straordinario

Forms

straordinario (feminine straordinaria, masculine plural straordinari, feminine plural straordinarie)^[1] Old forms are estraordinario, strasordinario and strasordenario.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

DELI and GRADIT take it as a learned borrowing, borrowed from Latin extraordinārius (“out of the ordinary, extra”), with the Latin prefix rendered by Italian stra-.^[5][6][7][1] The Latin adjective comes from the phrase extrā ōrdinem (“outside the order”), from extrā (“outside”) and ōrdō (“order, rank”), with the suffix -ārius.^[1][8] Nocentini and Devoto–Oli instead treat it as an Italian formation, ordinario with the same prefix;^[9][10][1] Wiktionary allows both analyses.^[9][10][1]

DELI thinks DEI's dating to the 14th century is probably a mistake, and puts the first record before 1444.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the chronicle of the Florentine merchant Giovanni Morelli, who died in 1444, in the sense “outside the ordinary, against nature or custom”;^[5][4] Tommaseo quotes him on expenses that were nella dota di nostra madre, e in molte spese straordinarie, “in our mother's dowry, and in many extraordinary expenses”.^[5][4]

Semantic evolution

From the 16th century the adjective is common for what happens rarely or by accident, as in Bandello's straordinarie infermità, unusual illnesses.^[3] In Tommaseo's time the noun could also mean an extra courier, an official's attendant, or a teacher who read subjects outside the ordinary professors' courses.^[4]

The administrative senses of the 20th century set straordinario against ordinario: an impiegato straordinario is taken on for a limited time, a professore straordinario is a tenured university professor in the years before confirmation as ordinario, and lavoro straordinario is work done beyond normal hours.^[2][11] DELI dates the nouns “overtime” and “temporary employee” to Palazzi's dictionary of 1940.^[5] By hyperbole the adjective became a general word of praise, “exceptional, amazing”.^[6][7]

Timeline

• Before 1444 – First record, in Giovanni Morelli's chronicle.^[5]
• Before 1704 – Straordinarietà is recorded in Lorenzo Bellini.^[5]
• 1897 – Sabatini–Coletti dates the noun “overtime” to this year.^[7]
• 1940 – Palazzi records the nouns “overtime” and “temporary employee”.^[5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. extraordinary, outside the ordinary or the usual: un fenomeno straordinario.^[6][7][11]
2. Special and temporary, added for particular needs: assemblea straordinaria, edizione straordinaria, treno straordinario.^[6][10][2]
3. exceptional, remarkable, amazing (also of something bad): Ha una memoria straordinaria per i numeri.^[6][7][11]

Noun

1. (singular) What is extraordinary: Lo straordinario è che nessuno se ne sia accorto.^[6][7]
2. (often plural) overtime, work beyond normal hours, and the pay for it: fare gli straordinari.^[6][7][1]
3. A temporary employee or a professore straordinario.^[6][11][2]

Word family

• straordinariamente
• straordinarietà
• straordinariato

Related words

• ordinario
• ordine
• Latin extraordinarius

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
3. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 20, 290
4. ^ a b c d Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
5. ^ 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
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. ^ a b c d e f g Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
10. ^ a b c Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
11. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli