Etymologically
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paziente

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Pronunciation

  • /patˈt͡sjɛn.te/[1]

Forms

paziente m or f by sense (plural pazienti)[1]

Etymology

It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin patiēns (“enduring, patient”), the present participle of patior (“to suffer, endure”).[2][3][4][1] The same participle is French patient, recorded in 1120, and Spanish paciente and Portuguese paciente.[3][5][6] Körting notes that French also used the noun for a man condemned to execution.[5]

The noun “sick person in a doctor's care” belongs to the language of medicine from the 14th century, as do French patient and English patient.[3][7] Meyer-Lübke and Körting derive pazzo “mad” from the participle in the sense “sick”, Körting through a form Vulgar Latin *patius, against Nigra, who had made it a shortening of pupazzo.[8][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is in Guidotto da Bologna, in the 13th century: one who accepts adversity and setbacks calmly and can wait without impatience.[2][3] The noun for a sick person under a doctor's care is first found about 1350, in the Italian translation of Pietro de' Crescenzi's treatise on agriculture.[2][9]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian the adjective named the Christian virtue of forbearance: Fra Giordano speaks of a man who suffers wrong without fault and is paziente, and Dante in the Convivio sets the friend who is “non paziente ma iracundo” (not patient but irascible) against the patient one.[6] From bearing troubles the word passed to working with care: Tommaseo cites Protogenes as a “studioso e paziente pittore” (a studious and painstaking painter), and the proverb “Chi non è savio, paziente e forte, si lamenti di sè, non della sorte” (whoever is not wise, patient and strong should blame himself, not fate).[10]

Old grammar called the element that undergoes the action of a verb paziente, and modern linguistics uses the noun for this semantic role, as opposed to agente.[11][9][12] Medicine has the recent phrase paziente zero, the first patient found to carry an infection.[13]

Timeline

  • 13th century – Guidotto da Bologna uses paziente “patient, forbearing”.[2]
  • 1120 – French patient is first recorded.[6]
  • About 1350 – The noun “sick person” in the translation of Pietro de' Crescenzi.[2]
  • Before 1527 – Pazientare “to be patient” in Machiavelli.[2]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. patient, able to bear setbacks, delays or annoyance without losing one's calm: Con i bambini piccoli bisogna essere molto pazienti.[4][13][9][11]
  2. painstaking, working with care and attention to detail; of work, done with care: Il restauro ha richiesto mesi di lavoro paziente.[4][13][9][12]
  3. Of an animal, docile, bearing heavy work: il bue paziente.[4][9]
  4. (literary) Expressing patience.[4][9][11]

Noun

  1. A patient, a sick person in the care of a doctor: La paziente è stata dimessa dopo tre giorni.[4][13][9][1]
  2. (linguistics) The semantic role of the element that undergoes the action.[9][12][1]

Word family

  • pazientare
  • pazientemente
  • impaziente
  • spazientire

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
  3. ^ a b c d Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  4. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  5. ^ a b c Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
  6. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 12, 879
  7. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2811
  8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  10. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
  11. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  12. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
  13. ^ a b c d Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier