tardivo

Forms

tardivo (feminine tardiva, masculine plural tardivi, feminine plural tardive)^[1] The old and literary form is Old Italian tardìo.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin tardīvus, a Late Latin adjective recorded in the Tironian notes, or a spoken Latin *tardīvus, formed from Latin tardus (“slow”) with the suffix -īvus.^{[5][6][7][8][1]} The word is panromance: French tardif, Occitan tardiu, Catalan tardiu, Spanish tardío, Portuguese tardio, Sardinian tardìu and Romanian târziu.^[6][9][10]

Latin tardus has no accepted etymology.^[11] Walde and Hofmann connected it with Ancient Greek τέρυ (téru, “weak”) and Sanskrit तरुण (taruṇa, “young”), a link the OLD repeats and de Vaan rejects as unconvincing in meaning and impossible in form.^[11][12] Wiktionary derives it from the root Proto-Indo-European *terh₂- (“to cross over”) but notes that de Vaan finds the etymology uncertain.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first example, from the 14th-century Libro della cura delle malattie (“early fruits are healthier than late ones”), is probably a forgery made by Francesco Redi before 1698.^[2][13] The first safe record is the form tardìo in G. Soderini, who died in 1597, for plants and fruit slow to sprout, flower or ripen.^[2][7]

Semantic evolution

In the older language tardìo was the usual form, in translations of Plutarch and Ovid and in Soderini's books on farming, where tardìi trees and fruits are set against primaticci, early ones;^[14][13] D'Annunzio still wrote grappolo tardìo, a late bunch of grapes.^[14][13] DEI records tardivo itself in the 16th century in Lauro, who applied it to late-hatched chickens.^[15][13]

The figurative senses are recent: a child slow in physical or mental development, and anything that comes too late to be of use, are both in Garzanti's dictionary of 1965.^[2] Colloquial Italian also uses tardivo for a slow-witted person.^[7][8] Medicine and agriculture use it for things after their normal time: parto tardivo, a birth after full term, legno tardivo, the latewood formed at the end of the growing season, and semine tardive, late sowings.^[8][4]

Timeline

• 14th century – The Libro della cura delle malattie has tardivi fruits, probably in an example forged by Redi before 1698.^[2]
• 16th century – Lauro uses tardivo.^[15]
• Before 1597 – G. Soderini uses tardìo of plants.^[2][7]
• 1965 – Garzanti records the senses “backward in development” and “too late to be useful”.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Coming or happening late: una primavera tardiva.^[7][8][4]
2. Of a plant or fruit, sprouting, flowering or ripening later than usual, the opposite of precoce.^[7][8][16]
3. (figurative) Of a child, backward in physical or mental development.^[7][17][4]
4. (colloquial) Slow-witted.^[7][8][3]
5. Coming too late to be effective; belated: soccorsi tardivi.^[7][17][4]
6. (medicine) Occurring after the normal term or onset; tardive: parto tardivo, a post-term birth.^[8][3][1]

Word family

• tardivamente
• tardività

Related words

• tardo
• tardi
• tardare
• Latin tardus

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b c Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
4. ^ a b c d e Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
5. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975)
6. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
8. ^ a b c d e f g Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
11. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
12. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ a b c d Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
14. ^ 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, 734
15. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3720
16. ^ Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
17. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse