materia

Forms

materia f (plural materie)^[1]

Etymology

It is learned: it is borrowed from Latin māteria (“wood, timber; substance; subject”).^[2][3][4][1] DEI and the GDLI call it a learned word, and Prati says it came by the literary route.^[5][6][7] The older form Old Italian matera, used by Dante, survives as an archaism, and Wiktionary takes the modern form as a Latinization of it.^[5][8][1]

The Latin word was inherited as Spanish madera (“wood”) and Portuguese madeira, beside the learned materia, and as Old French maiere (“wood”) beside the learned matire.^[3][9][10] In Italy its popular outcome survives only in dialects, such as Emilian madira (“roof lath”) at Bologna.^[9] The nautical madiere, a floor timber of a ship, is a loan from Occitan madier, from Late Latin *materium (“beam”).^[3]

The Latin noun is māter (“mother”) with the suffix -ia: it was the substance of the “mother”, the trunk of a tree as the producer of shoots, and so timber.^{[2][3][11][12][1]} Wiktionary compares Old Armenian մայր (mayr, “cedar”) and մայրի (mayri, “forest”).^[1] The philosophical sense “matter” is a semantic loan from Ancient Greek ὕλη (húlē, “wood, matter”), introduced by Cicero, and the word took over all the senses of the Greek one.^[1][5] The sense “pus” is already Latin, from the 1st century AD.^[2] The mother word goes back to Proto-Indo-European *méh₂-tr- (“mother”).^[13]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is in the Sermoni gallo-italici (11th–12th century), in the sense “organic substance”, and the Ritmo cassinese (12th–13th century) has “what makes up the substance of a body”.^[2] Sabatini–Coletti also dates the word to the 11th century.^[14]

Semantic evolution

From substance the word passed to the stuff of thought and speech: “the elements and arguments of a discourse” in Brunetto Latini (before 1294), “what written works treat” in Dante (1304–1308), “occasion, pretext” in Bartolomeo da San Concordio (before 1347) and “discipline” in Boccaccio (before 1375).^[2] Dante's Paradiso speaks of matter that is “deaf to answer” the artist's intention (perch'a risponder la materia è sorda).^[15] Old Italian tornare in sua materia meant “to come to one's senses”, and Old Tuscan smatria “madness” was formed from the word.^[9][10]

The philosophical sense, matter as against form or spirit, followed the Aristotelian tradition.^[15][4] From the 17th century the sciences took the word over.^[15][4] The adjective materiale is recorded in Dante.^[2] Materialismo (1767) comes through French matérialisme from English materialism, coined by Robert Boyle in 1674.^[2][3] During the First World War materiale umano (1916, Mussolini) imitated German Menschenmaterial.^[2] Modern phrases include materia prima “raw material”, materia grigia “grey matter” and materia oscura “dark matter”.^[16][17]

Timeline

• 11th–12th century – The Sermoni gallo-italici use materia for organic substance.^[2]
• 12th–13th century – The Ritmo cassinese uses it for the substance of a body.^[2]
• Before 1294 – Brunetto Latini uses it for the matter of a discourse.^[2]
• 1304–1308 – Dante uses it for the subject of written works, and materiale is first recorded.^[2]
• Before 1347 – Bartolomeo da San Concordio uses it for an occasion or pretext.^[2]
• Before 1375 – Boccaccio uses it for a discipline.^[2]
• 1674 – Robert Boyle coins English materialism.^[2][3]
• 1767 – Materialismo is first recorded.^[2]
• 1916 – Materiale umano is recorded.^[2]
• 1965 – Materico is first recorded.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. matter, substance: what a body or object is made of;^{[4][8][14][16]} materie prime, raw materials: La statuetta è di una materia simile all'avorio.^{[4][8][14][16]}
2. (philosophy) Matter as opposed to form or spirit; in Aristotle, pure potentiality.^{[4][8][14][17]}
3. (physics, chemistry) Matter as an aggregate of particles governed by physical laws;^[8][17] materia oscura, dark matter.^[8][17]
4. (anatomy) Organic substance: materia grigia, grey matter, and figuratively intelligence.^[14][16][17]
5. (popular) pus.^[16][17]
6. The subject or topic of a discussion or piece of writing;^[4][14][16] in materia di, as regards: In materia di tasse è il più preparato del gruppo.^[4][14][16]
7. A school or academic subject, discipline: La storia è la sua materia preferita.^[14][18]
8. Occasion, pretext, reason: Il suo silenzio diede materia a molte voci.^[14][18]
9. (religion) materia dei sacramenti, the visible element of a sacrament, such as the water in baptism.^[8][14]

Word family

• materiale
• materialità
• materializzare
• materialmente
• materico
• materiato
• smaterializzare
• antimateria

Related words

• madre
• madiere
• materialismo
• Latin materia
• Spanish madera

Usage notes

The old form matera is archaic.^[8][14][17]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g 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 q 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 e f g Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e f g h De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2389
6. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
7. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 645
8. ^ 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
9. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ a b Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
11. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
12. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
14. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
15. ^ a b c Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
16. ^ a b c d e f g Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
17. ^ a b c d e f g Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
18. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli