migliorare

Forms

migliorare (first-person singular present miglióro, first-person singular past historic migliorài, past participle miglioràto, auxiliary (transitive or sometimes intransitive) avére or (normally when intransitive) èssere)^[1] Old forms include Old Italian melliorare, Old Italian megliorare and Old Italian megliurare.^[2][3] Popular Tuscan still has megliorare with the present mèglioro.^[4][5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin meliōrāre, formed from Latin melior (“better”) and first recorded in the jurist Ulpian (before 228 AD).^{[2][6][7][1][3]} The same verb is Old Occitan melhurar, Catalan millorar and Logudorese medzorare, while Spanish medrar and Portuguese medrar took the sense “to thrive”.^[8] The Latin adjective serves as the comparative of bonus (“good”), but probably first meant “bigger” or “stronger”;^[2][6] Nocentini connects it with multus (“much”).^[2][6] De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Indo-European *mel-iōs but calls the etymology weak.^[9]

From the same Late Latin verb came the derivatives miglioramento, migliorativo and miglioria.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Ritmo laurenziano at the end of the 12th century, with the intransitive melliorare “to become better”.^[2] The transitive “to make better” follows in Bono Giamboni (before 1292) and in Brunetto Latini, who writes melliolare.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Guittone d'Arezzo (before 1294) used the verb for gaining an advantage or getting better in health.^[2] An old sense “to earn, gain” appears in Boccaccio: perché non ci miglioriam noi questi tre soldi? (“why don't we earn ourselves these three soldi?”).^[4][5]

In the modern language the verb is both transitive and intransitive: one improves a road, a law or oneself, and a patient, a pupil, a situation or the weather improves.^[7][10] In farming it means enriching soil with fertilizer, and in animal breeding improving a breed by crossing.^[7][5]

Timeline

• Late 12th century – The Ritmo laurenziano has melliorare “to become better”.^[2]
• Before 1292 – Bono Giamboni uses migliorare “to make better”.^[2]
• Before 1294 – Guittone d'Arezzo uses megliorare “to get better in health”.^[2]
• Before 1342 – Domenico Cavalca uses the intransitive migliorare.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To improve, make better, perfect: Vogliono migliorare i collegamenti con l'aeroporto.^[7][4][1]
2. (intransitive) Of a person, to become better morally or in character.^[7][10]
3. (intransitive) To make progress in a skill or subject: È migliorato molto in inglese.^[7][4]
4. (intransitive) To recover, get better in health: Il nonno sta migliorando.^[7][5][1]
5. (intransitive) Of a situation, to take a turn for the better; of the weather, to clear up.^[7][4]
6. (archaic) To earn, gain.^[4][5]

Word family

• miglioramento
• migliorativo
• migliorabile
• miglioranza
• miglioratore
• migliorazione
• rimigliorare

Related words

• meglio
• migliore
• peggiorare
• Latin melior

Usage notes

In the intransitive senses the auxiliary is usually essere;^[5][1] avere is less common and used only of persons.^[5][1] The reflexive migliorarsi means “to improve oneself”.^[5][10] The opposite is peggiorare.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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 Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
6. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c d e f g h De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana