Etymologically
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metà

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Pronunciation

Forms

metà f (invariable)[1] Old forms are Old Italian mitade, Old Italian midate, Old Italian mitate, Old Italian metade, Old Italian metate and Old Italian meità;[2][3][4][5] mità is also Umbrian.[2][3][4][5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin medietās (“the middle; half”), from the accusative medietātem, with the middle syllable dropped and the ending ⟨-tem⟩ lost.[2][6][7][8][4] The Latin noun was formed on medius (“middle”) with the suffix -tās.[1][9] According to Migliorini, quoted by DELI, Cicero coined it as a translation of Ancient Greek μεσότης (mesótēs, “mean, middle”) in his translation of Plato's Timaeus, where he says he hardly dares to use the word.[2][1] The same word is French moitié, Occitan meitat, Catalan meitat and Spanish mitad.[6] Wiktionary calls medietà a learned doublet.[1]

The Latin adjective goes back to Proto-Italic *meðios and Proto-Indo-European *médʰyos, and is related to Ancient Greek μέσος (mésos), Sanskrit मध्य (mádhya) and Gothic 𐌼𐌹𐌳𐌾𐌹𐍃 (midjis), all meaning “middle”.[10][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the Carta picena of 1193, a document from the Marche, in the form mitade: it rules what happens if Plandeo cannot repay twenty pounds “e la mitade de lo prode”, “and half of the profit”.[2][4] The form metà appears in the 13th century, in the chronicle of Ricordano and Giacotto Malispini.[2]

Semantic evolution

Beside “half”, Old Italian used the word for the middle point of something (midate in the 13th-century Storia de Troia e de Roma, metà in the 15th century, in Cennino Cennini).[2] The full form metade stayed in poetry and old prose, and Berni struck out the mitate of Boiardo as a northern form.[3][5]

A figurative use for a person who forms almost one soul with another is recorded as mitate in 1510 and as metà before 1547, in Bembo; the joking la mia metà “my wife” or “my husband” is in Tommaseo's dictionary of 1869, and DEI compares French ma moitié.[2][3] L'altra metà del cielo, “the other half of the sky”, a slogan of the 1970s, stands for women.[11] Common phrases are a metà “halfway, unfinished”, fare a metà “to go halves” and the proverb chi ben comincia è a metà dell'opera “well begun is half done”.[7][12][13] German borrowed the word in Metageschäft (1876, as Metà), a business deal whose gains and losses were shared between the partners.[14]

Timeline

  • 1193 – The Carta picena has mitade “half”.[2]
  • 13th century – The form metà appears in the Malispini chronicle.[2]
  • 13th century – Midate is used for the middle point of something.[2]
  • Before 1547 – Bembo uses metà for a person's other half.[2]
  • 1869 – Tommaseo records metà for one spouse in relation to the other.[2]
  • 1876 – German Metà (later Metageschäft) is recorded in trade.[14]

Meanings

Noun

  1. half, one of the two equal parts of a whole: Ha lasciato metà della pizza nel piatto. Also used before a noun like an adjective: metà prezzo, “half price”.[7][11][8][1]
  2. The middle, the midpoint of a space or a period: Partiamo a metà agosto.[7][11][12]
  3. (jocular) One's spouse or partner, one's “other half”: Stasera viene anche la mia metà.[7][11][8]
  4. A metà: halfway, or left unfinished, fare a metà: to split something equally with someone, per metà: in two equal parts, or only in part.[7][12][11]

Word family

  • metadella

Usage notes

Metà is invariable: le due metà “the two halves”.[7][1] It often stands without the article and the preposition di before a noun (metà strada, metà libro).[8][12]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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 Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2440
  4. ^ 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. 10, 241
  5. ^ a b c Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
  6. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  7. ^ a b c d e f g De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  8. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  11. ^ a b c d e Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
  12. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  13. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
  14. ^ a b Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it