uditore

Forms

uditore m (plural uditori, feminine uditrice)^[1] Old forms include alditore, in northern Italy and Tuscany, matching the verb aldir.^[2] The GDLI records old ulditore and the feminine uditoressa.^[3] The court auditor was Venetian aldeór in Venice for a court auditor.^[4]

Etymology

According to the LEI it is inherited from Latin audītor (“hearer, listener”), with the Latin senses kept, beside Catalan oïdor (“magistrate”) (1251), Old Spanish oidor (1212) and Portuguese ouvidor.^[2] Other sources call it learned, or a Latin word refashioned on udire: DEI treats it as a learned word, Nocentini, Devoto–Oli and Treccani as Latin audītor remade after the verb, and Wiktionary allows both that and that it is formed from Italian udire + -tore.^{[4][5][6][7][1]} The learned doublet is auditore, which matches French auditeur and Spanish auditor.^[2][3]

Audītor is audiō (“to hear”) with the agent suffix -tor.^[8][1] De Vaan explains audiō as a Proto-Italic compound of an adverb meaning “clearly, manifestly” and the root of “to put, make”, Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁-, so “to make manifest to oneself”.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The LEI's first record is the Fiori e vita di filosafi (about 1274), with the sense “listener”.^[2] Brunetto Latini's Rettorica speaks of the listener (uditore) who is willing to learn.^[3] DELI dates the adjective “who hears” to about 1300 (Ammaestramenti degli antichi) and the noun to Dante (1304–08).^[10]

Semantic evolution

Dante (about 1308) extended the word to a disciple or follower of a philosopher, a sense Boccaccio also has, and in the 14th century the plural meant those listening to a speaker.^[2][10] Matteo Villani (before 1363) calls uditori the men a prince charged with treating with foreign ambassadors and reporting back.^[2]

Judicial senses follow: uditore di Ruota, a judge of the Roman Rota, from 1657 (Pallavicino), and a civil, ecclesiastical or military judge from 1663 (Daniello Bartoli), though purists of the 19th century wanted auditore for the magistrate.^[2][10] In Rome the servants of cardinals were mockingly called uditor de Ròta, because riding behind the carriage they heard the wheels turn.^[2] The sense of a person allowed to attend lectures without being enrolled is recorded from 1875 (Rigutini–Fanfani), and the modern uditore giudiziario, a newly appointed magistrate, from 1961.^[2][10] German borrowed Uditore as an ecclesiastical title in 1865.^[11]

Timeline

• About 1274 – Fiori e vita di filosafi has uditore “listener”.^[2]
• About 1300 – The adjective “who hears” appears in the Ammaestramenti degli antichi.^[10]
• 1304–1308 – Dante uses the noun.^[10][12]
• Before 1363 – Matteo Villani uses uditori for officials dealing with ambassadors.^[2]
• 1532 – Ariosto uses the feminine uditrice “disciple”.^[2]
• 1657 – Uditore di Ruota is recorded in Pallavicino.^[2]
• 1663 – Daniello Bartoli uses the word for a magistrate.^[10]
• 1865 – German Uditore is recorded.^[11]
• 1875 – Rigutini and Fanfani record the sense “non-enrolled student”.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. (literary, rare) One who hears; a hearer.^[12][13][7]
2. A listener at a speech, lecture or debate; in the plural, the audience.^{[12][6][14][7]}
3. (education) A person admitted to attend lessons at a school or university without being enrolled, and so without the right to sit exams; an auditor.^{[12][6][14][7]}
4. (law) A title of certain magistrates: uditore giudiziario, a newly appointed magistrate in the first grade of the career.^{[12][6][13][7]}
5. (canon law) In church courts, the cleric or layman who prepares a case without deciding it: uditore di Rota, a prelate who sits as judge in the Roman Rota.^[12][13][7]
6. (historical) An official charged by a prince with treating with foreign ambassadors; in the old Italian states, the uditore militare took part in military justice.^[12][13][14]

Adjective

1. That hears or listens.^[13][15]

Word family

• uditorato

Related words

• udire
• auditore
• Latin audītor

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 3, 2273
3. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
4. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3942
5. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c d e f Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ 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
11. ^ a b Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
12. ^ a b c d e f g De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
13. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
14. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
15. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli