Etymologically
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parlare

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Pronunciation

  • /parˈla.re/[1]

Forms

parlare (first-person singular present pàrlo, first-person singular past historic parlài, past participle parlàto, auxiliary avére)[1] The noun parlare has the plural parlari, now rare.[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *parabolāre, a verb formed from Late Latin parabola (“word”).[4][5][6][7][1] The verb is attested in Medieval Latin parabolāre from the 9th century,[8][9][10] and Nocentini finds it with the meaning “to speak” in 7th-century France.[11] Devoto sets out the steps ⟨*paravolare⟩ and ⟨*par(au)lare⟩.[10]

Nocentini differs on the route: he takes the Italian verb from Old French parler, which spread into the Italo-Romance area from Gaul.[11] The verb belongs to French and Occitan, which has both Occitan paraular and parlar, and passed from Occitan into Catalan parlar and, from there into Spanish parlar and Portuguese palrar (“to chatter”);[11][12] it is missing in Romanian.[8] Körting doubted that a verb ⟨*parabolare⟩ ever existed and thought the noun ⟨parola⟩ was formed from the verb instead.[13]

The new verb displaced classical Latin loquor (“to speak”), of which nothing survives in the Romance languages.[4][12] According to Migliorini, quoted by DELI, it first had to compete with fābulor, which gave Spanish hablar, and with ⟨fabellare⟩, which survives in Sardinian and Ladin and was alive in Dalmatian; the Christian innovation spread through Gaul and Italy from north to south, and its rival favellare was still common in the oldest central and southern Italian texts.[4]

The Latin noun is the Christian parabola, the word for the parables and sayings of Christ, which came to mean simply “word”.[11][7] It was borrowed from Ancient Greek παραβολή (parabolḗ, “comparison”), from παραβάλλω (parabállō, “to set side by side, compare”).[11] Nocentini traces the change of meaning to the Septuagint, where the Greek noun rendered Biblical Hebrew מָשָׁל (māšāl, “comparison; saying, proverb”).[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record of the verb, in the sense “to utter words, communicate by speech”, is in Uguccione da Lodi, 13th century;[4] GRADIT, Nocentini and Devoto–Oli date it to the first half of the 13th century.[5][11][6] The noun, “speech, way of speaking”, is in Odo delle Colonne in the 13th century,[4] and GDLI quotes Patecchio's warning against the man who talks too much and loses good sense “entre 'l so tan' parlare” (in all his talking).[14]

Semantic evolution

By the end of the 13th century the verb also meant to deliver a speech or sermon and to treat or discuss a subject, both in Brunetto Latini (before 1294); Dante (before 1321) uses it for speaking a given language.[4] The sense “to let out secrets, confess” is recorded in Anton Francesco Doni before 1574, and the figurative “to be expressive, speak to the feelings” in Paolo Segneri in 1686.[4] The reflexive parlarsi “to be on speaking terms” is in Tommaseo–Bellini (1871), and in the first edition of I promessi sposi (1825–1827) Manzoni used parlare for courting, a popular sense he replaced with discorrere in the final text.[4][8]

As a noun the infinitive named speech, a way of speaking and a local idiom: Dante's “ripensando / a quel parlar che mi parea nemico” (Inferno 10: thinking back on those words that seemed hostile to me) uses it for a discourse.[14][2] Among the derivatives, parlamento meant “talk” and “assembly” from the 13th century, and took its political sense from English Parliament in the reports of Venetian ambassadors, first in Lodovico Falier's of 1531.[4]

The verb travelled abroad: the slang of English actors, showmen and travelling people, parlyaree or Polari, recorded from 1846, is named after it, and German had parlen about 1515 and parlaren in 1566 for chattering.[15][1]

Timeline

  • 7th century – The Vulgar Latin verb is attested in France with the meaning “to speak”.[11]
  • 9th century – Medieval Latin parabolare is recorded.[8][9]
  • 13th century – Uguccione da Lodi uses parlare, Odo delle Colonne uses the noun.[4]
  • Before 1294 – Brunetto Latini uses it for making a speech and for discussing a subject.[4]
  • Before 1321 – Dante uses it for speaking a language.[4]
  • Before 1574 – Anton Francesco Doni uses it for revealing secrets.[4]
  • 1686 – Paolo Segneri uses it of things that speak to the feelings.[4]
  • 1825–1827 – Manzoni uses it for courting in the first edition of I promessi sposi.[4]
  • 1846 – English parlyaree is first recorded.[15]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To speak, to utter words; to have the faculty of speech: il nipotino ha cominciato a parlare a un anno.[5][6][7]
  2. To express one's thoughts in words, to talk, in a given manner: parla piano, ti prego.[5][16][17]
  3. To talk with someone, to converse (with con or a), and to talk about something (with di): ieri sera abbiamo parlato di viaggi.[7][6][2]
  4. (transitive) To speak a language: mia nonna parlava solo il dialetto.[5][7]
  5. To reveal what one knows, to confess: alla fine il testimone ha parlato.[7][4]
  6. (figurative) To be expressive, to convey meaning without words: i suoi occhi parlavano.[7][4][6]
  7. (reflexive, parlarsi) To speak to each other; to be on speaking terms.[4]

Noun

  1. The act or manner of speaking: un parlare lento e pacato.[6][7][5]
  2. A local speech, dialect: il parlare delle valli.[5][7][2]
  3. (literary) A speech, discourse.[6][2][7]

Word family

  • parlamento
  • parlante
  • parlantina
  • parlata
  • parlato
  • parlatore
  • parlatorio
  • parlottare
  • riparlare
  • sparlare
  • straparlare
  • altoparlante

Usage notes

Common phrases include senti chi parla! (look who's talking), parlare al vento (to waste one's words), con rispetto parlando (an apology before a coarse expression) and the proverb parlare a nuora perché suocera intenda (to say something to one person so that another will hear it).[5][6][16] Altoparlante “loudspeaker” (1927) renders English loud-speaker.[9]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
  3. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r 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 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 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 d e f g h i j Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  8. ^ a b c d Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2778
  9. ^ a b c Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 744
  10. ^ a b Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier, p. 318
  11. ^ a b c d e f g h Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  12. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  13. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
  14. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
  15. ^ a b Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
  16. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  17. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli