manovra

Forms

manovra f (plural manovre)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French manœuvre.^{[2][3][4][5][6][1]} The French word is recorded from the 13th century (1248 in GRADIT) and goes back to Medieval Latin manuopera (“work done by hand”), recorded from the 8th century, which Nocentini gives as Vulgar Latin *manuopera.^[3][6][2] It is formed from Latin manū (“by hand”), the ablative of manus (“hand”), and opera (“work”).^[2][4][7] The GDLI and Devoto take the French noun as a deverbal of French manœuvrer.^[8][9]

Other Romance forms are Occitan manobra, Spanish maniobra and Portuguese manobra.^[10][6][2] In the south the old word lives on as Sicilian manopira “cunning, trick”.^[6] English manoeuvre (1758) and German Manöver (1780) also come from French.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in V. Siri in 1670, with the sense of the operations needed to make a machine work.^[11][3]

Semantic evolution

In 1798 R. Bartoli speaks of a manovra politica.^[11] D'Alberti's dictionary of 1803 has the handling of sails, engine and ropes to steer a ship, and the plural manovre for the ropes of the rigging.^[11] Foscolo uses it for troop movements in 1808, and the DEI has it for military exercises from 1829.^[11][6] Purists objected to it as French: Ugolini in 1855 left manovrare to those who preferred to write in a French rather than an Italian way.^[11]

The figurative sense “scheme, intrigue” is recorded before 1837, and railway shunting and grandi manovre “large-scale exercises” in 1891.^[11] The verb manovrare (1803) was in its turn borrowed from the French verb manœuvrer, and gave manovriero (1834) and manovratore (1910).^[2]

Timeline

• 1670 – V. Siri uses manovra for the working of a machine.^[11]
• 1798 – Manovra politica is recorded.^[11]
• 1803 – D'Alberti records the nautical senses.^[11]
• 1808 – Foscolo uses it for troop movements.^[11]
• Before 1837 – The figurative sense “scheme, intrigue” is recorded.^[11]
• 1891 – Railway shunting and grandi manovre are recorded.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. The set of operations needed to work a machine or device: la manovra delle vele.^[3][4][5]
2. A manoeuvre: the movements made to steer a vehicle, ship or aircraft: Ci sono volute tre manovre per entrare nel garage.^{[4][5][12][1]}
3. (rail transport) shunting: treno in manovra.^[13][12][1]
4. (military) A tactical or strategic movement of troops; in the plural, military exercises: grandi manovre.^[3][13][12]
5. (sports) A coordinated attacking move by several players.^[3][5][12]
6. (figurative) A skilful and unscrupulous move to gain an end; a scheme, intrigue.^[3][5][7]
7. (economics, politics) A package of government budget measures: manovra finanziaria.^[5][13][1]
8. (medicine) A manual procedure, as in reducing a hernia or turning a foetus during birth.^[3]
9. (nautical, often plural) A rope of a ship's rigging: manovre dormienti (standing rigging) and manovre correnti (running rigging).^{[3][13][7][1]}

Word family

• contromanovra

Related words

• manovrabile
• manovratore
• manovrare
• manovriero
• mano
• opera
• French manœuvre

Usage notes

Manovra is also the third person singular present of manovrare.^[1] Libertà di manovra first meant a warship's freedom to leave the formation, and now freedom of action in general.^[12]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
3. ^ 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
4. ^ 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
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 Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2353
7. ^ a b c Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
8. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 9, 730
9. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier, p. 271
10. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
11. ^ 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
12. ^ a b c d e Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
13. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli