Etymology and origin of the Italian word movimento
- Confidence
- Established
- Formation
- Derivation
- First attested
- 13th century, Rinaldo d'Aquino
- Ultimate origin
- Latin moveō
From the same root
Pronunciation
- /mo.viˈmen.to/[1]
Forms
movimento m (plural movimenti)[1] An older spelling is muovimento, now disused.[2]
Etymology
It is from Italian muovere + -mento, perhaps partly modelled on Medieval Latin mōvimentum.[3][4][5][1] Compare French mouvement.[1] The verb continues Latin moveō (“to move”), which passed into another conjugation in Italian; it was used both in the physical and in the moral sense, as in “to stir the mind”, like the Greek verb Ancient Greek κινέω (kinéō) it rendered.[3][6] The Latin verb goes back to Proto-Italic *moweō and to Proto-Indo-European *m(i̯)euh₁- (“to move”).[7][1] The Medieval Latin noun is a doublet of Latin mōmentum, which comes from the same verb.[1]
Movimentato “eventful, lively” is a 19th-century adaptation of French mouvementé (1845), and the purist Alfredo Panzini called it an ugly word.[3]
Earliest recorded meaning
DELI's first record is in the 13th-century Sicilian poet Rinaldo d'Aquino, in the general sense “the act or effect of moving”.[3][4] Early prose uses it as a term of natural philosophy: the preacher Giordano da Pisa explains that in movement the wise distinguish the place one comes from, the goal, the thing that moves and the manner of going.[2]
Semantic evolution
By about 1336 Boccaccio used the word for a hostile action and, in military language, for a manoeuvre of troops.[3] Galileo and the natural philosophers made it a term of physics, speaking of the movement of the earth around the sun.[8][2] In music it named a kind of trill in 1560 (Francesco Patrizi), and, from 1720 (Benedetto Marcello) the speed at which a piece is played;[3][9] French took over this sense in 1703 and German borrowed Movimento in 1876.[3][9]
The 19th century added the busy movement of people and vehicles (1855, criticised as badly said), the impression of motion in painting and sculpture (1891), and, from 1872 in Carducci, a cultural, political or artistic current.[3] Tommaseo rejected movimento della popolazione in demography as a useless gallicism in 1869, and the bookkeeping movimento di cassa “cash flow” is recorded in 1886.[3] In slang c'è un movimento hints at a shady deal or a love affair.[4]
Timeline
- 13th century – Rinaldo d'Aquino uses movimento.[3]
- About 1336 – Boccaccio uses it for a hostile action and a military manoeuvre.[3]
- 1560 – Francesco Patrizi uses it for a kind of musical trill.[3]
- 1720 – Benedetto Marcello uses it for the speed of a piece of music.[3]
- 1869 – Tommaseo condemns movimento della popolazione as a gallicism.[3]
- 1872 – Carducci uses it for a cultural or political current.[3]
- 1876 – German borrows Movimento as a musical term.[9]
- 1958 – Italo Calvino writes movimento del capitale.[3]
Meanings
Noun
- movement, motion: the change of a body's position in space: il movimento delle onde.[4][5][1]
- A movement of the body or a part of it; a gesture: Ha fatto un movimento brusco con la spalla.[4][5]
- Physical exercise: Dovrei fare più movimento.[4][10]
- Bustle, busy traffic of people or vehicles: In centro c'è sempre movimento.[4][10][1]
- The moving of people from one place or post to another: un movimento di personale tra le sedi.[4]
- (art, literature) Liveliness, a sense of motion in a work: a dynamic effect in painting, or a lively narrative rhythm.[4][10]
- A current or organized trend promoting certain ideas: un movimento letterario, un movimento politico.[4][5]
- (music) The tempo of a piece; also a movement of a larger composition.[10][1]
- The mechanism of a clock or watch.[1][10]
Word family
- movimentare
- movimentismo
- movimentista
Related words
Usage notes
Mettere in movimento means “to set going”, and mettersi in movimento “to set off”.[5] In physics and technical language moto is often preferred.[11]
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
- ^ 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
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
- ^ 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
- ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
- ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
- ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
- ^ a b c Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
- ^ a b c d e Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
- ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
Cite this entry
“Movimento.” Etymologically, 22 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/it/movimento. Accessed 22 Oct. 2026.
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