ufficio

Forms

ufficio m (plural uffici)^[1] Older and literary variants are officio, uffizio, ufizio and uficio.^[2][3][4] The form ufficio won out over them only in the second half of the 19th century.^[2]

Etymology

It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin officium (“duty, service; post, function”).^[2][5][6][3] The Latin noun is a contraction of opificium (“the carrying out of a work”), from opifex (“craftsman”), a compound of opus (“work”) and the root of faciō (“to make, do”), so that it first meant the performance of a task and then the task itself; officina shows the same contraction.^[2][5][7] The OLD and Wiktionary analyse the first part as ops (“power, resources”), and Wiktionary traces it to Proto-Indo-European *h₃ep- (“to work”).^[8][1]

In Latin the word entered the language of public law, for the duties and the post of a magistrate, and Cicero used it to render Ancient Greek καθῆκον (kathêkon, “what is fitting, duty”) in philosophy; through the sense “service owed” it became the divine service of the Church.^[2] Devoto compares the change of the first vowel to that of occīdō (“to kill”) in uccidere.^[9] The same learned word is French office and Spanish oficio, and Wiktionary names opificio as a doublet as well.^[5][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is Dante (1304–1308), for what each person must do according to place, time and condition; in Dante the usual form is officio, and offizio appears only in verse and in rhyme.^[2] Giordano da Pisa (1305–1306) uses officio many times and ufficio once, and GRADIT dates the word to 1306.^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

The religious sense “prayer, liturgical service” is in Giordano da Pisa (1305–1306) and Domenico Cavalca (before 1342), and the sense “task, charge” in Dante (before 1321).^[2] Dino Compagni (1310–1312) uses uficio for the set of functions held by an official, and Boccaccio (1348–1353) for a favour or kindness done to someone.^[2] Only later did the word come to mean a place: the room where an official works (before 1729, Anton Maria Salvini, uffizio) and an employee's workplace (1875).^[2] The sense “intervention, recommendation”, as in buoni uffici, is recorded from 1891.^[2]

The spelling ufficio prevailed through the language of the bureaucracy, to the dismay of Manzoni, who in an 1865 letter mocked the non-Florentine form on a Florentine telegraph-office notice.^[2] DELI thinks the legal phrase d'ufficio “ex officio” may be modelled on German von Amts wegen, and ufficio politico renders the Russian Politbjuro (in Italian from 1925).^[2] The Santo Uffizio was the tribunal of the Inquisition.^[10] The derivative ufficiale “official” comes from Late Latin officialis and is recorded from 1275; the military ufficiale “officer” follows French officier.^[2][5]

Timeline

• 1275 – Uficiale “official” appears in the accounts of the commune of Prato.^[2]
• 1304–1308 – Dante uses officio for a person's duty.^[2]
• 1305–1306 – Giordano da Pisa uses officio for a religious service.^[2]
• 1310–1312 – Dino Compagni uses uficio for the functions of an official.^[2]
• Before 1729 – Anton Maria Salvini uses uffizio for the place where an official works.^[2]
• 1865 – Manzoni complains of the spelling ufficio in a letter.^[2]
• 1875 – The sense “an employee's workplace” is recorded.^[2]
• 1925 – Ufficio politico renders the Soviet Politbjuro.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (literary) A moral duty or obligation, a task that falls to someone because of their position: Proteggere i deboli è ufficio della legge.^[6][7][11]
2. A service or favour; an intervention on someone's behalf, especially in buoni uffici, good offices.^[6][12][4]
3. A post, charge or function, and the duties that go with it: Ha lasciato l'ufficio di sindaco dopo due anni.^[6][7]
4. A department of a public body or a company, and the staff who work in it: l'ufficio del personale, l'ufficio stampa.^[6][7][3]
5. An office, the premises or the room where employees or a manager work: Domani lavoro da casa e non vengo in ufficio.^[6][7][1]
6. (Christianity) A liturgical service or prayer, especially the Divine Office.^[6][3][4]

Word family

• ufficiale
• ufficioso
• ufficiare
• ufficiatura
• ufficialità
• sottufficiale
• capoufficio

Related words

• officina
• opificio
• officiare
• Latin officium
• French office

Usage notes

D'ufficio means “ex officio, by virtue of one's office, without a request”: an avvocato d'ufficio is a defence lawyer appointed by the court, and a reato perseguibile d'ufficio is prosecuted without a complaint.^[12][4][6] The plural is uffici.^[1]

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 k l m n o p q r s t u v 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 Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
5. ^ a b c d Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ a b c d e Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
10. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3943
11. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
12. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli