team

Forms

team m (invariable)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from English team, first “a team of draught animals harnessed together” and then “a sports team”.^[2][3][4] DELI describes the English word as Germanic, of Indo-European origin, with the literal meaning “group”.^[3][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is Palmiro Premoli's Vocabolario nomenclatore (Milan, 1909), with the sense “sports team”.^[3] The Giornale di Udine of 5 May 1911 reports the first matches fra i teams così composti, “between the teams so made up”.^[3] Zingarelli gives an earlier date, 1897.^[5]

Semantic evolution

Panzini's dictionary listed team as a word of sport, and Migliorini equated it with French équipe.^[6] From 1961 it also names a group of researchers, and later any group of people who share out the tasks of a common job.^[3][4] English military words such as combat team came into Italian with the Allied armies in the Second World War.^[6] Lavorare in team is a common phrase today.^[4][7]

Timeline

• 1897 – Zingarelli's date for the first record.^[5]
• 1909 – Premoli records team “sports team”.^[3][4]
• 1911 – The Giornale di Udine uses the plural teams.^[3]
• 1961 – The sense “group of researchers” is recorded.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A team of athletes.^[4][5]
2. A group of people who work together on the same task, each with their own part: Ha formato un team di giovani ingegneri.^[4][8][9]

Related words

• squadra
• équipe

Usage notes

The word is pronounced /tim/ in Italian and is masculine; it is usually invariable, though the English plural teams is also used.^[8][7][9] Italian synonyms are squadra, gruppo and équipe.^[9][8]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
3. ^ 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
4. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
6. ^ 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, 782
7. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
8. ^ 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
9. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse