maturo

Forms

maturo (feminine matura, masculine plural maturi, feminine plural mature)^[1] The oldest record has the northern form Old Italian maduro.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin mātūrus (“ripe, full-grown”).^[4][3][1] DELI counts it among the learned words of its family, with maturare, maturità and maturazione, all of which are found in classical Latin.^[2] The word is pan-Romance: French mûr, Occitan madur, Catalan madur, Spanish maduro, Portuguese maduro and Friulian madur, with Sardinian maduru (“large”) and Romanian mătur (“rotten”).^[4][5][6]

The origin of the Latin adjective is debated: Nocentini and Devoto take it for an old future participle of a verb meaning “to become good”, of the family of Mātūta, the goddess usually taken as the goddess of the dawn.^[4][7] De Vaan derives it instead from a noun Proto-Italic *mātu- (“ripeness”), which also underlies mātūtīnus (“of the early morning”), from Proto-Indo-European *meh₂-tu- (“ripeness”), probably of the same root as mānus (“good”).^[8][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is early in the 13th century, in Uguccione da Lodi, in the form maduro and the sense “fully grown”, said of crops and fruit.^[2][4][3] The form maturo appears at the end of the century in the Novellino: vide in sulla cima d'un fico un bel fico maturo “he saw at the top of a fig tree a fine ripe fig”.^[2][9]

Semantic evolution

In the 14th century the word passed from fruit to people and things: DELI dates the sense “having reached completeness” to Dante (before 1321), “carefully thought over” to Domenico Cavalca (before 1342), “fully developed in mind” and “wise, balanced” to Francesco da Barberino (before 1348), and “fit for a task” to Boccaccio (1348–1353).^[2] Francesco da Buti could write quando l'omo è vecchio, è maturo “when a man is old, he is mature”.^[2] Boccaccio also used it of a tumour about to discharge.^[10]

The proverb quando la pera è matura convien che caschi “when the pear is ripe it must fall” says that everything happens in its own time.^[11][12] With the Italian school-leaving examination, the esame di maturità, maturo came to mean “having passed the maturity examination” (1869), and a student who has passed it is un maturo.^[2][13][14]

Timeline

• Early 13th century – Uguccione da Lodi has the form maduro.^[2]
• Before 1250 – The verb maturare “to ripen” is recorded.^[2][4]
• Before 1294 – Guittone d'Arezzo uses maturitate.^[2]
• Late 13th century – Maturo appears in the Novellino.^[2]
• Before 1321 – Dante uses it of things that have reached completeness.^[2]
• 1586 – Prematuro is first recorded.^[4]
• 1869 – The sense “having passed the maturity examination” is recorded.^[2]
• 1931 – Maturando, a candidate for the examination, is recorded.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of fruit, grain and other crops, ripe: ready to be eaten or used; the opposite of acerbo: Le albicocche sono finalmente mature.^{[3][15][14][16][11]}
2. (botany, biology, zoology) Of an organ or germ cell, fully developed; of an animal, sexually mature.^[3][15][12]
3. Of a person, in the age between youth and old age; adult, middle-aged: età matura.^{[3][15][14][16]}
4. (figurative) Of a person, mature: able to judge and act with balance and responsibility; sensible: Per i suoi quindici anni è un ragazzo molto maturo.^{[3][15][14][16]}
5. Ready for something (with per): un paese maturo per le riforme.^[15][14][16]
6. (figurative) Of a situation, ripe, favourable to something happening: i tempi sono maturi.^[3][16][17]
7. (figurative) Of a judgement or decision, carefully considered: una decisione presa dopo un esame maturo.^{[3][15][14][17]}
8. Of wine or cheese, aged, seasoned.^[3][16][17]
9. Of a student, having passed the maturità examination.^[14][16][11]
10. (medicine) Of an abscess, come to a head.^[11][17]
11. (commerce) Of a credit, due for payment.^[14]

Noun

1. A student who has passed the final school examination.^[14][17]

Word family

• maturare
• maturità
• maturazione
• maturando
• maturamente
• maturezza
• stramaturo
• ipermaturo
• postmaturo

Related words

• immaturo
• prematuro
• mattina
• mattutino
• Latin mātūrus
• French mûr

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n 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 h i j De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
4. ^ a b c d e f Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
6. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
7. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
10. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti
11. ^ a b c d Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
12. ^ a b Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
13. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
14. ^ a b c d e f g h i Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
15. ^ 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
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 Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli