Etymologically
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situazione

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Pronunciation

  • /si.tu.atˈt͡sjo.ne/, /si.twatˈt͡sjo.ne/[1]

Forms

situazione f (plural situazioni, relational adjective situazionale)[1]

Etymology

It is from Italian situare + -zione, from situare “to place, locate”.[2][1][3] The verb is borrowed from Medieval Latin situāre, from Latin situs (“position, site”), the past participle of sinō (“to put down; to let”).[4][5][2]

DELI thinks that the noun probably came into Italian through French situation, recorded in 1375 for the geographical position of a place and before 1678 for a set of circumstances, and GRADIT compares the French word.[4][2] The TLIO, however, has the Italian noun already in Jacopo della Lana's commentary on Dante (1324–1328), and DEI treats it as an Italian formation from the verb, like the French pair situer and “situation”.[6][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is Jacopo della Lana's Bolognese commentary on Dante's Paradiso (1324–1328), where the word means “position”, the precise place of something in relation to the others in a series or system.[6] DEI cites the 14th-century commentary on Boethius for the sense “the lie of a place”.[7]

Semantic evolution

The sense “position, location” long remained the main one: Serlio wrote before 1555 that the situazione of a house should be neither on the hilltop nor in the valley, and the GDLI quotes writers from Mascardi to Goldoni for the setting of a town or region.[4][8][9] The sense “condition, state” appears in Daniello Bartoli (before 1685), and “circumstance, set of circumstances” in Pietro Verri's “l'attuale situazione” (1768).[4]

Purists resisted the new sense: Tommaseo's dictionary (1873) called phrases like “Si metta nella mia situazione” (put yourself in my situation) bad usage, and found “La situazione della Spagna è brutta” improper.[4] The modern sense won all the same, and essere all'altezza della situazione “to rise to the occasion” is recorded in 1941.[4] Later the word took on technical senses in accounting, sociology and linguistics, where situazionale dates from 1970.[2][10][5]

Timeline

  • 1324–1328 – Jacopo della Lana uses situazione for “position”.[6]
  • 1375 – French situation is recorded for the position of a place.[4][2]
  • Before 1555 – Serlio writes of the situazione of a house.[4][8]
  • Before 1685 – Daniello Bartoli uses the word for “condition, state”.[4]
  • 1768 – Pietro Verri writes l'attuale situazione, the present circumstances.[4]
  • 1873 – Tommaseo's dictionary condemns the modern sense as improper.[4]
  • 1941 – Essere all'altezza della situazione is recorded.[4]
  • 1970 – The derivative situazionale appears.[5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A situation, the condition or state that someone or something is in: Si trova in una situazione economica difficile.[2][3][11][1]
  2. The state of affairs at a given moment: controllare la situazione, to have things under control, essere all'altezza della situazione, to rise to the occasion.[2][3][12]
  3. (accounting) A statement of accounts or figures at a given date: situazione patrimoniale, a balance sheet of assets and liabilities.[2][3][10]
  4. (sociology) The set of relations with the social environment that shape what a person thinks and does.[2][10]
  5. (linguistics) The non-linguistic context in which a message is produced.[2][11][12]
  6. (military) The disposition and strength of units at a given moment.[3][10][13]
  7. (archaic) Position, location: una villa in bella situazione.[2][3][11]

Word family

  • situazionale
  • situazionismo

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ 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
  3. ^ 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
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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 Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  6. ^ a b c Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
  7. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3511
  8. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET, p. 4, 921
  9. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 19, 108
  10. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  11. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  12. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
  13. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli