medico

Forms

medico (feminine medica, masculine plural medici, feminine plural mediche)^[1] Old forms include Old Italian medicho, Old Italian medeco and Old Italian medego.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin medicus (“physician; healing”), from medeor (“to heal, cure”).^[2][4][5][6] Wiktionary takes it as inherited, but Körting and Meyer-Lübke count the Italian form as learned, beside popular outcomes such as Venetian miedego, Ligurian megu, Sardinian meigu, Old French miege and Old Occitan metge.^[1][7][8] Spanish médico is also learned, while French replaced the inherited Old French forms with French médecin.^[4][7]

The Latin verb has relatives across the Indo-European languages: Nocentini and Devoto trace it to a root Proto-Indo-European *med- (“to think, judge, measure”), which also gave meditor (“to reflect”), modus (“measure”) and German messen (“to measure”).^[4][9][2] Devoto notes that the medical sense survives only in Latin and Iranian.^[9] Wiktionary reports that Prósper, finding that -icus does not usually attach to verb stems, explains the Latin noun as a thematic form of Proto-Italic *meddiks.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the form medicho in a tax register of Siena of 1231–1232, for a person qualified to practise medicine.^[2][5] Guittone d'Arezzo (before 1294) already uses it figuratively for one who comforts the spirit: “Medico che sana è da gradire” (a healing doctor is welcome).^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

The adjective “medical” is recorded from Tasso in 1583, and “healing, curative” in 1581.^[2] Medico condotto, a doctor paid by a town to treat its residents, appears in 1825;^[2] condotto keeps its old sense “hired”.^[2] The modern profession gave medico di base or di famiglia (general practitioner), medico legale (forensic doctor) and medico fiscale, who checks the sick leave of employees.^[10][11]

The family is old: medicina is recorded before 1294 in Brunetto Latini, medicare in Boccaccio's Decameron (1348–1353) and the scornful medicastro “quack” in Aretino (1534).^[2] English took medico in 1689 as an informal word for a doctor or medical student.^[12]

Timeline

• 1231–1232 – Medicho appears in a Sienese tax register.^[2]
• Before 1294 – Guittone d'Arezzo uses the word for one who consoles the spirit.^[2]
• Before 1294 – Medicina appears in Brunetto Latini.^[2]
• 1534 – Aretino uses medicastro.^[2]
• 1581–1583 – Tasso uses medico as an adjective, “curative” and “medical”.^[2]
• 1689 – English medico is recorded.^[12]
• 1825 – Medico condotto is recorded.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A doctor, physician: Domani vado dal medico per gli esami.^{[5][10][13][1]}
2. Someone who relieves another's pain or sorrow.^[5][10][11]
3. (figurative) A remedy for physical or moral ills: Il mare è stato il suo medico.^[5][10][13]

Adjective

1. medical, relating to medicine or doctors: una visita medica.^{[5][10][13][1]}
2. (uncommon) Healing, curative.^[5][10][13]

Word family

• medicina
• medicinale
• medicare
• medicamento
• medicazione
• medicastro
• medichessa
• paramedico
• protomedico
• medicale

Related words

• meditare
• modo
• rimedio
• Latin medicus

Usage notes

The masculine is often used of a woman;^[10][13] medica is uncommon and medichessa is scornful.^[10][13] A separate learned adjective medico “of Media, Persian” comes from Latin Medicus and Ancient Greek Μηδικός (Mēdikós): it survives in guerre mediche, the Persian Wars, and erba medica, alfalfa.^[14][3] An obsolete medico “of the Medici family” also occurs in Florentine writers.^[3]

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 m n o 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 Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 9
4. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b c d e f g De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ a b Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
10. ^ 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
11. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
12. ^ a b Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
13. ^ a b c d e f Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
14. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana