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umano

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Etymology and origin of the Italian word umano

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
13th–14th century, Il Fiore
Borrowed from
Latin humanus
Ultimate origin
Latin hūmānus
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin humanus
French humain
Italian umano
From the same root
Latin humane ← humanus

Pronunciation

Forms

umano (feminine umana, masculine plural umani, feminine plural umane, superlative umanissimo); noun umano m[1]

Etymology

It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin hūmānus (“human; humane”), though some popular forms survive in the dialects.[2][3][4] DELI notes that all three senses of the Latin adjective passed into Italian: “of man”, “worthy of man”, that is kind and educated, and “to which man, as a mortal, is subject”.[2] The same learned word is French humain and Spanish humano.[3]

The Latin adjective belongs with homō (“human being”) (see uomo), but its long ⟨ū⟩ is unexplained.[5][6] De Vaan finds no acceptable explanation;[5][1] Leumann proposed a lost *hūm (“earth”) from older *hōm, so that the human would be the earthly being, as the noun itself is, from Proto-Indo-European *dʰǵʰmṓ (“earthling”).[5][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is Il Fiore, of the late 13th or early 14th century, with the sense “of man, proper to man”.[2][4] DEI's first text is a 14th-century translation of Saint Augustine, and umanamente is already in the Novellino, of Christ having a human body.[7][2]

Semantic evolution

Dante, before 1321, used it for “made up of people”, and Berni, before 1535, for “full of kindness”.[2] The noun gli umani “mortals” is poetic, used from Pulci (before 1484); in 1855 Ugolini warned that it belonged only to lofty poetry or prose.[2] The neuter noun l'umano “what is human” is in Salvini before 1729.[2]

Umanista arose in the Italian universities in the later 15th century for the teacher of the studia humanitatis;[2][3] umanesimo (1891) follows German Humanismus, coined in 1808 by Friedrich Niethammer.[2][3] Umanitario and umanitarismo came from French humanitaire and humanitarisme in the 1830s.[2][3] Petrocchi's dictionary of 1891 records the sense “marked by human weakness and imperfection”.[2]

Timeline

  • Late 13th century – The Novellino has umanamente.[2]
  • 13th–14th century – Il Fiore has umano.[2]
  • Before 1321 – Dante uses it for “made up of people”.[2]
  • Before 1484 – Pulci uses umani for mortals.[2]
  • 1524–1525 – Ariosto uses umanista.[2]
  • 1838 – Umanitario is recorded.[3]
  • 1891 – Umanesimo is recorded.[2][3]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. human, of or relating to people: la voce umana, l'anatomia umana.[4][8]
  2. Natural to people and their weakness: È umano avere paura.[4]
  3. humane, understanding and kind towards others: Il nuovo direttore è una persona molto umana.[4][8][9]
  4. Like that of a person: un robot dalla voce quasi umana.[4]

Noun

  1. (singular) What is human: Nei suoi quadri l'umano si fonde col divino.[4]
  2. (chiefly plural, literary) Human beings, mortals.[4][1]

Word family

  • umanità
  • umanamente
  • umanista
  • umanesimo
  • umanistico
  • umanitario
  • umanitarismo
  • umanizzare
  • umanoide
  • disumano
  • sovrumano
  • inumano

Usage notes

Il genere umano is mankind, and i diritti umani are human rights.[4][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 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 e f g Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  4. ^ 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
  5. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  6. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
  7. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3948
  8. ^ 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
  9. ^ Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse

Related etymologies

  • no · also from Latin
  • cosa · also from Latin
  • a · also from Latin
  • mio · also from Latin
  • uno · also from Latin
  • si · also from Latin
  • sapere · also from Latin
  • fare · also from Latin
Cite this entry

“Umano.” Etymologically, 21 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/it/umano. Accessed 22 Oct. 2026.

Last edited on . ·