linguaggio

Forms

linguaggio m (plural linguaggi)^[1] Forms include Old Italian lengaio, Old Italian lenguazo, Old Italian lenguaggio, Old Italian linguagio and Old Italian linguaiu.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old Occitan lenguatge, with its form adapted to the native word for “tongue”.^{[4][5][6][1][7][8]} The Occitan noun, like French langage (Old French linguaige in the 10th century), is derived from the word for “tongue, language”, lenga.^[5][7][6] It goes back to Vulgar Latin *linguaticum, formed from Latin lingua (“tongue; language”) with the suffix -āticum.^[4][9][1] The TLIO, following DELI, gives an Old French source, lengage, and Devoto–Oli has language.^[2][10]

The same Gallo-Romance word passed into Catalan llenguatge, Spanish lenguaje and Portuguese linguagem, and into English as language.^[8][4][9][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in a descort of the troubadour Raimbaut de Vaqueiras, written before 1202 in a northern Italian form, lengaio; the sense is the language of a people.^[2][3] A form lenguazo follows in a Legend of Saint Catherine of the 12th or 13th century, and linguaggio in Dante (1300–13).^[3]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian the word meant a language or dialect, the faculty of speech, the cry of an animal and, figuratively, the characteristic noise of a thing.^[2] Dante says of Nimrod that through his evil plan pur un linguaggio nel mondo non s’usa (“no single language is used in the world”).^[11] Giovanni della Casa set favella, the faculty of each person, against linguaggio, which belongs to a nation.^[12]

Later senses widened the word to any system of signs: the language of animals (Leonardo, before 1519), the way of speaking of particular people and circles (Zucchero Bencivenni, before 1313), any expressive system that is not conventional (1771), and the meaning people give to gestures, objects and symbols (Romagnosi, before 1835).^[3] DEI sees the senses “spoken expression of thought” and “means of expression, also without sound” as modelled on modern French langage.^[8] In computing, linguaggio di programmazione is the coded language in which programs are written.^[6][5]

Timeline

• Before 1202 – Raimbaut de Vaqueiras writes lengaio in a descort.^[2][3]
• 12th–13th century – The Legend of Saint Catherine has lenguazo.^[3]
• 1300–1313 – Dante uses linguaggio.^[3]
• Before 1313 – Zucchero Bencivenni uses it for a particular way of speaking.^[3]
• Before 1519 – Leonardo uses it for the communication of animals.^[3]
• 1771 – Pietro Chiari applies it to any non-conventional expressive system.^[3]
• Before 1835 – Romagnosi uses it for the meaning given to signs, gestures and symbols.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. language as a human faculty: the ability to communicate and express oneself through articulate sounds and words.^[5][10][7]
2. A way of speaking or writing typical of a person, an author, a group or a field; jargon, style: linguaggio giuridico, linguaggio tecnico.^[10][7]
3. Any system of expression by means other than words, such as gestures, signs or images: linguaggio dei segni, linguaggio cinematografico.^[10][7][5]
4. The signals by which animals communicate: il linguaggio dei delfini.^[10][7]
5. The capacity of things to convey a meaning or feeling; the symbolic meaning given to certain things.^[10][7]
6. (computing) A coded language for writing computer programs: linguaggio di programmazione.^[6][5]
7. (literary) The same as lingua: the language of a people.^[11][2]

Word family

• metalinguaggio
• sottolinguaggio

Related words

• lingua
• French langage
• Old Occitan lenguatge

Usage notes

Parlare lo stesso linguaggio means to understand each other, to share the same ideas.^[10]

References

1. ^ a b c d 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 d e f g h i j k Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
4. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
6. ^ a b c d e 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 Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
8. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2239
9. ^ a b Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
10. ^ a b c d e f g 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 Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
12. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET