Etymologically
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profondo

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Pronunciation

  • /proˈfon.do/[1]

Forms

profondo (feminine profonda, masculine plural profondi, feminine plural profonde, superlative profondissimo)[1] Old Italian also had profonno and profundo.[2]

Etymology

DELI and Nocentini treat it as a word taken from Latin, borrowed from Latin profŭndus (“deep; bottomless”), from the accusative ⟨profundum⟩.[3][4][5][1] Meyer-Lübke lists it among the Romance outcomes of the Latin word, beside Sardinian profundu, Romansh profuond, Old French parfont (whence French profond), Old Occitan preon and Catalan pregon, with Spanish profundo and Portuguese profundo as learned forms.[6][4][7] The Latin adjective is formed from fundus (“bottom”), hence fondo, with prō-, literally “having its bottom far ahead”.[8][2][9] Devoto sees in it a crossing of an adjective from profundō (“to pour out abundantly”) with the noun for “bottom”.[10]

De Vaan explains fundus from Proto-Italic *fundo-, by metathesis from Proto-Indo-European *bʰudʰ-n-ó- (“bottom”), and compares Ancient Greek πυθμήν (puthmḗn, “bottom”), Old High German bodam and Old English botem.[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The noun, “depth, bottom”, is recorded first, about 1260 in the Laude cortonesi.[3] The adjective, “having a certain depth”, appears in Ristoro d'Arezzo in 1282, who observes that quanto l'acqua è più profonda, tanto se vede più oscura (“the deeper the water, the darker it looks”).[3][2][5]

Semantic evolution

Jacopone da Todi, before 1306, applied the adjective to intense feelings, and Dante to a person who knows things thoroughly.[3] Dante also used it as an adverb, sì parlò profondo (“he spoke so deeply”), of a speech too high to understand.[12] The sense “obscure, hard to understand” is now obsolete.[13][14]

The noun took on the sense “the unconscious” in psychology, recorded in 1958, as in psicologia del profondo.[3][14] Profondo Sud is a calque of American English deep South.[3][15] In music a basso profondo is a bass singer with a very low range.[13][14]

Timeline

  • c. 1260 – The noun appears in the Laude cortonesi.[3]
  • 1282 – Ristoro d'Arezzo uses the adjective and the noun profondità.[3]
  • Before 1294 – Brunetto Latini uses profondare for “to sink”.[3]
  • Before 1306 – Jacopone da Todi uses the adjective for intense feeling.[3]
  • Before 1321 – Dante uses it for a person of deep learning.[3]
  • 1676 – Approfondire is first recorded.[4]
  • 1958 – The noun is recorded for the unconscious, and profondimetro (depth gauge) appears.[3]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Deep, with its bottom far below the surface: In quel punto il lago è molto profondo.[5][16][8]
  2. Having a given depth: un fosso profondo due metri.[5][16][8]
  3. Reaching far inward or into something: una ferita profonda, radici profonde.[5][16][15]
  4. Forming the innermost or southernmost part of a region: il profondo Sud.[8][13][15]
  5. Of a sound or voice, low, grave.[5][13][14]
  6. Intense, complete: sonno profondo, silenzio profondo, notte profonda, or of a colour, dark and rich.[5][8][13]
  7. Of feelings, deeply felt: Provo per lui una profonda stima.[8][13][14]
  8. Of knowledge or a mind, thorough, not superficial, or of a person, very learned.[13][14]

Noun

  1. The depths, the innermost part of something: nel profondo del bosco.[14][12][1]
  2. (psychology) The unconscious.[14][3]

Adverb

  1. (rare, literary) Deeply.[14][12][1]

Word family

  • profondità
  • profondamente
  • profondare
  • approfondire
  • approfondimento
  • sprofondare
  • sprofondamento
  • profondimetro

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
  4. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  5. ^ a b c d e f g De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  7. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
  8. ^ a b c d e f Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  10. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
  11. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  12. ^ a b c Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
  13. ^ a b c d e f g Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  14. ^ a b c d e f g h i Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
  15. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
  16. ^ a b c Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier