splendido

Forms

splendido (feminine splendida, masculine plural splendidi, feminine plural splendide)^[1] Old forms include splendedo and sprendido.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin splendidus (“bright, brilliant; magnificent”), from splendeō (“to shine, to be bright”) with the adjective suffix -idus.^{[4][5][6][3][1]} The same Latin adjective gave French splendide, Spanish espléndido and Portuguese esplêndido.^[7]

De Vaan derives the Latin verb from Proto-Italic *splnd-ē- and Proto-Indo-European *splnd(h)-eh₁- (“to be manifest”), comparing Old Irish sluindid (“to declare, to name”); a link with the root of Gothic 𐍃𐍀𐌹𐌻𐌻 (spill, “tale”) is possible but unproven.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is in the Laude of Cortona (about 1260), where the sun's ray passing through glass is called splendidissima, “most brilliant”: the first sense is “shining with a vivid light”.^[4][2] GRADIT dates the word to 1304–1308.^[6]

Semantic evolution

From light the adjective passed to beauty and display: “very beautiful, magnificent, luxurious” is recorded in Boccaccio (before 1375), who calls a man splendido per molte ricchezze (“splendid through great wealth”).^[4][9] The sense “lavish in spending and giving” appears in Filarete (before 1465), and survives in the phrase fare lo splendido, to play the big spender.^[4][10][11]

In 1905 Alfredo Panzini complained that the word, “used in the foreign manner”, had become one of the commonest in the language, applied to a witty remark, a dinner, a risotto or a beard alike.^[4] Today it is a basic word for anything excellent or admirable.^[6][12]

Timeline

• c. 1260 – The Laude of Cortona use the superlative splendidissima of a ray of light.^[4][2]
• Before 1375 – Boccaccio uses splendido for “magnificent, luxurious”.^[4]
• Before 1465 – Filarete uses it for “generous in spending”.^[4]
• 1905 – Panzini criticises the overuse of the word.^[4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Shining with an intense light, brilliant; of weather, bright and clear: Domenica c'era un sole splendido.^[6][13][12]
2. Of remarkable beauty, magnificent, gorgeous: Dalla terrazza si vede un panorama splendido.^[6][13][10]
3. Sumptuous, luxurious: una cena splendida.^[6][13]
4. Excellent, outstanding; admirable for one's qualities: Ha ottenuto un risultato splendido all'esame.^[6][13][3]
5. (literary) Illustrious.^[3][10]
6. (uncommon) lavish, generous in spending and giving.^[6][13][12]

Noun

1. A person who spends or gives lavishly, especially for show, fare lo splendido, to play the big spender.^[13][10][11]

Word family

• splendidamente
• splendidezza

Related words

• splendere
• splendore
• risplendere
• Latin splendidus
• English splendid

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 Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
5. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ 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
7. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
10. ^ a b c d Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
11. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
12. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
13. ^ 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