Etymologically
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maggiore

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Pronunciation

  • /madˈd͡ʒo.re/[1]

Forms

maggiore m or f by sense (plural maggiori)[1] The singular is often shortened to maggior before a noun.[2] Old forms include Old Italian magior (1219), Old Italian magor, Old Italian maçor (Guido Guinizelli) and Old Italian mazore (Pier della Vigna);[3] maiore is archaic or regional.[4][5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin maior (“greater, older”), the comparative of magnus (“great”).[3][6][7][1] Sabatini–Coletti notes that the ⟨gg⟩, /ddʒ/, is the usual Tuscan outcome of Latin /j/ between vowels.[5] The Latin comparative goes back to Proto-Italic *magjōs, from Proto-Indo-European *m̥ǵh₂yós, formed on the root of “great”.[1][8][9] De Vaan lists cognates of the positive such as Ancient Greek μέγας (mégas) and Gothic 𐌼𐌹𐌺𐌹𐌻𐍃 (mikils).[8]

The same word is Occitan maor, Catalan major, Spanish mayor and Portuguese mor, and Romanian mare has taken the plain sense “great”.[6][10][11] The Latin nominative gave French maire “mayor” and Old Italian maggio (“greater”), still found in place names such as Riomaggio and Viamaggio.[6][10] Sardinian mere (“master”) in Logudorese comes from it too.[10][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is magior in the Breve di Montieri of 1219.[3][6][7] The form maggiore is in Dante (1304–1308), as the comparative of grande: larger in size, extent, intensity, number or height.[3]

Semantic evolution

As a noun maggiore meant a superior in rank (Brunetto Latini, before 1294), and in the plural, like Latin maiores, the ancestors or forefathers.[3][12] The sense “older in age” is in Giovanni Villani before 1348.[3] The military rank between captain and lieutenant colonel is recorded in 1618, in Michelangelo Buonarroti the Younger;[3] Nocentini explains it as short for ufficiale maggiore, while the GDLI compares the French title major.[6][12] The phrase andare per la maggiore “to be popular, be in fashion” goes back to the Florentine guilds, which were divided into greater and lesser arts.[6]

In music maggiore for a major interval or key is recorded in 1562;[13] French made the calque majeur (1703), and German borrowed Maggiore (1802).[13] Maggioranza first meant “the greater part” (Villani); its numerical sense of a majority in an assembly is from the 18th century and seems to come from English parliamentary usage.[3] Maggiorata, a buxom woman, became popular after Alessandro Blasetti's film Altri tempi (1952), where a lawyer's maggiorata fisica plays on minorata psichica.[3]

Timeline

  • 1219 – Magior appears in the Breve di Montieri.[3][6]
  • Before 1294 – Brunetto Latini uses it as a noun, “superior”.[3]
  • 1304–1308 – Dante uses maggiore.[3]
  • Before 1348 – Giovanni Villani uses it for “older”, and maggioranza for “the greater part”.[3]
  • 1562 – It is recorded in music for a major interval.[13]
  • 1618 – Michelangelo Buonarroti the Younger uses it for the military rank.[3]
  • 1777 – Maggioranza is used for the majority group in an assembly.[3]
  • 1952 – Blasetti's film Altri tempi launches maggiorata.[3]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Greater, bigger, the comparative of grande: Il lago è maggiore di quanto pensassi.[7][4][5]
  2. With the definite article, the greatest, the largest, the main one: il maggior porto del paese.[7][5][4]
  3. Higher, more numerous; more intense: con maggiore attenzione, la maggior parte, the majority.[7][4]
  4. More important; of an author, the principal works: le opere maggiori di Petrarca.[7][4][2]
  5. older, elder: mia sorella maggiore.[5][1]
  6. Higher in a hierarchy: sergente maggiore.[5][4]
  7. (music) major: do maggiore.[13][1]

Noun

  1. (military) A major, the rank between captain and lieutenant colonel.[3][1]
  2. The elder or eldest of siblings.[3][1]
  3. (literary, plural) Ancestors, forefathers.[12][3]

Word family

  • maggiormente
  • maggioranza
  • maggiorare
  • maggiorata
  • maggiorazione
  • maggiorenne
  • maggiorente
  • maggiorità
  • maggioritario
  • magno
  • Latin magnus
  • French majeur
  • French maire

Usage notes

Forza maggiore is force majeure, a cause that cannot be resisted;[2][4] a maggior ragione means “all the more so”.[2][4]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s 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 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
  5. ^ a b c d e f Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  7. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  8. ^ 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
  9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  10. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  11. ^ a b Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
  12. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
  13. ^ a b c d Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it