tempesta

Forms

tempesta f (plural tempeste)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin tempestās (“season; weather; storm”), continuing the nominative, either as the Latin case kept or recast in the first declension as Vulgar Latin *tempesta.^[2][3][4][5] Older forms were Old Italian tempestate and tempestade, from the other cases.^[6][7] Its doublet is tempestà.^[1]

The Latin word first meant the same as tempus (“time”), from which it was formed;^[2] Festus noted that early writers often used it for “time”.^[2] It then came to mean “the state of the weather” and so “bad weather”, the neutral word veiling the bad sense.^[2] De Vaan derives the abstract noun from the s-stem behind the Latin noun, Proto-Indo-European *tempos (“stretch”), which passed from “stretch” to “stretch of time”.^[8][9]

The form with ⟨-a⟩ gave French tempête and Occitan tempesta, while Catalan tempestat, Spanish tempestad and Portuguese tempestade continue the Latin accusative.^[3][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Nocentini dates the first record to the early 13th century.^[3] DELI cites tempestate de lo mare “storm at sea” from the 13th-century Liber Ystoriarum Romanorum, and the form tempesta from Dante (1300–1313), for a disturbance of the weather with strong wind, rain and sometimes hail.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Dante already uses the word figuratively for vehemence and fury, as of dogs rushing out at a beggar “con quel furore e con quella tempesta”, and Petrarch (1374) for violent inner turmoil.^[2][4] In northern Italy and the Engadine tempesta means “hail”, a sense the dictionaries mark as regional.^[10][11][12]

The verb tempestare meant “to strike with rapid blows” from 1305, and “to stud thickly” (as with jewels) from 1677; tempestoso appears as Bolognese tempestoxo in 1309 and in Boccaccio in 1341–1342.^[2] Leopardi's poem La quiete dopo la tempesta dates from 1829.^[13] The small soup pasta called tempesta is recorded in 1970.^[2]

Timeline

• Early 13th century – first record.^[3]
• 13th century – tempestate de lo mare in the Liber Ystoriarum Romanorum.^[2]
• 1300–1313 – Dante uses tempesta, also for “fury”.^[2]
• 1305 – tempestare “to strike with blows”.^[2]
• 1309 – Bolognese tempestoxo “stormy”.^[2]
• 1374 – Petrarch uses it for inner turmoil.^[2]
• 1829 – Leopardi's La quiete dopo la tempesta.^[13]
• 1970 – tempesta as a soup pasta.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A storm, a violent disturbance of the weather with strong winds and rain or hail: La tempesta ha abbattuto due alberi nel parco.^[4][14][11]
2. A violent agitation of the sea or a lake caused by the wind: mare in tempesta.^[4][13]
3. (regional, northern Italy) hail.^[4][12][11]
4. (figurative) Inner turmoil, a violent stirring of feelings: avere il cuore in tempesta.^[4][12][13]
5. (figurative) An angry outburst, a scolding or quarrel;^[4][12] c'è aria di tempesta, trouble is coming.^[4][12]
6. (figurative) A hail of blows, or a rapid string of shouts, insults or questions: una tempesta di telefonate.^[4][11]
7. (usually plural) A soup pasta in tiny cylinders.^[4][11]
8. (astronomy) In tempesta magnetica, a magnetic storm.^[14][11][15]

Word family

• tempestare
• tempestoso
• tempestato
• tempestio

Related words

• tempo
• tempestivo
• tempestà
• Latin tempus
• French tempête

Usage notes

Common phrases are tempesta di sabbia “sandstorm”, the proverb chi semina vento raccoglie tempesta “who sows the wind reaps the storm”, una tempesta in un bicchier d'acqua “a storm in a teacup” and uccello delle tempeste “storm petrel”.^[14][13][4] Tempesta is also the third person singular present of tempestare.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o 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 d Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 20, 838
6. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3746
7. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
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. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
11. ^ a b c d e f Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
12. ^ a b c d e Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
13. ^ 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)
14. ^ 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
15. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana