Italian words from Frankish
7 Italian words with Frankish in their history, whether borrowed directly or passed on through other languages.
guadagnare
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…
guardare
It is a Germanic loan: borrowed from Frankish *wardōn (“to be on guard, watch”), which came into Italian through the Latinized form guardāre, recorded from the 7th century. DELI and Nocentini call…
guerra
It is a Germanic loanword, borrowed from Frankish *werru (“confusion, quarrel”), recorded as Medieval Latin werra from 858 and as guerra. DELI and Nocentini give the source as Proto-West Germanic…
lista
It is a Germanic loan: DELI, Nocentini and GRADIT give a Germanic ⟨*līsta⟩ “border, strip, lath”, the word that became German Leiste and English list. Devoto–Oli and Wiktionary name borrowed from…
roba
It is borrowed from Frankish *rauba (“booty; armour; garment”), a Germanic word that meant both the spoils of war and the clothes taken as spoils. Nocentini calls the source West Germanic…
sala
1. The hall is a Germanic word, but its route into Italian is debated. DELI, following Francesco Sabatini, and Sabatini–Coletti trace the sense “large room” to the Franks and later French influence…
trappola
It is from Frankish *trappa (“trap”) with a diminutive suffix, like trappula, recorded in 1196. The simple form is attested as Late Latin trappa in the Salic Law, in the clause “Siquis turturem de…