regale

Forms

regale (plural regali)^[1]

Etymology

It is learned: it is borrowed from Latin rēgālis (“royal”), from rēx (“king”) with the suffix -ālis.^{[2][3][4][5][1]} The word that came by the popular route, through Old French, is reale, its doublet;^[1][6][7] Körting noted that it is the more usual of the two.^[1][6][7]

The Latin adjective gave French royal, Old Occitan reial, Spanish real and Portuguese real.^[8][6] The Latin noun continues Proto-Italic *rēg- and Proto-Indo-European *h₃rḗǵs (“ruler, king”).^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI dates the word from Dante, before 1321, in the sense “of a king”;^[2][10] Zingarelli gives 1319.^[2][10] The GDLI also quotes nato de regale sangue (“born of royal blood”) from the Storia de Troia e de Roma.^[11]

Semantic evolution

The first sense was “belonging to a king, of royal descent”.^[2][11] The sense “worthy of a king”, and so “splendid, magnificent”, is recorded from Petrocchi's dictionary of 1891.^[2] Dante already used the adverb regalmente.^[12]

In poetry regale is used instead of reale “royal”, and in everyday use it avoids the ambiguity of reale, which also means “real”.^[12]

Timeline

• Before 1321 – Dante uses regale “royal”.^[2]
• 14th century – Boccaccio uses the word.^[7]
• 1607–1609 – Regale is first recorded as the name of a small organ.^[4]
• 1891 – Petrocchi records the sense “worthy of a king”.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of a king or queen; royal: lo scettro regale.^[4][13][14]
2. Worthy of a king; magnificent, sumptuous: un ricevimento regale.^[4][13][14]
3. Stately, majestic: un'andatura regale.^[4][13]

Word family

• regalità
• regalmente

Related words

• reale
• re
• regina
• Latin rēgālis

Usage notes

A separate word regale, a noun recorded from 1607–1609, names a small portable organ with reed pipes used in the 15th and 16th centuries, also called rigabello, and a reed stop of the organ;^{[4][15][13][12][10]} GRADIT and the GDLI take it, with doubt, from Latin rēgula “rule”, since the instrument was used to keep the monks' singing in tune, while Devoto–Oli and Treccani derive it from the adjective.^{[4][15][13][12][10]}

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e f g De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
7. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3222
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
11. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 15, 687
12. ^ a b c d Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
13. ^ a b c d e Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
14. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
15. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 15, 689