Etymologically
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notare

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Pronunciation

Forms

notare (first-person singular present nòto, first-person singular past historic notài, past participle notàto, auxiliary avére)[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin notō (“to mark; to point out”), a learned borrowing, from nota (“mark, sign”).[2][1][3][4][5] The same Latin verb gave French noter and Spanish notar; a popular outcome survives only in a few Alpine words for marking goats or making notches, such as Romansh nuder.[2][6]

The origin of the Latin noun is unclear.[7][1] It was traditionally linked with Latin nōscō (“to get to know”), but de Vaan rejects both this and a derivation from the root of Ancient Greek ὀνόσασθαι (onósasthai, “to blame”);[7][1] Schrijver's proposal, a noun “*snot-ā” from the root of Latin sentiō, is uncertain.[7][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Novellino of the late 13th century has the sense “to observe, notice”;[5][8] Zingarelli dates the word to 1268.[5][8] A Venetian document of 1314 uses it for “to write down, record”, the date GRADIT gives for the word.[5][3]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian used the verb for writing things down, noting the day and hour of an event or listing names and sums, as in Cavalca and Giovanni Villani's è da notare, “it is worth noting”.[9] In Dante the letters of the book of judgment noteranno molto in parvo loco, “will set down much in little space”.[10] It also meant “to accuse, brand” and, in music, “to set to notes” or “to sing from notes”.[4][11][12]

The sense “to mark with a sign” is dated only to F. Serdonati, before 1602.[5] Today the usual sense is to notice something or someone, or to point out a fact; writing down and marking have become uncommon.[4][11][3]

Timeline

  • 1268 – Zingarelli's date for the first record.[8]
  • Late 13th century – The Novellino uses notare “to observe”.[5]
  • 1314 – A Venetian document has the sense “to record”.[5]
  • Before 1602 – F. Serdonati uses it for “to mark with a sign”.[5]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To notice, become aware of something: Hai notato che la porta era aperta?[3][4][13][1]
  2. To look at someone or something and be struck by it, farsi notare, to draw attention to oneself.[3][4][8]
  3. To point out, remark, stress: Va notato che il testo è incompleto.[3][4][13]
  4. (uncommon) To mark with a sign: notare gli errori in margine.[3][4][8]
  5. (uncommon) To write down, record: notare le spese del mese.[3][4][13]
  6. (literary) To accuse, brand someone with a fault.[4][13][8]
  7. (music) To set a text to music, (archaic) to sing from notes.[4][11]

Word family

  • notevole
  • notabile
  • notazione
  • annotare
  • denotare
  • connotare
  • prenotare

Usage notes

Nota bene, “note well”, calls attention to a point.[3][4][8]

A separate notare (first person nuoto) is the Tuscan and Roman form of nuotare “to swim”, with its derivatives notatore and notatura in Old Italian.[14][3][1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  3. ^ 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
  4. ^ 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
  5. ^ 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
  6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  7. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  8. ^ a b c d e f g Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  9. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 11, 573
  10. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
  11. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
  12. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
  13. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  14. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2602