livella

Forms

livella f (plural livelle)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin lībella (“small balance; level”), a diminutive of lībra (“balance, scales”) with -ella.^[2][3][4][1] The OLD adds a dissimilation in its formation,^[5] and Pliny already used it for a mason's level.^[2] Nocentini classes the Latin word for the balance as a word of unknown origin.^[3] Sabatini–Coletti treat the Italian word as the popular form, with Latin /b/ become /v/ between vowels, beside a learned form.^[6][7]

The same word is Old French livel and nivel (now French niveau) and Old Occitan nivel, from which come Spanish nivel and Portuguese nivel.^[8][3] Körting found the change of the initial /l/ to /n/ hard to explain: it may be a dissimilation of the two /l/ sounds when the article stood before the word, or an assimilation to the numeral “one”.^[9]

In the 1950s Clemente Merlo argued that livello is not a masculine formed from the feminine but a deverbal noun from livellare, itself formed from the noun.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Pandolfo Collenuccio, before 1504, for an instrument that shows whether a line or a surface is horizontal.^[2][4][3]

Semantic evolution

The DEI dates the word and its masculine variant livello in this sense to the 16th century.^[7] Tommaseo's 19th-century dictionary describes metal levels hung from a ring and weighted to stay in balance, and water levels two or three feet long, in which the eye sights along the surface of the water;^[10] mettere a livella meant the same as mettere a livello, to set level.^[10] The livella a bolla d'aria, the spirit level, in which a bubble in a liquid-filled tube marks the horizontal, is recorded in 1889 (the masculine livello a bolla in 1869).^[2]

The family grew around the verb livellare (16th century) and the noun livello: livellazione, the surveyor's levelling, in 1528, and livello as the free surface of a liquid in 1554–1565, as the height of a point above a surface before 1750, and figuratively as “degree, standing” in 1828.^[2] The phrase a livello di follows French au niveau de and became fashionable in the 1970s.^[2]

Timeline

• 1255 – Medieval Latin ad livellum aque is recorded at Parma.^[2]
• Before 1494 – Livello names a surveying instrument in Giovanni Barbaro.^[2]
• Before 1504 – Pandolfo Collenuccio uses livella.^[2][4]
• 1528 – Livellazione appears in Marino Sanudo.^[2]
• 16th century – Livellare is recorded in Luca Martini.^[2]
• 1598 – John Florio records livellamento.^[2]
• 1869 – Tommaseo records livello a bolla.^[2]
• 1889 – Livella a bolla d'aria is recorded in Alberto Guglielmotti.^[2]
• 1950 – Livellatrice, a machine for levelling ground, is recorded.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (technical) A level, an instrument for checking that a line or a plane is horizontal, used in building and surveying, and sometimes for measuring small angles of slope.^{[4][11][6][12]}
2. livella a bolla (d'aria): a spirit level, in which a bubble in a glass tube of liquid settles in the middle when the surface is level.^[13][14][4]
3. livella ad acqua: a water level, in which water standing at the same height in two connected vessels shows the horizontal.^[13][14][4]

Word family

• livellare
• livello
• livellamento
• livellatore
• livellatrice
• livellazione
• dislivello

Related words

• libella
• libbra
• Latin libra
• French niveau

Usage notes

Devoto–Oli distinguish the livella torica, with a curved tube, from the livella sferica, a small round case closed by a glass with a domed inner face.^[11][4]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b c d Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e f g De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
7. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2255
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
10. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
11. ^ a b Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
12. ^ Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
13. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
14. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli