rivelare

Forms

rivelare (first-person singular present rivélo or rivèlo, first-person singular past historic rivelài, past participle rivelàto, auxiliary avére)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin revēlāre (“to unveil, to reveal”), a learned word.^[2][3][4][1] The Latin verb is formed from vēlō (“to cover, veil”), from vēlum (“veil, curtain”), with the prefix re- of reversed movement, so that it meant “to take the veil off”.^[2][3][5][6] Devoto explains the Italian ri- as a replacement of the Latin prefix by the Italian one, and the old form Old Italian revelare keeps the Latin vowel.^[5][7][8] The same verb is French révéler and Spanish revelar.^[3][9]

DELI stresses that the word came through the Latin of the Church, in the narrow sense of the disclosure of divine truth, and spread together with revēlātiō, which in Lactantius rendered Ancient Greek ἀποκάλυψις (apokálupsis), and revēlātor.^[2][3]

For vēlum de Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *wekslo-, perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *weg- (“to weave”), and mentions a proposal that it continues two older forms, one of them from Proto-Indo-European *wes- (“to clothe”).^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Nocentini dates the word to the beginning of the 13th century.^[3] DELI's first record of the religious sense, God revealing the truth to man, is Jacopone da Todi (before 1306): asking a dead friar whether he is in glory or in torment, the poet says that God has not revealed it to him (no lo m'ha Deo revelato).^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

Dante used the verb in the wider sense “to make manifest” in the Paradiso (1313–1319), and Boccaccio for telling openly what is hidden or unknown (1348–1353).^[2] The noun rivelazione named God's revelation to man before 1294, in Brunetto Latini, and rivelatore a person who reveals before 1342.^[2]

In the 20th century the verb and its family entered science and technology: rivelatore named an instrument that detects physical phenomena (1907), a component that separates a signal from its carrier wave (1939–1940), and a photographic developer (1932).^[2] The verb's sense “to make perceptible phenomena that the senses cannot observe” is recorded in 1959, and the reflexive rivelarsi, “to prove to be”, in 1839.^[2]

Timeline

• Beginning of the 13th century – The verb is recorded.^[3]
• Before 1294 – Brunetto Latini uses rivelazione for divine revelation.^[2]
• Before 1306 – Jacopone da Todi uses revelare for God's revealing.^[2][6]
• 1313–1319 – Dante uses it for “to make manifest”.^[2]
• 1348–1353 – Boccaccio uses it for disclosing a secret.^[2]
• 1839 – Reflexive rivelarsi “to show oneself, prove”.^[2]
• 1907 – Rivelatore names a detecting instrument.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To reveal, disclose something secret or unknown: Non volle rivelare dove aveva nascosto la chiave.^[4][7][11]
2. To show clearly, betray: Il tono della voce rivelava la sua paura.^[4][7][11]
3. (science, technology) To detect, make observable something not perceptible to the senses.^[4][7][8]
4. (religion) Of God, to make known a truth to mankind.^[7][12]

Verb (reflexive: rivelarsi)

1. To show oneself, to prove to be: L'impresa si rivelò più difficile del previsto.^[11][12][8]
2. (religion) Of a deity, to make itself known.^[11][8]

Word family

• rivelatore
• rivelazione
• rivelabile
• rivelatorio

Related words

• velo
• svelare
• Latin revelo

Usage notes

The stressed vowel of rivelo is given as closed, with an open variant.^[12][1] Wiktionary also lists two rare homographs formed in Italian from ri- and velare: one meaning “to veil again”, the other “to fit with sails again”.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n 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 e f Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ a b Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
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
7. ^ 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
8. ^ a b c d Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
9. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
10. ^ 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 c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
12. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli