Etymologically
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materiale

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Pronunciation

  • /ma.teˈrja.le/[1]

Forms

materiale m or f by sense (plural materiali)[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin māteriālis (“of matter, material”), a learned word recorded in Latin in Macrobius.[2][3][4][5][6][1] The Latin adjective is formed from māteria (“matter; timber”) with the suffix -ālis.[3][1] DEI and the GDLI compare French matériel, recorded from the 14th century, and English material;[4][7][5] GRADIT compares Ancient Greek ὑλικός (hulikós).[4][7][5]

māteria is traditionally derived from māter (“mother”) in the sense “source”; its philosophical sense “matter” is a loan from Ancient Greek ὕλη (húlē, “wood; matter”), introduced by Cicero.[1] The inherited outcomes of the Latin noun mean “wood”: Spanish madera and Portuguese madeira.[1] Zingarelli dates the Italian adjective from 1268, DELI from Dante (1304–1308).[8][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first records are in Dante's Convivio (1304–1308), for what belongs to or concerns matter, and for matter as opposed to spirit.[2][5] In one passage Dante says that philosophy has wisdom as its subietto materiale and love as its form.[7]

Semantic evolution

Boccaccio already used the adjective for a coarse, clumsy person (1348–1353).[2] In philosophy, from the 17th century, it was opposed to formale.[4] Later senses are “bulky” (before 1705) and “actual, real” (1773).[2] The noun, “material needed for a piece of work”, is first recorded before 1537 in V. Biringuccio, where new materiali are put in flasks to distil.[2][9]

Phrases of the 19th and 20th centuries set the material against the moral: interessi materiali for money and the means of living, cited from Gioberti in 1833, vita materiale (1842), necessità materiali (1869) and lavoro materiale for physical work (1945).[2] Derivatives include materialità (14th century) and the colloquial materialone (19th century).[4]

Timeline

  • 1268 – Zingarelli's first date for the word.[8]
  • 1304–1308 – Dante uses materiale in the Convivio.[2][5]
  • 1348–1353 – Boccaccio uses it for “coarse, crude”.[2]
  • Before 1537 – Biringuccio uses the noun materiale “material”.[2]
  • 1773 – The sense “actual, real” is recorded.[2]
  • 1833 – Gioberti writes of interessi materiali.[2]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Of matter, made of matter: Il mondo materiale obbedisce a leggi fisiche.[5][6][10]
  2. physical, practical, as opposed to spiritual or intellectual: lavoro materiale, bisogni materiali.[5][6][10]
  3. Actual, real: Non ho avuto il tempo materiale di rispondere. Autore materiale: the person who actually committed a crime, as opposed to the one who ordered it.[5][6]
  4. (philosophy) Concerning empirical content, as opposed to formal.[10][5]
  5. Of a person, coarse, worldly, interested only in material things; of things, rough, crude.[5][10]

Noun

  1. material: a substance, raw or partly worked, used for making things: materiale da costruzione.[5][6][10]
  2. The tools, equipment or documents needed for an activity: Ho raccolto molto materiale per la mia tesi.[10][6]
  3. (uncommon) A coarse person.[10]

Word family

  • materialmente
  • immateriale
  • materialismo
  • materialista
  • materialistico
  • materialità
  • materializzare
  • materialone

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ 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
  3. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  4. ^ a b c d e Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2389
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  6. ^ a b c d e f Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
  7. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
  8. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  9. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 9, 925
  10. ^ a b c d e f g Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse