Etymologically
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umano

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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