Etymologically
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medico

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈmɛ.di.ko/[1]

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

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