selvatico

Forms

selvatico (feminine selvatica, masculine plural selvatici, feminine plural selvatiche)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin silvāticus (“living or growing in the woods”), formed from silva (“wood, forest”) with the suffix -āticus.^[2][3][1] DEI notes the Latin word in Cato and Varro.^[4] Devoto compares rūsticus from rūs, viāticus from via and aquāticus from aqua.^[5]

The older and popular Tuscan form Old Italian salvatico continues the variant Late Latin salvāticus, with the first vowel changed by dissimilation.^[6][7][8][1] The same Latin word gave French sauvage, Occitan salvatge, Romanian sălbatic and Friulian salvadi;^[2][8] Catalan sauvatge and Spanish salvaje were taken from the Occitan form.^[2] The doublet selvaggio came into Italian from Gallo-Romance: Prati derives it from French, Meyer-Lübke from Occitan.^[7][8][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the form salvatico in Bono Giamboni, before 1292, for a wild place, and in the same author for animals that live free rather than tame.^[9][3]

Semantic evolution

Of plants the word is found from Giordano da Pisa (before 1311), who speaks of grafting a good scion onto a salvatico tree; the form selvatico in this sense is first recorded in the 16th century.^[9][10] Dante used salvatico for an unsociable, ill-mannered person, a sense that the form selvatico shows in the dictionaries only from 1922.^[9] Boccaccio wrote of the roots of erbe selvatiche (“wild herbs”).^[10]

As a noun the word came to mean the strong smell or taste of game (salvatico 1875, selvatico 1922) and the hunted animal itself (1970, though Venetian salvadego had this sense by 1829).^[9] Old derivatives include salvatichezza and salvaticina, “game”.^[7] Catalan selvàtic, Spanish selvático and Portuguese selvático were borrowed from the Italian word.^[1]

Timeline

• Before 1292 – Bono Giamboni uses salvatico of places and of animals.^[9]
• Before 1311 – Giordano da Pisa uses it of plants.^[9]
• Before 1321 – Dante uses it of an unsociable person.^[9]
• 14th century – Selvatichezza and inselvatichire are recorded.^[2]
• 1557–1592 – The form selvatico is recorded for plants.^[9]
• 1875 – The noun for the smell and taste of game is recorded.^[9]
• 1970 – The noun for a hunted animal enters the Zingarelli dictionary.^[9]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of plants, wild: growing by itself, without cultivation: Sul pendio crescevano fragole selvatiche.^[3][11][12]
2. Of a place, overgrown with wild vegetation, uncultivated; by extension, remote and inhospitable.^[3][6]
3. Of animals, living free, not domesticated: gatto selvatico, coniglio selvatico.^[3][13][6]
4. Of a domestic animal, skittish, hard to handle.^[3][6]
5. Having the sharp smell of wild vegetation or the taste of game.^[3][14]
6. (figurative) Of a person, unsociable, shy, surly: Da piccolo era un bambino un po' selvatico.^[3][15]
7. Rough-mannered, boorish.^[3][6]

Noun

1. The strong smell or taste of game.^[3][6]
2. A hunted animal, furred or feathered.^[6][9]
3. Uncultivated ground covered with wild plants.^[6][3]
4. (agriculture) The wild rootstock on which a graft is made, as opposed to gentile.^[12]

Word family

• selvatichezza
• selvaticume
• selvaticità
• inselvatichire
• rinselvatichire
• selvaticamente

Related words

• selva
• selvaggina
• selvaggio
• Latin silvāticus
• French sauvage

Usage notes

Salvatico is the Tuscan and regional form.^[11][6] The masculine plural is selvatici;^[11][15] selvatichi is archaic or regional.^[11][15]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
3. ^ 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
4. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3446
5. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
7. ^ a b c Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 907
8. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
10. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
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. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
14. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
15. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli