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salvezza

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Etymology and origin of the Italian word salvezza

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
1310–1312 Dino Compagni More words from the 14th century
Ultimate origin
Latin salvus
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin salvus
French sauf
Italian salvo
Italian salvezza
Spanish salvo
From the same root
Latin salveō ← salvus
Latin salvia ← salvus
Latin salvitās ← salvus
Latin salvō ← salvus
Spanish salva ← salvo

Pronunciation

  • /salˈvet.t͡sa/[1]

Forms

salvezza f (plural salvezze)[1] Old forms include salvéssa, salvéza and salvéze.[2]

Etymology

It is from Italian salvo + -ezza, the adjective meaning “safe, unharmed” with the suffix of abstract nouns.[3][4][1] DEI gives salvazione as a synonym.[5]

Salvo goes back to Latin salvus (“healthy, unharmed, intact”), which DELI calls an Indo-European word of religious and sacred character.[6][7] Nocentini compares the Latin word with Sanskrit and Greek words meaning “whole, all”.[7] The same Latin adjective gave French sauf, Occitan salf, Catalan salf, Spanish salvo and Portuguese salvo.[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI dates the first record to 1310–1312, in Dino Compagni, with the sense “the condition of being safe”.[6] Zingarelli gives 1312, and GRADIT dates the word to 1348–1353, the years of Boccaccio's Decameron.[8][3] In the Decameron a woman offers a man the chance to win “both my peace and your safety” (e la mia pace e la tua salvezza acquistare).[9][2]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian the word meant above all physical safety: escape from a threatened death, or the preservation of one's life.[2] From this it came to name the person or thing that saves someone, a sense all the modern dictionaries record.[3][8][10]

For the religious sense, the soul's deliverance from sin, Italian also has salvazione, which Sabatini–Coletti mark as literary.[4][8] Tommaseo quotes Segneri for this sense.[9] The figurative ancora di salvezza, “sheet anchor”, a last hope, is recorded by Tommaseo.[9][8]

The newest sense is in sport: in a league table, salvezza is staying in one's division and avoiding relegation, and a team plays la partita della salvezza.[3][11][4]

Timeline

  • 1310–1312 – Dino Compagni uses salvezza for the condition of being safe.[6]
  • 1348–1353 – Boccaccio uses the word in the Decameron.[3][9]

Meanings

Noun

  1. safety, rescue: the fact of being saved or of escaping a danger: Nella fuga cercarono la salvezza.[3][11][4]
  2. (by extension) The person, thing or means that saves someone: Quel passaggio in macchina fu la mia salvezza.[3][8][10]
  3. (theology) salvation: the soul freed from sin by divine grace, and the redemption of humankind by Christ.[3][11][12]
  4. (sports) In a league with a points table, avoiding relegation to the lower division.[3][11][4]

Usage notes

Ancora di salvezza is a last resort, the one remaining hope.[8][13] The Esercito della Salvezza is the Salvation Army.[13][12] In sport, quota salvezza is the final score below which a team is relegated.[13]

References

  1. ^ a b c 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 De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  4. ^ a b c d e Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  5. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3326
  6. ^ a b c Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
  7. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  8. ^ a b c d e f Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  9. ^ a b c d Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
  10. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
  11. ^ a b c d Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
  12. ^ a b 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 Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
Cite this entry

“Salvezza.” Etymologically, 14 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/it/salvezza. Accessed 15 Nov. 2026.

Last edited on . ·