certain cognates outside Italic.[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Dante's Vita nuova of about 1292–1293, with the sense “to give someone leave to go, to dismiss”.[3][4] In Old Italian it also meant “to authorize (someone to do something)”, “to dissolve a meeting” and “to discharge from military service”.[3][2]

Semantic evolution

In Boccaccio's Decameron a speaker asks the others to let her go (o voi mi licenziate), and the reflexive licenziarsi “to take one's leave” is in Cavalca before 1342.[2][4] Nocentini and Devoto–Oli date a school sense, “to confer a qualification”, to the second half of the 13th century.[5][9]

The modern main sense, an employer ending a worker's employment, is recorded in 1615; the reflexive for a worker resigning goes back to Tasso, before 1595.[4][5] Tommaseo–Bellini (1869) adds “to give a tenant notice”, and Parini, before 1799, uses it for declaring a student to have finished school, whence licenziarsi “to finish one's studies” (1891).[4] Publishers still use it for passing a book for printing.[9][1] The phrase licenziare in tronco “to dismiss on the spot” is recorded in 1952.[4]

Timeline

  • 1115 – Medieval Latin licentiare is recorded.[6]
  • c. 1292–1293 – Dante uses licenziare in the Vita nuova.[3]
  • Before 1342 – Domenico Cavalca uses licenziarsi “to take leave”.[4]
  • Before 1595 – Torquato Tasso uses licenziarsi for leaving a post.[4]
  • 1615 – Girolamo Leopardi uses it for an employer dismissing a worker.[4]
  • 1869 – Tommaseo–Bellini records “to evict (a tenant)”.[4]
  • 1952 – Licenziare in tronco is recorded.[4]

Meanings

Verb

  1. (transitive) To dismiss, to fire or lay off (an employee): La ditta ha licenziato venti operai.[6][9][10]
  2. (transitive, law) To give (a tenant) notice to leave, to evict.[6][9][1]
  3. (transitive) To award a school-leaving certificate to (students) at the end of a course.[6][9][10]
  4. (transitive, literary) To let (someone) go, to send away: licenziare gli invitati.[6][9][10]
  5. (transitive, publishing) To approve (a text) for printing.[9][1]
  6. (reflexive) licenziarsi: to resign from a job; also to finish a course of studies.[9][10][4]

Word family

  • licenziamento
  • licenziato
  • licenziando
  • licenziatario
  • licenziabile
  • licenziatore
  • licenza
  • lecito
  • Latin licentia
  • French licencier

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
  3. ^ a b c d e Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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 Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  6. ^ a b c d e f g De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  7. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2224
  8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
  10. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse

Related etymologies

  • no · also from Latin
  • cosa · also from Latin
  • a · also from Latin
  • mio · also from Latin
  • uno · also from Latin
  • si · also from Latin
  • sapere · also from Latin
  • fare · also from Latin
Cite this entry

“Licenziare.” Etymologically, 21 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/it/licenziare. Accessed 22 Oct. 2026.

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