Etymologically
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scienza

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈʃɛn.t͡sa/[1]

Forms

scienza f (plural scienze)[1] Old Italian also wrote scienzia, sienzia and scienga;[2][3][1] scienzia lived on in popular speech.[2][3][1]

Etymology

It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin scientia (“knowledge”).[4][5][6][1] The Latin noun, attested from Varro, is formed from sciēns (“knowing”), the present participle of sciō (“to know”), with the abstract suffix -ia.[1][7][8][9] De Vaan thinks sciō is probably a back-formation from nesciō (“not to know”); if “know” grew out of “distinguish, decide”, the verb belongs to a root meaning “to cut”, Proto-Indo-European *sekH- in the LIV.[8] Nocentini gives the same explanation, with comparisons from Hittite, and notes that the Latin verb itself survives in Romance only in Sardinian ischire and Romanian ști.[5]

The same learned word is French science, the source of science, and Spanish ciencia.[5][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is from Guido Faba of Bologna (before 1243), in the general sense “knowledge, awareness”;[4][6] GRADIT dates the word to 1304–1308, in Dante's Convivio.[4][6] There Dante calls scienza the final perfection of the soul, in which our final happiness lies.[11][12]

Semantic evolution

For medieval writers scienza was knowledge in general, the unified learning that philosophy crowned, without the later split between scientific and philosophical knowledge.[2] In the Paradiso Beatrice tells Dante that understanding without remembering does not make scienza.[11][13] The modern sense, a body of knowledge about one order of phenomena based on method, study and experiment, is first recorded in Pietro Bembo (1525).[4] The religious sense, one of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, is still listed.[6][13]

In 1960 the plural scienze is recorded as the school subject that covers the natural sciences, chemistry, biology and geography.[4] Familiar phrases include pozzo or arca di scienza, a very learned person, and avere la scienza infusa, said ironically of someone who thinks they know everything without having studied.[14][9][15]

Timeline

  • Before 1243 – Guido Faba uses scienza for knowledge.[4]
  • 1304–1308 – Dante's Convivio has the word.[6][11]
  • 14th century – Scienziato and scientifico are recorded.[5]
  • 1525 – Bembo uses it for an organized, methodical body of knowledge.[4]
  • 1960 – Scienze is recorded as a school subject.[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. science: a body of knowledge, rigorously tested and systematically ordered, about a given range of phenomena, and the research that produces it: Negli ultimi decenni la scienza ha fatto enormi progressi.[6][9][13]
  2. Especially in the plural, a group of disciplines sharing a field and methods: scienze naturali, scienze politiche.[6][13][12]
  3. (education) In the plural, the school subject that covers biology, chemistry and earth sciences; at university, the faculty of mathematical, physical and natural sciences: Domani abbiamo il compito di scienze.[6][13]
  4. The scientific community and its research: Questa scoperta pone nuove domande alla scienza.[6][9][13]
  5. Learning, knowledge: Era un uomo di grande scienza.[6][9][14]
  6. (theology) One of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit.[6][13]

Word family

  • scienziato
  • fantascienza
  • pseudoscienza
  • scientismo
  • scientista
  • bioscienza
  • geoscienza
  • nanoscienza

Usage notes

Uomo di scienza means a scientist or, more loosely, a learned person.[9][14] Fantascienza is science fiction.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g 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 Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 892
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
  5. ^ a b c d Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  6. ^ 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
  7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ 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
  9. ^ a b c d e f Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
  10. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
  11. ^ a b c Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
  12. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
  13. ^ a b c d e f g Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  14. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  15. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli