Italian words first recorded in the 12th century

It is inherited from Latin absentia (“absence”), used in the ablative ⟨absentiā⟩ “in the absence of” as a preposition, with the loss of the first syllable. The same reduced form survives in…

It is inherited from Latin ascultāre, a form of auscultō (“to listen”) recorded from the 2nd century, in the grammarian Flavius Caper. DELI explains the loss of the first ⟨u⟩ by dissimilation, as in…

It continues inherited from Latin exspectāre (“to wait for, expect”), from spectō (“to look at”), with a change of prefix. Nocentini, Sabatini–Coletti and Gabrielli start from a popular form Vulgar…

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *cadēre, a Vulgar Latin form of classical Latin cadĕre (“to fall”) that moved the verb into the conjugation in ⟨-ēre⟩. The LEI finds that change already in Late…

It is inherited from Latin capiō (“to take; to hold; to grasp”), with a change of conjugation: Latin verbs in ⟨-ĕre⟩ with ⟨-i-⟩ in the present stem tended to pass to ⟨-īre⟩. Devoto–Oli and…

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *cominitiāre, a Vulgar Latin verb made from Latin initiō (“to begin; to initiate”) with the prefix com-. The Latin verb comes from initium (“beginning”). DELI…

It is inherited from Latin computō (“to reckon, count”), with the loss of the unstressed middle vowel. The Latin verb is formed from putō (“to reckon, think; to prune”) with con-. The learned…

It is inherited from Latin currō (“to run”), a verb of Indo-European origin. The verb survives across the Romance languages: French courir (rarely courre), Occitan corre, Catalan córrer, Spanish…

It is inherited from Latin duo (“two”). GRADIT and Wiktionary take it from the feminine duae, while DEI and Devoto start from the masculine Late Latin dui of later Latin that replaced classical…

It is inherited from Late Latin fugīre (“to flee”), an infinitive which from the 4th century replaced classical ⟨fugere⟩. DEI says the change of conjugation was modelled on the perfect fūgī, and…

It is inherited from Latin pēnsō (“to weigh carefully; to consider”), an intensive verb formed on pēnsum, the past participle of pendō (“to hang; to weigh”). The meaning “think” grew out of “weigh”…

It is a masculine formed in Italian from pezza “piece of cloth; piece”. Devoto compares the pair ⟨tocco⟩ and ⟨tocca⟩. The feminine continues Medieval Latin petia (“piece, plot of land”), from Vulgar…

It is borrowed from Late Latin praesentō (“to show, present”), recorded from the 2nd century in Apuleius, from Latin praesēns (“present, at hand”). DEI and the GDLI call it a learned word, and DEI…

It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin prōcēdere (“to go forward, advance”), from prō- (“forward”) and cēdō (“to go, advance”), also the source of cedere. The same Latin verb gave the learned…

It is formed in from Italian quale + -unque, on the model of Latin quāliscumque (“of whatever kind”). Nocentini describes it as a Romance formation in which the Latin suffix -cumque (“-ever”) of the…

It is inherited from Latin recipiō (“to take back; receive, admit”), formed from capiō (“to take”) with the prefix re- (“back”). DELI calls the Italian forms partly learned and partly popular, and…

DELI and Nocentini treat it as a learned word, borrowed from Latin anima (“breath; life; soul”). The LEI notes that the Latin word lives on in every Romance language and that popular and learned…

It is inherited from Latin centum (“hundred”), an indeclinable numeral. The Latin word survives across the Romance languages except Romanian, which took Romanian sută from Slavic: Dalmatian ciant…

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *eo, a spoken form of Latin ĕgō (“I”). The shortened form is what all the Romance languages continue: Old French jou (modern French je), Occitan jo, Catalan jo…

It is inherited from Latin magis (“more; rather”). DELI notes that the Latin word was easily cut short at the end of a phrase, and Devoto ties the full form ⟨mai⟩ to magis in final position, as in…

It is inherited from Latin male (“badly”), the adverb of malus (“bad”). The noun “evil; pain, illness” is the same adverb used as a noun, a change that happened in all Romance languages. Devoto–Oli…

It is borrowed from Old French mangier (recorded in 1080), the regular outcome in French of Latin mandūcō (“to chew; to eat”), through an intermediate Vulgar Latin *mandicāre. The Latin verb was…

It is inherited from Latin medius (“middle”), the adjective, and its neuter medium (“the middle, the space between”), used as a noun. The word came down through popular speech, while medio is the…

It is inherited from Latin pānis (“bread; loaf”), continued through its accusative. The word is panromance: French pain, Occitan pan, Catalan pa, Spanish pan, Portuguese pão, Sardinian pane and…

It is inherited from Latin prendere (“to seize, grasp”), the contracted form of prehendere. The word is panromance: French prendre, Occitan penre, Catalan pendre, Spanish prender, Portuguese…

It is inherited from Latin tornō (“to turn on a lathe”), from tornus (“lathe”). The Latin noun was borrowed from Ancient Greek τόρνος (tórnos, “compass; lathe”), from Proto-Indo-European *terh₁-…

It is borrowed from Old French abandoner (about 1080), formed on the phrase “a bandon” “in someone's power, at their mercy”, from bandon (“power, authority”). DELI and Sabatini–Coletti start from…

It is inherited from Latin accendō (“to set on fire, to kindle”), from ad- and the stem of candeō (“to shine, to glow”). The Latin verb survives in Old Occitan acendre, Old Spanish acender and…

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *accorrigere, formed with the prefix ad- on Latin corrigō (“to straighten, correct”). Sabatini–Coletti explains the loss of the vowel from the first person…

It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin adōrō (“to address, plead with, pray to; to worship”), formed from ōrō (“to plead, pray”) with ad-. In Church Latin the verb rendered Ancient Greek…

It is inherited from Late Latin adiūtus (“help”), an action noun from adiuvō (“to help”), whose past participle has the same form. GRADIT relates it to the frequentative adiūtō, the source of…

It is inherited from Latin arborem (“tree”), the accusative of the Latin word. The first “r” became “l” by dissimilation from the second, as DELI and Devoto explain it, and Wiktionary traces the…

It is a compound of altra, the feminine of altro “other”, and -mente, the suffix of adverbs, which goes back to Latin alterā mente (“with another mind”). GDLI considers “altramente” the more genuine…

It is inherited from Late Latin angelus (“angel”), borrowed from Ancient Greek ἄγγελος (ángelos, “messenger, envoy”). The Greek translators of the Old Testament used “ángelos” to render the Hebrew…

DELI, GRADIT and Zingarelli derive it inherited from Vulgar Latin *antiānus (“former, of an earlier time”), Nocentini and Wiktionary from a form *anteānus, built on Latin ante (“before”) or antea…

It is the phrase from Italian a + pena (“pain, effort”), “with effort”, written as one word, with the doubling of /p/ that ⟨a⟩ causes in Tuscan pronunciation. Wiktionary traces it to Vulgar Latin…

It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin argūmentum (“proof, reason; subject”), with its derivatives argūmentor (“to argue”) and argūmentātiō. The Latin noun is formed from arguō (“to show, prove”)…

It is inherited from Latin āera (“air”), the accusative of āēr in its Greek form, taken from Ancient Greek ἀήρ (aḗr, “air”). The Latin accusative copied ἀέρα (aéra) and is already found in Cicero…

It is inherited from Late Latin arma (“weapon”), a feminine singular that grew out of the classical neuter plural ⟨arma, -ōrum⟩ “arms, equipment”. The singular is recorded in Latin only from the 6th…

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *arripāre (“to come to the shore”), formed from ad (“to”) and Latin rīpa (“riverbank”) with a verb ending. The LEI considers it probably a Late Latin form, attested…

It is inherited from Latin ars (“skill, craft; art”), from the accusative “artem”. The word is found in all the Romance languages: French art, Occitan art, Catalan art, Spanish arte and Portuguese…

It is inherited from Latin bāsiāre (“to kiss”), derived from bāsium (“kiss”). Catullus brought the verb into Latin literature for an amorous kiss, and Martial uses it for a kiss of respect; it…

It is inherited from Late Latin bassus, found in Latin glosses of the 8th century with the gloss “crassus, non altus” (thick, not tall). The adjective first meant “fat, stout” (early 6th century)…

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *bellitia, from Latin bellus (“pretty, fine”) with the abstract suffix -itia; by surface analysis it is bello with the suffix -ezza. DEI notes that the Vulgar Latin…

It is inherited from Latin bene (“well”), the adverb that belongs to Latin bonus (“good”). In Latin it was often combined with a verb or adjective, and many of these compounds came into Italian as…

It is borrowed from Latin bēstia (“beast, animal, wild animal”), taken over in a learned or semi-learned form. Wiktionary calls it probably borrowed, noting that some sources consider it inherited…

It is inherited from Latin bucca (“cheek; mouth”). The Latin word first meant “cheek”, as it still does in Romanian bucă, and, from Cato onwards also “mouth” in familiar speech, where it displaced…

It is probably inherited from Vulgar Latin *brūttus, a form of Latin brūtus (“heavy; dull, brutish”) with an expressively doubled consonant, as the LEI and GRADIT hold. DELI calls the derivation…

1. The lie is borrowed from Old Occitan bauzia (“deceit, treachery”), from Frankish *bausī (“wickedness”). The Germanic word is the source of Old High German bōsi (“bad”) and German böse (“evil”)…

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *captiāre (“to hunt”), an intensive verb formed on Latin captus (“caught”), the past participle of capiō (“to take”); classical Latin had captō (“to try to catch”)…

It is inherited from Late Latin cambiō (“to exchange, barter”), a Late Latin verb of Gaulish origin. Apuleius uses it, and the glosses explain it as “to give one thing for another”. DELI points to a…

It is a noun formed from the verb cambiare (from Italian cambiare + -o). The verb continues Late Latin cambiō (“to exchange”), first found in Apuleius and explained in the glosses as “to give one…

1. The word for a room is inherited from Latin camera (“vault, vaulted ceiling”), from Ancient Greek καμάρα (kamára, “vault; vaulted room”). DELI calls the origin of the Greek word unclear, and…

It is inherited from Latin cantō (“to sing”), the frequentative or intensive of canō (“to sing”). In Latin the derived verb took the place of the irregular older verb as early as the 3rd century BC…

It is inherited from Late Latin cappellus (“head covering”), a diminutive of Late Latin cappa (“hood; cloak”). The Medieval Latin word is recorded from the 9th century. The same word is French…

It is inherited from Latin cārus (“dear, beloved; precious; costly”). The Latin adjective already had both its senses, and Plautus played on the double meaning. The word continues in all the Romance…

It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin causa (“cause, reason; lawsuit”), an older caussa. The same Latin noun, in popular speech, became cosa “thing”, as it did in nearly all the Romance…

It is inherited from Latin caballus (“workhorse, gelding”). Classical Latin called the horse equus, an old Indo-European name; “caballus” appears from the 2nd century BC, first in Lucilius, for the…

It is inherited from Latin circulus (“circle, ring”), through a spoken form Vulgar Latin *circlus that lost its inner vowel. The learned doublet of the same Latin word is circolo. The noun continues…

It is inherited from Latin clāvis (“key; bar, bolt”), from the accusative. The word is pan-Romance: Romanian cheie, Dalmatian kluf, Friulian clâf, Romansh clav, French clef, Occitan clau, Catalan…