tra

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin intrā (“within, inside”), with the loss of the first syllable;^[2][3][4][5] Wiktionary adds the influence of inter (“between”).^[1] The southern dialects keep the fuller form, as Sicilian ntra and Calabrian ⟨ntra⟩.^[2][6][7]

In Italian the descendant of the Latin adverb took over all the uses of the Latin preposition for “between”, which lives on elsewhere: French entre, Occitan entre, Catalan entre, Spanish entre, Portuguese entre and Romanian între.^[7][8][6]

The Latin word is an old ablative feminine of an adjective *interus (“inner”), formed from in (“in”).^[3][9][10] De Vaan traces the adjective to Proto-Indo-European *h₁en-tero- (“situated within”), from *h₁én (“in”); related words are Sanskrit अन्तर (ántara, “interior”) and Ancient Greek ἔντερον (énteron, “intestine”).^[11][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Both DELI and Nocentini date the first record to 1211, in the account book of a company of Florentine bankers, one of the oldest Italian prose texts, where it marks a relation between parties.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Dante uses tra both for place and for time.^[2] GDLI quotes him: tra Cecina e Corneto (“between Cecina and Corneto”, Inferno XIII).^[12] The sense of company, “among, with”, is recorded in Franco Sacchetti (before 1400), and the use for a total, as in tra tutti “all told”, in Tommaseo–Bellini (1879).^[2]

In modern Italian it also marks a time in the future, as in tra un'ora “in an hour”.^[4][13][1] Old Italian joined it with the article, as in tral and tragli, which are now poetic.^[14][12] Fixed phrases include tra l'incudine e il martello “between a rock and a hard place” and dormire tra due guanciali “to sleep between two pillows”, that is, to have nothing to fear.^[14][13]

Timeline

• 1211 – Tra appears in a Florentine bankers' account book.^[2][3]
• 1300–1313 – Dante uses it for place and for time.^[2]
• Before 1400 – Franco Sacchetti uses it for company.^[2]
• 1879 – Tommaseo–Bellini records its use for a total.^[2]

Meanings

Preposition

1. between two places or things: La farmacia è tra la banca e il bar.^[4][15][1]
2. among, in the midst of: Ho trovato la lettera tra i vecchi giornali.^[4][15][13]
3. Between people, of a relation: C'è molta stima tra i due colleghi.^[13][4]
4. In, within a time: Ci vediamo tra una settimana.^[4][13][1]
5. Among a group, of a choice or comparison: il più giovane tra i fratelli.^[4][14]
6. Of a total: Tra tutti eravamo in venti.^[13][2]

Related words

• fra
• entro
• Latin intrā
• Latin inter
• French entre

Usage notes

Tra and fra mean the same; one is chosen over the other for the sound, to avoid tra tre or fra fratelli.^[5][14] Fra comes from Latin infra “below”, influenced by intra.^[5] The prefix tra- (tradurre, trapiantare) is a separate word, from Latin trans “across”.^[6][9] Tra causes syntactic doubling of the next consonant.^[13]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
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 De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
6. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3844
7. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
9. ^ a b Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier, p. 448
10. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
12. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
13. ^ a b c d e f g Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
14. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
15. ^ a b Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier