Italian words first recorded in the 12th century

Its origin is disputed. According to DELI and Gabrielli it is inherited from Vulgar Latin *hīcce, a spoken form of classical Latin hīc (“here”); Devoto analyses it in the same way, as ⟨hic⟩ with the…

It is inherited from Latin caelum (“sky, heaven”), whose stressed /ae/ became an open /ɛ/ and then, in an open syllable, the Tuscan diphthong /jɛ/. The same word is found in every Romance language…

It is inherited from Latin cīvitās (“citizenship; the citizens; city”) (in Italian from its accusative case), a derivative of cīvis (“citizen”) with the suffix -tās. DELI traces the Latin noun for…

It is inherited from Latin color (“colour, complexion”), from the accusative “colōrem”. DELI calls it a learned word, but the LEI treats it as inherited, since the noun lives on in every Romance…

It is a deverbal noun with no suffix, formed from comandare. The verb continues inherited from Vulgar Latin *commandāre, a popular form of Latin commendō (“to entrust, hand over”), formed with con-…

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *combattuere, a Late Latin compound of cum (“with”) and battuō (“to beat, pound”), recorded from the 6th century in the sense “to beat, strike”. The new verb took…

It is inherited from Late Latin quōmo, a Late Latin shortening of Latin quōmodo (“in what way, how”), recorded from the 2nd–3rd century. Wiktionary notes that forms without ⟨d⟩ are securely attested…

It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin condiciō (“agreement, terms; condition”), from condīcō (“to agree on, fix”), formed from Latin con- (“together”) + dīcō (“to say”). The Latin noun first…

It is inherited from Latin condūcō (“to bring together; to hire, rent”), formed from con- (“with, together”) and dūcō (“to lead”). The infinitive is a contraction of the older conducere, which…

It is a learned or half-learned word, borrowed from Medieval Latin *cōnfessāre, a verb formed in Church and medieval Latin on cōnfessus (“having admitted”), the past participle of cōnfiteor (“to…

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *conōscere, the spoken form of classical Latin cognōscō (“to get to know”), from co- and nōscō (“to get to know”). Wiktionary takes the shorter form as Late Latin…

It is inherited from Latin cooperīre (“to cover completely”), formed with co- on operiō (“to cover, close”). The unstressed vowel before the stress was lost in the normal way. The past historic…

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *costūmen (“custom”), a spoken-Latin form that replaced classical Latin cōnsuētūdō (“habit, custom”). DELI, following Battisti, adds that the Italian form was very…

It is borrowed from Late Latin creātūra (“creation; creature”), a derivative of Latin creō (“to create, bring forth”). Zingarelli and Battaglia call it a learned word, and Prati says it came in…

It is inherited from Latin crēscō (“to grow, increase”). DÉRom reconstructs a Proto-Romance verb that was both intransitive, “to grow”, and transitive, “to make larger”, since nearly every branch…

It is inherited from Latin cui (“to whom, to which”), the dative of the relative pronoun Latin quī (“who, which”). Devoto gives the older Latin form quoi. In Italian the dative spread to all the…

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *corem, inherited from Latin cor (“heart”). The Latin neuter took a final “-e” and became masculine in Vulgar Latin, as did the words for “bile” and “honey”. The…

It is inherited from Latin damnum (“loss, damage; expense; fine”). The Latin cluster ⟨-mn-⟩ became ⟨-nn-⟩ in the popular word, while learned spellings such as damno and dampno kept it. DELI and the…

It is inherited from Latin dō (“to give”). The past historic ⟨diedi⟩ continues the Latin reduplicated perfect dedī. The verb survives in nearly every Romance language: Occitan dar, Catalan dar…

It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin differentia (“difference”). The Latin noun is formed on differēns (“different”), the present participle of differō (“to carry apart; to differ”), which…

It is inherited from Late Latin dē māne (“in the morning”), a phrase of dē (“from”) and māne (“morning; early”). The Latin phrase was censured by grammarians: Servius wrote that one should not say…

It is inherited from Latin dormīre (“to sleep”). The verb lives on in every Romance language, as French dormir, Occitan dormir, Catalan dormir, Spanish dormir, Portuguese dormir, Sardinian dormire…

It is inherited from Latin dūrus (“hard, solid; harsh”). The word is pan-Romance, found also in Dalmatian and Sardinian but not in Romanian: French dur, Occitan dur, Catalan dur, Spanish duro…

It is an expressive word, imitating a sound of the voice. Nocentini calls it a Romance onomatopoeia whose meaning depends on the intonation: surprise, approval or resignation. DEI and the TLIO…

It is inherited from Latin intrō (“inside, to the inside”). The TLIO adds the influence of inter (“between”). Romanian întru is the same word, and REW also cites Old Spanish entro (“until”). The…

It is borrowed from Latin error (“wandering; mistake”), a learned word, from the verb errō (“to wander; to err”). The Latin noun is continued in every Romance language: Romanian eroare, Friulian…

It is a learned or semi-learned word, borrowed from Latin exemplum (“sample; model; example”). DEI calls it semi-learned and spread by the medieval schools, and Sabatini–Coletti explains the many…

It is inherited from Latin aetās (“age, lifetime; period”), from the accusative. The older forms Old Italian etate and Old Italian etade were shortened. DELI treats it as a learned word, but the LEI…

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *fallīre, inherited from Latin fallō (“to deceive”) moved from the third conjugation to the fourth. In the passive the Latin verb meant “to be mistaken, to err”…

It is inherited from Late Latin fēsta (“feast, holiday”), originally the neuter plural of fēstum (“feast”), taken as a feminine singular; the noun comes from the adjective fēstus (“festive…

1. The fig is inherited from Latin fīcus (“fig tree; fig”), through the form fīcum. Latin used the feminine noun for both the tree and the fruit, and a neuter took shape in Late Latin for the fruit…

It is inherited from Latin fīliolus (“little son”), the diminutive of fīlius (“son”) with the suffix -olus. Sabatini–Coletti start from Vulgar Latin *filiolu. In Italian it can also be read as from…

It is inherited from Latin fīniō (“to bound, limit; to finish”), from fīnis (“boundary, limit, end”). GDLI calls it a learned word. It is found in French, Occitan, Catalan, Spanish and Portuguese…

It is inherited from Latin flōs (“flower”), from its accusative form. The word is panromance: French fleur, Occitan flor, Catalan flor, Spanish flor, Portuguese flor, Sardinian flore, Friulian flor…

It is inherited from Latin flūmen (“flowing water, river”). DELI and GRADIT write the Latin word with its final consonant in brackets, since the Italian comes from a form without it. The Latin noun…

It is inherited from Latin follis (“leather bag, bellows; ball”), through its accusative. The meaning passed by metaphor from a bag full of air or a ball to an empty head, and so to a fool. DEI…

It is inherited from Latin fortis (“strong, brave”). The word is panromance: French fort, Occitan fort, Catalan fort, Spanish fuerte, Portuguese forte and Sardinian forte, and Romanian foarte…

It is inherited from Late Latin fortia (“strength”), the neuter plural of Latin fortis (“strong”), “the strong things”, understood as a feminine singular. The Late Latin word is first found in…

It is inherited from Latin fricāre (“to rub, chafe”). The voicing of the ⟨c⟩ between vowels to ⟨g⟩ is a northern development, so the Tuscan word probably came from the north; Wiktionary gives an…

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *friscus (“fresh”), from Proto-Germanic *friskaz (“fresh”). The sources agree on the Germanic origin but differ on how the word came in: DELI holds that, because it…

It is inherited from Latin frons (“forehead, brow; front”). GRADIT gives the Latin source as a variant with /u/ beside the usual form with short /o/. The GDLI alone calls it a learned word. The word…

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *iectāre (“to throw”), a form of classical iactāre (“to throw, toss”), the frequentative of iaciō (“to throw”). DELI explains the vowel by the compounds, where…

It is borrowed from French jardin, recorded in French from the 12th century, a derivative of Old French jart. That word comes from Frankish *gardo (“enclosure”), related to Old High German garto and…

1. The noun meaning “joy” is borrowed from Old French joie (1080), from Late Latin gaudia, the plural of Latin gaudium (“joy, delight”). DELI notes that the plural was already more frequent than the…

It is inherited from Late Latin grassus (“fat”), a form of Latin crassus (“thick, fat”) with its initial changed under the influence of grossus (“thick, coarse”). The form with /g/ is found in Late…

It is borrowed from Frankish *waidanjan (“to graze; to work, gain”), a verb formed from *waida (“pasture”). GRADIT, DEI and Devoto give its route through Medieval Latin guadaniare, a Gallo-Romance…

It is inherited from Late Latin incontrāre, a verb formed in late antiquity from the adverb incontrā (“towards, facing”). DELI finds the verb in the Itala, the old Latin Bible translation, around…

It is inherited from Late Latin ingannāre, recorded in the Reichenau Glossary of the 8th century, where it glosses insultaret “he would mock”. Nocentini reconstructs Vulgar Latin *ingannāre (“to…

It is inherited from Latin intendō (“to stretch towards; to direct; to aim at, pay attention”), formed from tendō (“to stretch”) with in- (“towards”). The verb is found in all the Romance languages…

It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin investiō (“to clothe, adorn, surround”). In Medieval Latin the verb meant to put someone in possession of a fief or a dignity, because the feudal grant was…

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin lacte, the form of classical Latin lac (“milk”) in later Latin. The Latin neuter was already treated as a masculine, with the accusative lactem, in Petronius, in…

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *(il)lu, from Latin ille (“that”) in the accusative ⟨illum⟩, with the first syllable and the final ⟨-m⟩ lost. The article and the pronoun are the same word. In some…

It is borrowed from Old French maniere (1119), the noun use of the feminine of the Old French adjective manier (“done by hand, handy”), from Late Latin manuārius (“of the hand”), from Latin manus…

It is inherited from Latin manus (“hand”), from the accusative ⟨manum⟩. The word lives on in every Romance language, as French main, Occitan man, Catalan mà, Spanish mano, Portuguese mão, Sardinian…

It is inherited from Latin marītus (“married; husband”). DELI calls it a learned word, but Nocentini and Meyer-Lübke treat it as inherited. In Latin it was first an adjective of farming: trees were…

It is inherited from Old Italian domentre without its first syllable, inherited from Latin dum interim (“while meanwhile”), a phrase of dum (“while”) and interim (“in the meantime”). The unstressed…

1. The pronoun is inherited from Latin mē (“me”) and Latin mihi (“to me”), whose shortened form mī was also used. The sources weigh the two differently: Nocentini sees Italian “mi” as the…

It is inherited from Late Latin meliōrāre, formed from Latin melior (“better”) and first recorded in the jurist Ulpian (before 228 AD). The same verb is Old Occitan melhurar, Catalan millorar and…

It is inherited from Latin melior (“better”), from the accusative ⟨meliōrem⟩, which served in Latin as the comparative of bonus (“good”). The same word is French meilleur, Occitan melhor, Catalan…

It is inherited from Latin mulier (“woman”), continuing the nominative, as do a few other names of persons such as uomo, ladro and sarto. The other Romance languages, and the Italian dialects of the…