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re

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Italian has two words spelled re: the word for a king, from Latin, and the name of a musical note, from the first syllable of a Latin hymn.[1][2][3]

re1 king

Pronunciation

Forms

re m (invariable, feminine regina)[4] Older forms are Old Italian rege, from the Latin accusative, and Old Italian rei or Old Italian rey, which Alessio thought were of French origin.[1][4]

Etymology

The word for a king is inherited from Latin rēx (“king”), from the nominative rather than the accusative, which survives in the literary doublet rege.[4][5][6] Nocentini and Devoto–Oli derive it from the accusative ⟨rēgem⟩, and DELI classes it as a learned word, while DEI calls it semi-popular.[3][7][1][8] The same Latin word is French roi, Occitan rei, Catalan rei, Spanish rey and Portuguese rei, and Meyer-Lübke adds Dalmatian ra and the Engadine form raig.[3][9]

The Latin noun goes back to Proto-Italic *rēks and Proto-Indo-European *h₃rḗǵs (“ruler, king”), and is related to regō (“to rule, guide”).[10][4][3] It belongs to the old vocabulary of law and religion that survives only at the western and eastern edges of the Indo-European world: Old Irish rí and Sanskrit राजन् (rā́jan) are its cognates.[10][3][11] DELI quotes Émile Benveniste's view that the ⟨rex⟩ was at first closer to a priest than to a modern king, the man with the authority to trace the bounds of the city and to fix the rules of law.[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is the Ritmo laurenziano, of the 12th or 13th century, and Nocentini dates the word to the second half of the 12th century.[1][3] GRADIT's date is before 1294.[2] The sense in the first records is the sovereign of a state.[1]

Semantic evolution

Dante uses both re and rege in the Convivio and the Commedia but never in the Vita Nuova or the lyric poems, and his plural is almost always regi.[1] The chess king appears in the 13th-century Tavola Ritonda, and the king of playing cards in a document from Ferrara in 1475.[1] From the turn of the 14th century re also names a person who excels in a field, often ironically, as in Luigi Alamanni's “Voi siete il Re della discortesia” (you are the king of discourtesy, 1548).[1] Francesco Berni called a river the “gran re de' fiumi” before 1535, and an animal that surpasses others in strength or beauty is recorded in 1891.[1]

Many royal words came from Latin, some through French: regina “queen” is recorded before 1294, while its variant reina follows French reine.[1] Reame “realm” copies Old French roiame, which continues Latin regimen, and reale “royal” owes its form to Old French reial.[1][3] The ironic phrase essere più realista del re “to be more royalist than the king” is recorded in 1891.[1] In bird and fish names re marks a leading species, and the wren is reattino or re di macchia.[9][12][5]

Timeline

  • 12th–13th century – The Ritmo laurenziano has the first record.[1]
  • 13th century – The Tavola Ritonda uses re for the chess piece.[1]
  • Before 1294 – Regina “queen” is recorded in Brunetto Latini.[1]
  • 1475 – A document from Ferrara uses re for the playing card.[1]
  • 1548 – Luigi Alamanni uses re for someone who excels, ironically.[1]
  • 1891 – Più realista del re is recorded.[1]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A king, the sovereign of a monarchy: il re del Marocco.[2][7][5]
  2. A title of gods in classical myth and of God or Christ: il Re dei re.[2][7]
  3. (figurative) Someone who excels or dominates in a field, a magnate, also ironically: È il re delle scuse.[2][5][13]
  4. (figurative) An animal or thing that surpasses all others of its kind.[5][13][6]
  5. (chess, card games) The king.[5][13][4]
  6. (zoology) Part of the common names of various birds and fish.[5][14]

Word family

  • regina
  • reale
  • reame
  • regale
  • regalità
  • reggia
  • regio
  • regicida
  • regicidio
  • regnare
  • regno
  • regnicolo
  • reuccio
  • reginetta

re2 musical note

Pronunciation

Forms

re m (invariable)[4]

Etymology

The note is the first syllable from Latin resonāre (“to resound”), which opens the second half-line of the hymn to Saint John the Baptist ⟨Ut queant laxis resonare fibris⟩.[1][3][2][4] GRADIT and Sabatini–Coletti ascribe the hymn to Paul the Deacon.[2][5] In its melody each half-line begins one step higher, and in the 11th century Guido d'Arezzo took the first syllables as names for the notes of the scale.[15][7][11] The same source gave ut, mi, fa, sol and la.[1][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI dates the note to the 14th century, in Antonio de' Carelli, and Devoto–Oli and GRADIT to the 13th–14th century.[1][7][2] Carelli has Music sing “Ut Re Mi Sol Fa” in order.[16] Sabatini–Coletti gives the 16th century.[5]

Semantic evolution

Machiavelli's Clizia jokes about a singer who answers a story with “uno ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la”.[16][17] In the countries that use these names re corresponds to the letter D of German and English notation.[16][4] German recorded Re as a musical term in 1732.[18]

Timeline

  • 11th century – Guido d'Arezzo names the notes after the hymn's syllables.[15][7]
  • 14th century – Antonio de' Carelli has the first Italian record.[1]
  • 1732 – German Re is recorded.[18]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (music) Re, the second note of the scale of C, D.[2][5][4]
  2. (music) The string or key of an instrument that gives this note.[2][14]
  3. (music) The key of D: un concerto in re minore.[2]

Usage notes

Both words are invariable: il re, i re.[4][7] The king is pronounced with a closed vowel, the note with an open one.[7][16] The feminine of the king is regina.[4][5] An old re “line of armed men”, from Old French, is recorded in the GDLI.[16]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  6. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
  7. ^ 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
  8. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3214
  9. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  10. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  11. ^ a b Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
  12. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 827
  13. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  14. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
  15. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3215
  16. ^ a b c d e Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 15, 601
  17. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
  18. ^ a b Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it