momento

Forms

momento m (plural momenti)^[1] The old plural momenta (feminine) is also recorded.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin momentum (“movement, impulse; moment; weight, importance”), a learned word.^[4][3][5] The Latin noun is contracted from *movimentum, from moveō (“to move”) and the suffix -mentum.^[6][7][1] The same word gave French moment, recorded from the 12th century, and Spanish momento.^[4][3]

The Latin noun had already developed all the senses at the root of the modern ones: a slight movement, the small weight that tips a balance, a brief space of time, and influence or importance.^[6][4][8] The physical sense of the 17th century goes back to the weight acting on the arm of a balance.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Maestro Alberto, before 1332, in a definition of the instant: Momento è quello istante indivisibile per lo quale lo momento ch’ha da venire si congiunge con lo preterito, “A moment is that indivisible instant through which the coming moment is joined with the past one”.^[6][9]

Semantic evolution

The old sense “movement” is recorded in Boccaccio and Guittone, and the plural momenta was in use too.^[10][3] Francesco da Buti divided the hour into points, the points into moments and the moments into atoms.^[9] From the 17th century the word also meant “importance”, as in the literary di poco momento “of little importance”.^[3][11]

Galileo made it a term of physics, the force a weight acquires in moving towards the centre, and later physics extended it to the moment of a force and to momentum.^[3][10][11] The sense “juncture, situation” is in Manzoni's I promessi sposi (1825–1827), and “opportunity” in Frugoni before 1768.^[6] In recent political and journalistic language momento has also been used for an initiative, a use under discussion since 1990.^[6]

The adjective momentaneo “brief” dates from before 1498, from Late Latin momentaneus, and momentaneamente “at the moment” from Mazzini.^[6][4]

Timeline

• Before 1332 – Maestro Alberto defines momento as the indivisible instant.^[6]
• 14th century – Momento for a movement appears in Boccaccio.^[10]
• Before 1498 – Momentaneo is recorded in Vespasiano da Bisticci.^[6]
• 17th century – Galileo uses the word in physics.^[3][4]
• Before 1768 – Frugoni uses it for “opportunity”.^[6]
• 1825–1827 – Manzoni uses it for “juncture, situation”.^[6]
• Before 1872 – Momentaneamente appears in Mazzini.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. moment, instant, a very short space of time: Aspettami un momento.^[5][12][11]
2. un momento!: wait!, just a moment!, also to interrupt what is being said or done.^[5][8]
3. un momento (adverbial): a little, slightly: spostati un momento più a destra.^[5][13]
4. A period of time seen in terms of its circumstances; a phase: un momento delicato.^[5][11]
5. The right time, the opportunity: non è il momento di scherzare.^[5][11]
6. (literary) Importance: cose di poco momento.^[11]
7. (physics) A moment, the product of a quantity and a distance (momento di una forza, momento d'inerzia); also momentum.^[5][11][1]
8. (statistics) A moment of a distribution.^[11]
9. (philosophy) Especially in Hegel, a stage or phase of a process of becoming.^[5]

Word family

• momentaneo
• momentaneamente
• momentaccio

Related words

• muovere
• movimento
• Latin momentum

Usage notes

Common phrases are al momento “at present”, a momenti “any moment” or “almost” (a momenti perdevo il treno), dal momento che “since”, and da un momento all'altro “at any moment”.^[12][2][13]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ a b c d e f g Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2491
4. ^ a b c d e f Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ 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
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
9. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 10, 750
10. ^ a b c Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
11. ^ 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
12. ^ a b Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
13. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli