Etymologically
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nord

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Pronunciation

Forms

nord m (invariable)[1] Older forms are Old Italian north and Old Italian norto, and later nort and norte.[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Spanish norte and French nord, which go back to Old English norþ.[3][5][4][1] Migliorini held that the names of the cardinal points came into Italian through Spanish, so that the Hispanising forms “norte” and “oeste” came first and were later overtaken by the forms used in France;[3][5][6] GRADIT and Devoto–Oli derive the word from Spanish.[3][5][6] Nocentini takes it from French, from which Spanish also has it.[7] The French word is recorded as Old French nort from 1120.[8]

Zaccaria thought that the word came neither from France nor from Spain but through the treatises of cosmographers from the Low Countries and Germany, since Giuseppe Moleti, the first author to use it, called it a northern word.[9]

The English word is Germanic, like Old Norse norðr and Old High German nord.[7] Nocentini compares Ancient Greek νέρτερος (nérteros, “lower”) and Umbrian nertru (“on the left”): it was an old adjective of orientation towards the rising sun, in which the left hand side is the north.[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is Francesco Pegolotti's Pratica della mercatura (Florentine, first half of the 14th century), with the forms north and norto, for the cardinal point.[2] In 1358 Simone da Lentini's Sicilian translation of the history of the Norman conquest of Sicily explains the name of the Normans from English North, which “in our language” means the northern lands.[3]

Semantic evolution

In 1534 Pietro Martire's translation speaks of the mar di Nort, and in 1561 Giuseppe Moleti noted that the sailors of the Mediterranean called the wind from the pole tramontana while those of the ocean called it north.[3][5] The form nord is recorded in Giovanni Targioni Tozzetti in 1761, and in 1908 Panzini wrote that the Italianised norte was no longer used.[3] The Latin-based words settentrione and tramontana remain in use beside it.[3][6]

The sense “northern part of a country” is recorded in 1834.[3] With a capital, il Nord names the industrial north of Italy and, in politics and journalism, the rich countries of the world.[5][6][10] As an invariable adjective (parete nord, Milano nord) it is recorded in 1970.[3][5]

Timeline

  • First half of the 14th century – Pegolotti writes north and norto.[2]
  • 1358 – Simone da Lentini explains the English word North.[3]
  • 1504 – Amerigo Vespucci writes nordodeste “north-west”.[3]
  • 1534 – Pietro Martire writes mar di Nort.[3][5]
  • 1561 – Giuseppe Moleti writes north and northest.[3]
  • 1761 – The form nord is recorded.[3]
  • 1834 – The sense “northern region” is recorded.[3]
  • 1970 – The adjective use is recorded.[3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. north, the cardinal point shown in the northern hemisphere by the pole star: La finestra della cucina guarda a nord.[5][6][11]
  2. The northern part of a country, a region or a continent: Sono nati nel nord della Francia.[5][6][11]
  3. (capitalised) Northern Italy: Molti si trasferirono al Nord per lavorare in fabbrica.[5][6]
  4. (capitalised) The industrialised countries of the world.[5][6][10]
  5. (bridge) The player who partners South.[5][6][10]

Adjective

  1. (invariable) northern, facing north: la parete nord della montagna.[5][10][12]

Word family

  • nordest
  • nordovest
  • nordico
  • nordista
  • sud
  • settentrione
  • tramontana
  • French nord
  • Spanish norte

Usage notes

Perdere il nord means to lose one's bearings.[6] Before other words nord forms compounds: Nord America, nordamericano, nordafricano.[6][11]

References

  1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
  4. ^ a b Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 701
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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 Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
  7. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  8. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 11
  9. ^ Zaccaria, Enrico (1901), L'elemento germanico nella lingua italiana: lessico con appendice e prospetto cronologico, Bologna: Treves
  10. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  11. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  12. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana