vittoria

Forms

vittoria f (plural vittorie)^[1] Older forms were Old Italian vettoria, victoria, vitoria and vitora.^[2][3] In Sicilian and Calabrian the word became Sicilian vincitoria, crossed with vincere.^[4]

Etymology

It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin victōria (“victory”),^{[5][6][7][4][1]} formed from victor (“winner, conqueror”), itself from the past participle of vincō (“to conquer”).^[5][8][9] The Latin noun was in origin the feminine of an adjective “victorious” and named the goddess Victory, with whom victory itself was identified.^[10][9] It reached the other Romance languages the same learned way: French victoire (12th century), Spanish victoria and Portuguese victoria.^[5][4][11] Meyer-Lübke judged the isolated Lombard vicoria of Como not to be an inherited form either, but a reshaping of the Italian word.^[11]

De Vaan traces vincō to Proto-Italic *wink- (“to tie, bind”) and a nasal present Proto-Indo-European *ui-n-k- (“to bend, tie”), the same root as vinciō (“to bind”): “to bend” could turn into “to overcome” (one bending the other).^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

GRADIT dates the word to 1354, and DELI lists Petrarch, Boccaccio and Iacopo Passavanti among its 14th-century users, in the sense “the act or result of winning”.^[6][12] DEI cites Dante, and the GDLI quotes the Inferno on Aeneas, who heard things “that were the cause of his victory” (che furon cagione / di sua vittoria).^[4][2]

Semantic evolution

From the start the word was used of battles and wars, and Dino Compagni and old chronicles have the popular form vettoria.^[2] Boccaccio speaks of la gloriosa vittoria of King Manfred, after which the Ghibellines were driven out of Florence.^[3] Later the sense widened to success in any contest, a game, an election or a lawsuit, and figuratively to overcoming a difficulty.^[6][8][13]

Several phrases are dated by DELI: cantare vittoria, to rejoice too much or too soon over a success (before 1835, Bellini); vittoria di Pirro, a victory that leaves the winner as badly off as the loser (1879, Tommaseo–Bellini), after Pyrrhus of Epirus, who beat the Romans at great cost; and vittoria morale (1961).^[12][4] With a capital letter Vittoria is also the goddess, the Roman counterpart of the Greek Nike, and the statues and paintings that show her (16th century, Borghini).^[13][6][4] The asteroid Victoria, discovered by Hind in 1850 and named after Queen Victoria, entered Italian as Vittoria in 1879.^[4]

Timeline

• Early 14th century – Dante uses vittoria in the Inferno.^[4][2]
• 1354 – GRADIT's date for the word.^[6]
• 14th century – Petrarch, Boccaccio and Passavanti use it.^[12]
• 16th century – Vincenzo Borghini uses Vittoria for the goddess.^[4]
• Before 1835 – Cantare vittoria is recorded.^[12]
• 1879 – Vittoria di Pirro appears in Tommaseo–Bellini.^[12][4]
• 1961 – Vittoria morale is recorded.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. victory, the fact of winning a battle, a war, a competition or a dispute: La squadra ha ottenuto una vittoria netta.^[6][8][13]
2. (figurative) A success in overcoming an obstacle or difficulty: Farlo alzare presto è già una vittoria.^[6][13]
3. (art) With a capital letter, a painting or sculpture of the goddess Victory: una Vittoria alata in marmo.^[6][13][14]

Interjection

1. A shout of joy after winning or overcoming a difficulty: Vittoria! Abbiamo finito gli esami!^[6][14][1]

Word family

• vittorioso
• vittoriale
• vittoriare

Related words

• vincere
• vincitore
• Latin victōria
• French victoire

Usage notes

Vittoria di Pirro, vittoria morale and cantare vittoria are fixed phrases, as are avere la vittoria in pugno, to be sure of winning.^[6][8][7] The open carriage called vittoria or victoria in the 19th century took its name from Queen Victoria through English.^[15]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 21, 938
3. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 4074
5. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
8. ^ 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
9. ^ 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
10. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
12. ^ a b c d e f Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
13. ^ a b c d e Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
14. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
15. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli