Italian words from Latin
1281 Italian words with Latin in their history, whether borrowed directly or passed on through other languages (page 12).
mezzo
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…
mi
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…
mica
1. The crumb and the adverb are inherited from Latin mīca (“crumb, grain”). DELI calls the noun a learned word. The adverb grew out of negative phrases in which the noun meant “not a crumb”, and…
miglio
1. The mile is a singular formed from the plural miglia, which continues inherited from Latin mīlia (“thousands”), the plural of the numeral for “thousand”, in the phrase mīlia passuum (“a thousand…
migliorare
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…
migliore
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…
militare
1. The verb is borrowed from Latin mīlitō (“to serve as a soldier”), a learned word, from mīles (“soldier”). DEI compares French militer (13th century), and notes that the phrase “milita in suo…
mille
It is inherited from Latin mīlle (“thousand”). The word is found throughout Romance: French mille, Occitan mil, Catalan mil, Spanish mil, Portuguese mil and Sardinian milli, while Romanian mie…
minaccia
It is inherited from Late Latin minācia (“threat”), a singular formed late; classical Latin used only the plural minaciae, found in Plautus. The noun was formed from the adjective mināx…
minacciare
DELI derives it from the noun minaccia (“threat”), but adds that the formation may be very old: it may be inherited from Vulgar Latin *mināciāre. That verb is documented as manatiare in the…
minimo
It is borrowed from Latin mĭnĭmus (“smallest, least”), a learned word. DELI points out that the learned form won out over the popular menomo, the inherited outcome of the same Latin word, which…
ministro
It is borrowed from Latin minister (“servant, attendant”), a learned word. The Latin noun is formed from minus (“less”) with the suffix -ter, which marked a contrast between two, and it forms a pair…
minuto
1. The adjective is inherited from Latin minūtus (“small, tiny”), properly the past participle of minuō (“to make smaller, diminish”), which comes from minus (“less”), the neuter of minor…
mio
It is inherited from Old Italian meo, inherited from Latin meus (“my, mine”). The Tuscan form passed through an older mieo, which the plural “miei” still shows, as dio comes from Latin deus through…
miracolo
It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin mīrāculum (“wonder, marvel”), from mīror (“to wonder at, be astonished”) and the suffix -culum. The Latin word, like Ancient Greek θαῦμα (thaûma), named…
missione
It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin missiō (“sending, dispatch; discharge”), from missus (“sent”), the past participle of mittō (“to send”). The Latin noun is formed from the verb with the…
modello
It is a Romance formation, inherited from Vulgar Latin *modellus, a diminutive of Latin modulus (“measure; small measure, module”). The Latin noun is itself a diminutive of modus (“measure, size…
modo
It is borrowed from Latin modus (“measure; rule; manner”), a learned word. DEI places it in an Italian tradition that is half learned, and Prati thinks the form came by the literary route, while the…
moglie
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…
molto
It is inherited from Latin multus (“much, many”), and as an adverb the Latin neuter multum (“much”). The word is panromance: Old French mout, Occitan molt, Catalan molt, Spanish mucho, Portuguese…
momento
It is borrowed from Latin momentum (“movement, impulse; moment; weight, importance”), a learned word. The Latin noun is contracted from *movimentum, from moveō (“to move”) and the suffix -mentum…
mondo
1. The adjective is inherited from Latin mundus (“clean, neat; elegant”). DELI calls it a learned word. The Latin adjective also survives in Old French mont, Old Occitan mon, Spanish mondo…
montagna
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *montānea (“mountainous places”), from mōns (“mountain”). Nocentini explains it as a neuter plural taken as a feminine singular, and GRADIT and DEI as the feminine…
morale
It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin mōrālis (“relating to manners or customs”), from mōs (“custom, way of life”). Cicero coined the Latin adjective to render Ancient Greek ἠθικός (ēthikós…
morire
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *morīre, for classical Latin morī (“to die”). Early Latin already had the infinitive ⟨morīrī⟩ in Plautus and Ennius, and the spoken language turned the deponent…
morte
It is inherited from Latin mors (“death”), from the accusative ⟨mortem⟩. The word is common to the Romance languages: French mort, Occitan mort, Catalan mort, Spanish muerte, Portuguese morte…
morto
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *mortus, for classical Latin mortuus (“dead”), the participle of morior (“to die”). The word is found in every Romance language: French mort, Occitan mort, Catalan…
mostrare
It is inherited from Latin mōnstrō (“to show, point out”), a verb formed from mōnstrum (“portent, sign”). The original sense was “to point out the will of the gods”, but the verb soon passed into…
mostro
It is borrowed from Latin mōnstrum (“portent, prodigy”), a learned word, through the older form “monstro”. The Latin noun first named a prodigy revealing the will of the gods, and so “a thing…
motivo
It is a learned word, borrowed from Late Latin mōtīvus (“moving, mobile”), an adjective recorded in the 4th century in Calcidius and formed from mōtus (“movement”), the past participle of moveō (“to…
moto
1. The noun meaning “motion” is a learned word, borrowed from Latin mōtus (“movement”), a noun formed from the past participle of moveō (“to move”). Besides “movement”, the Latin noun already meant…
motore
It is a learned borrowing, borrowed from Latin motor (“one who moves”). The Latin noun is formed from moveō (“to move”) with the agent suffix -tor. Devoto explains it from an older *movitor, which…
mucchio
It is most probably inherited from Latin mūtŭlus (“projecting stone, modillion”), as DELI, Nocentini and most dictionaries hold, following an explanation of Meyer-Lübke that is still generally…
muovere
It is inherited from Latin movēre (“to move”), with a change of conjugation, through a Vulgar Latin *movĕre. The verb is found throughout Romance except Romanian and Sardinian: French mouvoir…
muro
It is inherited from Latin mūrus (“wall, city wall”). The word is panromance: French mur, Occitan mur, Catalan mur, Spanish muro, Portuguese muro, Sardinian muru, Dalmatian mor and Aromanian mur…
musica
It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin mūsica, short for an “art of the Muses”, modelled on Ancient Greek μουσική (mousikḗ) with τέχνη (tékhnē, “art”) understood. The Greek word is the feminine…
nascere
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *nāscere, the spoken form of classical nāscī (“to be born”). The deponent verb of written Latin was replaced in speech by an active form, which DÉRom reconstructs…
nascondere
It is inherited from Late Latin inabscondere, a compound of in- and Latin abscondō (“to put away, conceal”), with the loss of the first vowel. DELI and Nocentini describe it instead as the older Old…
naso
It is inherited from Latin nāsus (“nose”). The same word is French nez, Occitan nas, Catalan nas, Sardinian nasu and Romanian nas, while Spanish naso and Portuguese naso mean a big nose. Latin also…
natale
It is inherited from Latin nātālis (“of birth”), an adjective in -ālis from nātus (“born”), the past participle of nāscor (“to be born”). The name of the feast comes from Christian Latin, where the…
nato
It is inherited from Latin nātus (“born; son”), the past participle of nāscor (“to be born”). The Latin word had an older form gnātus, which shows its link with gignō (“to beget”), so that it first…
natura
It is borrowed from Latin nātūra (“birth; character; the order of things”), a learned word that came in by the literary route. The Latin noun was formed from nātus (“born”), the past participle of…
naturale
It is borrowed from Latin nātūrālis (“natural; by birth”), from nātūra (“birth; nature, character”), which is formed from nātus (“born”). It is a learned word that came in through the written…
nave
It is inherited from Latin nāvis (“ship”), through the accusative form. The Latin word lives on in most Romance languages: French nef, Occitan nau, Catalan nau, Spanish nave, Portuguese nave…
nazione
It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin natio (“birth; people, nation”), from nātus (“born”), the participle of nascor (“to be born”). The Latin noun is formed with the suffix of verbal abstracts…
ne
It is inherited from Latin inde (“from there, thence”), reduced to its middle consonant and final vowel. Sabatini derives it by loss of the first syllable from a Vulgar Latin *inne, and Wikizionario…
né
It is inherited from Latin nec (“and not, nor”). The Latin word is the shortened form of neque used before consonants, a compound of the negation ne (“not”) and the enclitic -que (“and”). The word…
necessario
It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin necessārius (“unavoidable; indispensable”), from necesse (“unavoidable, necessary”). The Latin adjective goes back to a noun *necessis, made of ne- (“not”)…
negativo
It is borrowed from Late Latin negātīvus (“that denies”), formed from negō (“to deny, refuse”) with the suffix -īvus. In the photographic sense it came through English negative. The Latin verb is…
negozio
It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin negōtium (“business, occupation”), which Wiktionary calls possibly semi-learned. The Latin noun is formed from nec (“not”) and ōtium (“leisure”), literally…
nemico
It is inherited from Latin inimīcus (“unfriendly; enemy”), with the loss of the first syllable. The Latin word is a compound of the negative prefix in- and amīcus (“friend”), with the regular Latin…
nero
It is inherited from Latin niger (“black, dark”), continuing its accusative, with the loss of /g/ before /r/. Devoto compares the same loss in intero from Latin integer, through a spoken form Vulgar…
nervoso
It is borrowed from Latin nervōsus (“sinewy, muscular, vigorous”), from nervus (“sinew, nerve”) with the suffix -ōsus. DEI compares French nerveux, used from the 13th century in the old sense…
nessuno
It continues a spoken Latin phrase, inherited from Latin nē (“not”) ipse (“self”) ūnus (“one”), “not even one”. Nocentini and GRADIT give it in the accusative, ⟨ne ipsum unum⟩. The same phrase gave…
neve
It is inherited from Latin nix (“snow”), from the accusative nivem. The same word is Old French noif (modern French neige, from the verb neiger), Occitan neu, Catalan neu, Spanish nieve, Portuguese…
niente
The origin is disputed. DELI, GRADIT, DEI, Prati, Devoto and Gabrielli derive it from a Medieval Latin phrase of the philosophers, Medieval Latin nec entem (“not even a being, not even a thing”)…
nipote
It is inherited from Latin nepōs (“grandson; nephew; descendant”), from the accusative nepōtem. The same word is French neveu, Occitan nebot, Catalan nebot, Sardinian nebode, Romanian nepot and…
no
It is inherited from Latin nōn (“not”), with the final ⟨-n⟩ dropped when the word stands alone; the proclitic form before a verb kept it as non. Several Romance languages split the Latin word in the…
noi
It is inherited from Latin nōs (“we, us”). DELI quotes Rohlfs on the final vowel: Latin final ⟨-s⟩ was lost in Italy only in the course of the Middle Ages and in some words is represented by ⟨-i⟩…
nome
It is inherited from Latin nōmen (“name”). The word is panromance: French nom, Occitan nom, Catalan nom, Spanish nombre, Portuguese nome, Sardinian lùmene and Romanian nume. DELI classes it with its…