Etymologically
Log in

motore

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 22 October 2026 at 06:32. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

Forms

motore (feminine motrice, masculine plural motori, feminine plural motrici)[1] Old forms include Old Italian motor and Old Italian mutori.[2] Older and dialect forms mottore and mutore are recorded too.[3]

Etymology

It is a learned borrowing, borrowed from Latin motor (“one who moves”). [4][5][6][1] The Latin noun is formed from moveō (“to move”) with the agent suffix -tor.[7][1][8] Devoto explains it from an older *movitor, which stands to the verb as monitor stands to moneō.[8] DEI lists French moteur from the 15th–16th century beside it, and Nocentini notes that Spanish motor and the French word spread the term through the languages of Europe.[9][5]

The Latin verb continues an aorist Proto-Italic *mow(a)-, from Proto-Indo-European *m(i̯)euh₁- (“to move”).[10]

The modern sense “engine” is a 19th-century development of the old adjective and noun: DEI gives it a separate entry and compares the use of the French noun in the same century.[9][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in the Questioni filosofiche from south-eastern Tuscany, about 1298, where the word is a term of Aristotelian physics: what gives or passes on motion, and above all the first cause that moves the heavens.[2] DELI dates both the adjective “that moves” and the noun “mover of the heavens” to Dante's Convivio (1304–1308).[4]

Semantic evolution

In medieval philosophy and astronomy the plural motori were the angelic intelligences that turn the celestial spheres, and Dante writes of the movement of the holy wheels breathed in da' beati motor, “from the blessed movers”.[2][11] God was the primo motore or motore immobile, the first or unmoved mover of Aristotelian and scholastic thought, a phrase Petrarch varies as il Motore eterno delle stelle.[11][12][13] From the start the word was also figurative, a cause or stimulus, and in Old Italian a person who instigates something.[2] DELI records the sense “cause, motive” in Leonardo da Vinci before 1519.[4]

The mechanical sense, a machine that turns some other form of energy into mechanical work, appears in Tommaseo's dictionary in 1869.[4][14] With the car it became the everyday sense, and the word passed by extension to a vehicle with an engine.[6][14] The derivatives motorista (1916), motorino (1947) and motorizzare (1931, after French motoriser) belong to this sense.[5] The GDLI supplement adds motore di ricerca, “search engine”, recorded in 1995.[3]

Timeline

  • About 1298 – First record, in the Tuscan Questioni filosofiche.[2]
  • 1304–1308 – Dante uses the adjective and the noun in the Convivio.[4]
  • Before 1519 – Leonardo da Vinci uses motore for a cause or motive.[4]
  • 1869 – The sense “engine” is recorded by Tommaseo.[4][14]
  • 1916 – Motorista “mechanic” is recorded.[5]
  • 1931 – Motorizzare is formed after French motoriser.[5]
  • 1995 – Motore di ricerca “search engine” appears in the press.[3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. engine, motor: a machine that turns a form of energy (thermal, electric, hydraulic…) into mechanical work, to drive vehicles or machinery: Ha lasciato il motore acceso davanti al negozio.[6][15][13]
  2. (by extension) A motor vehicle.[6][14]
  3. (figurative) The driving force or main cause of something: Il turismo è il motore dell'economia dell'isola.[6][15][12]
  4. (philosophy) The principle that moves the heavenly bodies, primo motore, motore immobile: God as the first, unmoved mover.[6][14][13]
  5. motore di ricerca: a search engine on the Internet.[3][1]

Adjective

  1. That produces or passes on motion: forza motrice, albero motore.[6][12][15]
  2. (anatomy) Of a nerve or other structure: that produces a movement.[6][12]

Word family

  • motorino
  • motoretta
  • motorista
  • motorismo
  • motoristico
  • motorizzare
  • motorizzazione
  • motrice
  • motricità
  • motorio

Usage notes

The feminine of the adjective is motrice (forza motrice), which is also a noun, the power car of a train or tram.[6][5][1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
  3. ^ 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. 11, 9
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
  5. ^ a b c d e f Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  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. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ a b Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
  9. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2520
  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 Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
  12. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  13. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
  14. ^ a b c d e Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  15. ^ a b c Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier