stupido

Forms

stupido (feminine stupida, masculine plural stupidi, feminine plural stupide)^[1] Old Italian also has stipido.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin stupidus (“dazed, stunned”), from stupeō (“to be numb, to be amazed”).^{[4][5][6][7][1]} The Latin adjective already meant “dull-witted” as well as “stunned”.^[5][8] The same Latin word gave French stupide, recorded in 1503, and Spanish estúpido.^[5][9]

De Vaan derives stupeō from Proto-Indo-European *stup-eh₁- (“to hit, push”): being struck explains “to be stunned”.^[8] DELI gives the root as Proto-Indo-European *(s)tewp- (“to beat”), and its cognates include Ancient Greek τύπτω (túptō, “to strike”).^[4][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in Restoro d'Arezzo's Composizione del mondo of 1282, in the Latin sense: unable to move, speak or react, as when struck by amazement.^[2][7] Dante uses it in this sense in the Purgatorio: ch'io stava / stupido tutto al carro de la luce (“that I stood all amazed at the chariot of light”).^[4][10]

Semantic evolution

For centuries stupido meant “astonished, dazed” or “numb”: Tommaseo still gives first the sense “full of wonder” and quotes an arm made numb by the electric ray.^[11][3] The sense “of little intelligence” is recorded in Paolo Segneri in 1673, and the noun uno stupido, “a stupid person”, in the dictionary of Rigutini and Fanfani in 1875.^[4] The old sense survives only as literary.^[12][7]

Derivatives followed the modern sense: stupidità (18th century in Nocentini, 14th century in the DEI), stupidaggine (1861), stupidario (1943), a collection of stupid remarks, and stupidata (1950).^[5][9] Maltese borrowed the word as stupidu.^[1]

Timeline

• 1282 – Restoro d'Arezzo uses stupido “dazed”.^[2]
• 1313–1319 – Dante uses it in the Purgatorio.^[6][4]
• 1673 – Paolo Segneri uses it for “of little intelligence”.^[4]
• 1861 – Stupidaggine is recorded.^[5]
• 1875 – The noun “stupid person” appears in Rigutini and Fanfani's dictionary.^[4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Slow to understand, of little intelligence; stupid: un tipo stupido.^[6][12][13]
2. (colloquial) Naive, foolish in a given case: Sono stato stupido a credergli.^[6][12][7]
3. Showing a lack of intelligence: una domanda stupida.^[6][12][13]
4. (literary) Astonished, dazed.^[6][12][14]

Noun

1. A stupid person, an idiot; also, among friends, a mild reproach: Ma non dire così, stupido!^[12][13][7]

Word family

• stupidità
• stupidaggine
• stupidata
• stupidario
• stupidamente
• stupidezza
• stupidire
• istupidire

Related words

• stupire
• stupore
• stupendo
• Latin stupidus

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
4. ^ a b c d e f g 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 d e Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
8. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3664
10. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 20, 429
11. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
12. ^ 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
13. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
14. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana