mobile

Forms

mobile (plural mobili, superlative mobilissimo); noun m (plural mobili)^[1]

Etymology

It is learned: it is borrowed from Latin mōbilis (“movable”), formed from moveō (“to move”) with the suffix -bilis.^{[2][3][4][5][1]} Wiktionary traces the Latin word to an older *moubilis and Proto-Italic *moweðlis, with the diphthong /ou/ becoming long /oː/.^[1]

The popular outcomes of the Latin word are Old French mueble (modern French meuble), Old Occitan moble or movel, Spanish mueble and Portuguese móvel, all also nouns for movable goods and furniture.^[3][6][7] Körting explains the Old French vowel from that of the verb.^[7] In Romansh the word came to mean “livestock”: muvel.^[6][7]

The masculine noun is short for a phrase meaning “movable property”, opposed to “immovable property”.^[3] Latin already had the plural noun mōbilia, with bona (“goods”) understood.^[2] Durante explains the kept ⟨b⟩ of mobilia by the legal formula that paired it with immōbilia.^[2] The feminine noun is short for the police squadra mobile.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI cites a noun mobile “liquid capital” from Lucca in 1268, and the noun “any movable object” in Brunetto Latini, before 1294.^[2] The adjective “in motion” is in Dante (1293–1294), and “movable” and the figurative “fickle” in Giordano da Pisa (1302–1305).^[2] The Tesoro speaks of the art of increasing one's possessioni, e nostre ereditadi, e avere, e mobili (“possessions and inheritances, wealth and movable goods”).^[8]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian the noun mostly meant movable goods, opposed to stabile, real estate.^[8] The sense “piece of furniture” is first found in Francesco Guicciardini, before 1540, and the collective mobilia “furniture” is recorded from 1309, after an earlier general sense “movable goods”.^[2] In 1973 mobile also named the cabinet of a radio or television set.^[2] In the Ptolemaic system the primo mobile was the outermost of the nine heavenly spheres, which passed its motion to the others; the phrase passed into other European languages, English first mobile in 1549.^[9][10]

The figurative “fickle, changeable” is old: Petrarch writes femina è cosa mobil per natura.^[2][4] Modern uses include feste mobili, caratteri mobili, sabbie mobili and scala mobile, the mobile phone (telefonia mobile), and the police squadra mobile.^{[9][11][12][13]} In music it means “to be played freely”: German borrowed it in this sense in 1901.^[14]

Timeline

• 1268 – A noun mobile “liquid capital” is recorded at Lucca.^[2]
• 1293–1294 – Dante uses the adjective for something in motion.^[2]
• Before 1294 – Brunetto Latini uses the noun for any movable object.^[2]
• 1302–1305 – Giordano da Pisa uses it for “movable” and “fickle”.^[2]
• 1309 – Mobilia “furniture” is recorded.^[2]
• Before 1540 – Guicciardini uses mobile for a piece of furniture.^[2]
• 1549 – English first mobile is recorded.^[10]
• 1973 – Mobile names the cabinet of a radio or television set.^[2]
• 1983 – GRADIT's date for the art mobile, from French.^[4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. movable: not fixed, that can be moved or removed: una libreria con ripiani mobili.^{[4][9][12][1]}
2. Able to move by itself; moving.^[4][12][1]
3. Not stable, loose: Questa sedia ha una gamba mobile.^[4][9]
4. Of a face, changing expression often; of a look, lively, restless.^[4][9]
5. (figurative) fickle, inconstant.^[4][12][2]
6. Organised for rapid movement: reparti mobili, squadra mobile.^[9][11]
7. (telecommunications) Not needing a fixed line: telefonia mobile.^[12][15]
8. Of a fluid, flowing easily, not very viscous.^[4][15]
9. (economics, law) beni mobili: movable property, opposed to real estate.^[9][11]

Noun

1. A piece of furniture; in the plural, furniture: un mobile da cucina.^[9][12][1]
2. (physics) A body that moves or can be moved.^[4][9][12]
3. A mobile phone.^[12][13][1]
4. (heraldry) A charge.^[1][15]
5. (archaic) Movable goods.^[9][8]
6. (feminine, la mobile) The squadra mobile of the police.^[3]

Word family

• mobiliere
• mobilificio
• mobilio
• mobiliare
• soprammobile
• mobilmente
• mobiletto
• mobilezza

Related words

• mobilia
• mobilità
• mobilitare
• immobile
• muovere
• Latin mobilis
• French meuble

Usage notes

The kinetic sculpture of A. Calder, made of thin plates hanging from wires that the slightest movement of air turns, is also called mobile, pronounced /moˈbil/, invariable or with the plural mobiles.^[4][16][17] GRADIT, Gabrielli and the GDLI take it from French mobile “moving”, and GRADIT dates it to 1983.^[4][16][17] Dorfles, quoted by the GDLI, writes that Calder's mobiles go back to 1933 and were named by Marcel Duchamp.^[17]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b c d e Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ a b c Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
8. ^ a b c Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
10. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2481
11. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
12. ^ a b c d e f g h Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
13. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
14. ^ Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
15. ^ a b c Wikizionario (Italian Wiktionary), it.wiktionary.org
16. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
17. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca