meraviglia

Forms

meraviglia f (plural meraviglie)^[1] The Tuscan or literary variant is maraviglia.^[2][3][4][1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin mīrābilia (“wonderful things”), the neuter plural of the adjective mīrābilis (“wonderful, admirable”), taken as a feminine singular noun.^[5][2][6][1] DELI compares faccenda, also from a neuter plural.^[5] The adjective comes from mīror (“to wonder at”).^[2]

The Romance forms require a spoken *merabilia, with ⟨e⟩ in place of the long ⟨ī⟩.^[5][7][8][9] Meyer-Lübke thought this ⟨e⟩ unexplained and found the influence of merus (“pure”) proposed by Wallensköld unlikely.^[9] The same word is French merveille, Occitan meravelha, Catalan meravella, Spanish maravilla and Portuguese maravilha.^[2][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record of the noun is in Guittone (before 1294), meaning a thing or person that arouses admiration.^[5] Its derivatives are recorded earlier: mereveglosa “wonderful” in Guido Fava (1242–1243) and maravigliarsi “to wonder” in a Sienese letter of 1260.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The sense “sudden feeling of surprise at something new or unexpected” appears as maraviglia in Dante (1300–1313) and Francesco da Barberino (before 1348), and as meraviglia in Petrarch (1375).^[5] The two forms long alternated;^[5] maraviglia was thought better suited to prose than to verse.^[5] The Baroque poet Marino made wonder the poet's goal: È del poeta il fin la meraviglia (“the poet's aim is wonder”).^[6][10]

The sette meraviglie del mondo, the seven wonders of the world, go back to a list handed down from antiquity, already cited in the 16th century, and gave the joking ottava meraviglia “eighth wonder”.^[5][10] Boccaccio has pillows worked a maraviglie, a kind of embroidery.^[6] From the 18th century florists used meraviglia or meraviglia di Spagna for the marvel of Peru, a name coined in Spain as maravilla.^[11][8]

Timeline

• 1242–1243 – Guido Fava writes mereveglosa.^[5]
• 1260 – Maravigliarsi appears in a Sienese letter.^[5]
• Before 1294 – Guittone uses the noun.^[5][6]
• 1300–1313 – Dante uses maraviglia for the feeling of wonder.^[5]
• 1375 – Petrarch uses the form meraviglia.^[5]
• 16th century – Roseo writes of the seven wonders of the world.^[5]
• 1598 – Florio records the transitive verb meravigliare.^[5]
• 18th century – Meraviglia is used as a plant name.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. wonder, astonishment: a sudden, vivid feeling of surprise at something new, extraordinary or unexpected: Rimase a bocca aperta per la meraviglia.^{[6][3][7][10][1]}
2. A marvel: a person or thing that arouses admiration for its beauty or rarity: Che meraviglia questo giardino!^{[6][3][7][10][1]}
3. (in the plural) High praise: dire meraviglie di qualcuno, to speak very highly of someone.^[6][3][12]
4. (botany, regional) The marvel of Peru, bella di notte.^[6][3][7]

Word family

• meravigliare
• meraviglioso

Related words

• mirabile
• Latin mīrābilis
• French merveille

Usage notes

Set phrases include a meraviglia (“perfectly”), fare meraviglia (“to surprise”), farsi meraviglia (“to be surprised”, often in reproach) and l'ottava meraviglia (“the eighth wonder”).^[6][3][10] Meraviglia is also a form of the verb meravigliare.^[13]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
3. ^ 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
4. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
8. ^ a b Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti
9. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
11. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2426
12. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
13. ^ Wikizionario (Italian Wiktionary), it.wiktionary.org