risultare

Forms

risultare (first-person singular present risùlto, first-person singular past historic risultài, past participle risultàto, auxiliary èssere)^[1] Old forms include Old Italian resultare and Old Italian resoltare.^[2][3] Resultare is still listed as a less common variant.^[4][5][6]

Etymology

It is learned: it is borrowed from Latin resultō (“to spring back, rebound”).^{[7][8][9][10]} Wiktionary calls it a semi-learned borrowing.^[1] The Latin verb meant “to leap back, rebound” and also “to echo, resound”.^[8][11][1] In the scholastic Latin of the Middle Ages it took on the sense “to follow as a consequence”, recorded from the 13th century together with the noun Medieval Latin resultatum.^[7][3][5] The same Latin verb gave French résulter and Spanish resultar.^[8]

The Latin verb is formed with re- (“back”) and saltō (“to leap, dance”), the intensive of saliō (“to leap”).^[7][10][8] DELI and Sabatini–Coletti describe it as the iterative of resiliō (“to rebound”), and Wiktionary allows both analyses.^[7][5][1] The /a/ of the simple verb became /u/ in the compound, the regular weakening of a vowel in an inner syllable before /l/ followed by a consonant; the Latin prefix ⟨re-⟩ was later replaced by Italian ⟨ri-⟩.^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in the treatise of Restoro d'Arezzo (1282), in Aretine, with the sense “to come about as a consequence or effect; to derive”.^[2][9] DELI's first example is Dante's Convivio (1304–1308), where beauty risulta da le membra “results from the limbs” when they are duly ordered.^[7][3]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian used the verb for what follows from a cause, for having weight or importance (Boccaccio: perché questo poco resulta, “since this matters little”), and in music for giving back a sound.^[2][10] The older form resultare prevailed for a long time: in modern editions of Dante risulta is rare beside the usual resulta.^[7] The sense “to bounce back, echo” survived only in literature, as in Sannazzaro's E nell'orecchie il bel nome risultami “and the fair name echoes in my ears”.^[11][13][9]

From the 17th century the verb meant “to emerge as the conclusion of inquiries or research” (Magalotti, 1666–1691), and earlier already “to prove, turn out to be” (Belcari, before 1484).^[7] The use for “to succeed, come out (as winner, as elected)” was rejected by a purist dictionary in 1831 and by later purists, but it is standard today.^[7][10] The participles became words of their own: risultato “result” (1647), risultante “resultant” in physics (1872), and the less common risultanza (1671).^[7][8] In slang mi risulta can mean “I like him or her”.^[10][4]

Timeline

• 1282 – Restoro d'Arezzo uses the verb in Aretine.^[2][9]
• 1304–1308 – Dante uses resulta and risulta in the Convivio.^[7][3]
• Before 1484 – Belcari uses it for “to prove, turn out”.^[7]
• Before 1519 – Risultante is recorded in Leonardo da Vinci.^[7]
• 1647 – Resultato “result” is recorded in V. Siri.^[7]
• 1666–1691 – Magalotti uses it for what emerges from inquiries.^[7]
• 1831 – A purist dictionary rejects the sense “to come out, succeed”.^[7]
• 1872 – Risultante is recorded as a term of physics.^[7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To result, follow as a consequence or effect (+ da): Da quella lite risultarono solo guai.^{[10][4][5][9]}
2. To emerge as the conclusion of an inquiry, test or search: Dalle analisi risultano valori normali.^[10][4][9]
3. (often impersonal) To be known or on record to someone: non mi risulta “not as far as I know”.^{[10][4][5][6]}
4. To prove, turn out to be; to come out (first, elected, promoted) in a contest or election.^{[10][4][5][9]}
5. (slang) To be liked by someone.^[10][4]
6. (literary, obsolete) To rebound, echo; to stand out.^[10][6][9]

Word family

• risultante
• risultanza
• risultato
• risulta
• risultamento

Related words

• saltare
• Latin resultō
• French résulter

Usage notes

Another, obsolete risultare, also rassultare, meant “to rejoice” and “to revive (a virtue)”; it is formed with the prefix ri- on esultare and is recorded in Iacopone da Todi and Cavalca.^[2][14] The verb takes essere in compound tenses.^[4][9]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ a b c d Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c d e f Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
6. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
8. ^ a b c d e Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
10. ^ 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
11. ^ a b Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
12. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
13. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
14. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 16, 907