tiepido

Forms

tiepido (feminine tiepida, masculine plural tiepidi, feminine plural tiepide)^[1] The literary variant is tepido.^[2][3][4] The GDLI also records the older forms Old Italian tèvido and Old Italian tièvedo.^[5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin tepidus (“lukewarm, moderately warm”).^[6][7][8][1] The DÉRom reconstructs a Proto-Romance adjective with an open stressed vowel, meaning both “moderately warm” and “lacking ardour”, which every branch of Romance continues except Romanian and Dalmatian.^[9] Italian keeps all three syllables of the word, as one Istriot form does, while elsewhere the word was shortened by the loss of the final vowel, of the unstressed middle vowel or of the /d/ between vowels.^[9] Zingarelli, alone among the dictionaries, labels the word learned.^[3]

The same word is French tiède (Old French tieve), Occitan tebe, Catalan tebi and Spanish tibio.^[7][10][11] In the dialects it is Piedmontese tebi in Piedmont and Sicilian tèpitu in Sicily and Calabria.^[10] A Latin diminutive *tepidulus lies behind central and southern dialect words for “somewhat warm”.^[10]

The Latin adjective is formed from tepeō (“to be warm”) with the adjective suffix -idus.^[12][1][6] De Vaan traces the verb to a stative Proto-Indo-European *t(e)p-eh₁- (“to be warm”), from the root *tep-, whose other descendants include Old Irish té (“hot”) and Sanskrit तप् (tap, “hot”), while Wiktionary adds Proto-Slavic *teplъ (“hot”).^[13][1] He notes that Latin has no direct cognate of the verb itself, except perhaps Albanian ftoh (“to cool down”).^[13][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is in Zucchero Bencivenni in 1310, in the sense “not very warm”.^[6] The DEI gives the 14th-century Italian version of Pietro de' Crescenzi's treatise on agriculture, which says that anise thrives best in a mild climate.^[10][14]

Semantic evolution

The figurative senses followed within half a century.^[6] In 1354 Jacopo Passavanti used the word of weak, feeble feelings, and in 1362–1364 Boccaccio used it of a person who shows little interest, warmth or eagerness.^[6] Petrarch wrote of snow turning “warm and black” (le nevi sien tiepide e nigre) as an image of the impossible.^[14] Machiavelli observed that a reformer has only lukewarm defenders (tepidi defensori) among those who would gain from the new order.^[4]

In these figurative uses the word always stands against caldo “warm, ardent”, as the lesser degree of it.^[4] The noun tiepidezza goes back to Dante (1313–1319), and essere una pappa tiepida is said of a person without energy.^[6] The physical sense has stayed the everyday one: water, air or broth that is pleasantly but moderately warm.^[8][15][4]

Timeline

• 1310 – Zucchero Bencivenni uses tiepido “not very warm”.^[6]
• 1313–1319 – Dante uses the noun tiepidezza.^[6]
• 1354 – Jacopo Passavanti uses the word of weak feelings.^[6]
• 1362–1364 – Boccaccio uses it of a person lacking warmth or eagerness.^[6]
• 1873 – The verb stiepidire is first recorded.^[7]

Meanings

Adjective

1. lukewarm, tepid: moderately and usually pleasantly warm: un bagno tiepido prima di dormire.^{[8][15][2][1]}
2. (figurative) Of a person, not effusive; cool or restrained in affection.^[8][15][2]
3. (figurative) Not enthusiastic; half-hearted: una risposta tiepida del pubblico.^{[8][15][2][1]}
4. (figurative) Weak, lacking zeal or conviction.^[8][15][16]

Word family

• tiepidezza
• intiepidire
• stiepidire
• attiepidire
• tiepidamente
• tiepidità
• tiepidore

Related words

• tepido
• tepidario
• tepore
• Latin tepidus
• French tiède

Usage notes

Tepido is the literary or less common form of the word.^[2][4] The pronunciation of the stressed vowel varies between open and closed.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
3. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
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. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 20, 1028
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
7. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
9. ^ a b Buchi, Éva; Schweickard, Wolfgang, eds. (2008–), Dictionnaire Étymologique Roman (DÉRom), Nancy: ATILF, http://www.atilf.fr/DERom
10. ^ a b c d Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3786
11. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
12. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ 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
14. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
15. ^ a b c d e Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
16. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana