scrittura

Forms

scrittura f (plural scritture)^[1] Old and dialect forms include Old Italian scretura, Old Italian scritura and the Latinate spelling Old Italian scriptura.^[2][3] Bonvesin da la Riva wrote the Old Lombard form scrigiura.^[4][2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin scrīptūra (“writing; a written work”), which in Church Latin also meant the Holy Scripture.^[5][3][1] The Latin noun is formed on scrīptum (“something written”), the past participle of scrībō (“to write”), with the suffix -ūra.^[5][6][1]

The word is panromance: French écriture, Occitan escritura, Catalan escritura, Spanish escritura and Portuguese escritura, Sardinian iscrittura, Engadine scrittüra and Old Romanian scriptură.^[5][7][8]

De Vaan traces the verb to a Proto-Italic *skreif-e/o- (“to carve”) and a Proto-Indo-European *skreibʰ-e/o- (“to carve”): writing was first scratching or carving.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's earliest record is in the Ritmo cassinese of the late 12th century, where the word means a written document.^[3] The sense “act of writing” follows in 1295, in the Latinate spelling scriptura, and the sense “the Bible” in Pietro da Barsegapè in the 13th century.^[3]

Semantic evolution

From the start the word covered the act of writing, a written text and the Scriptures.^[3] Dante speaks of the sacra scrittura and calls his own work la presente scrittura.^[4][10] Jacopone has a child set to read so that he may learn scrittura, with beatings if he does not.^[2] In bookkeeping the plural scritture named a firm's written accounts from the Siena wool guild statute of 1298–1309.^[3]

A literary or historical work was a scrittura for L. Salviati in 1584–1586, a sense now literary.^[3][11] In the theatre the word came to mean the contract between an impresario and an actor, singer or musician, recorded in the Milan press in 1837; from it came scritturare, to engage a performer (1805).^[3][5] German borrowed Scrittura for the commission given in 18th-century Italy to write a new opera for the following season.^[12]

Modern compounds name writing systems and styles (scrittura alfabetica, scrittura corsiva, scrittura creativa, the last translating English creative writing).^[10][2]

Timeline

• Late 12th century – The Ritmo cassinese uses the word for a written document.^[3]
• 13th century – Pietro da Barsegapè uses scriptura for the Bible.^[3]
• 1295 – Scriptura “act of writing” is recorded.^[3][10]
• 1298–1309 – The Siena wool guild statute uses the plural for business records.^[3]
• 1584–1586 – L. Salviati uses it for a literary or historical work.^[3]
• 1805 – The verb scritturare “to engage a performer” is recorded.^[5]
• 1837 – The sense “contract for a performance” appears in the Milan press.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. writing: the representation of language by conventional signs; the skill and practice of writing: L'invenzione della scrittura cambiò la storia.^[10][13][14]
2. A writing system or script: scrittura cuneiforme, scrittura gotica.^[10][15][14]
3. handwriting, a person's way of forming letters: Non riesco a leggere la sua scrittura.^[10][15][1]
4. The act of writing something; written expression as opposed to speech; style of writing.^[10][13][16]
5. (literary) A written work.^[11][14]
6. (religion, usually capitalised) la (Sacra) Scrittura, le Scritture: the Scriptures.^[11][17][1]
7. (law) A written document with legal force: scrittura privata.^[10][11][17]
8. (entertainment) A contract between an impresario and an actor, singer or musician: Il tenore ha firmato una scrittura per la prossima stagione.^[11][13][1]
9. (accounting, chiefly plural) An entry in a firm's books;^[11][13][16] scritture contabili, the account books.^[11][13][16]

Word family

• scritturale
• scritturare
• scritturazione
• scritturista
• scritturistico
• riscrittura
• videoscrittura

Related words

• scrivere
• scritto
• scrittore
• Latin scriptura

Usage notes

Scrittura for the Bible is usually written with a capital, la Scrittura, le Sacre Scritture.^[17][1] A Tuscan proverb says chi non sa leggere la sua scrittura è un asino di natura, he who cannot read his own handwriting is a born fool.^[11][17]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ 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
4. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3426
5. ^ a b c d e Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
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 e f g h De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
11. ^ a b c d e f g h Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
12. ^ Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
13. ^ a b c d e Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
14. ^ a b c Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
15. ^ a b Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
16. ^ a b c Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
17. ^ a b c d Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana