Italian words from Latin
1281 Italian words with Latin in their history, whether borrowed directly or passed on through other languages (page 13).
non
It is inherited from Latin nōn (“not”). The Latin word comes from ⟨*ne oinom⟩ “not one”, from the negative particle ne and the archaic neuter of ūnus (“one”), still seen in the old forms ⟨noenum⟩…
nonna
It is inherited from Late Latin nonna (“nurse, wet nurse”), a word of children's speech found in late inscriptions, which in Church Latin, from Jerome on, also meant “nun”. The masculine nonnus…
nonno
It is inherited from Late Latin nonnus (“monk; male nurse, tutor”), the masculine of nonna (“nurse”). It is a word of children's speech. In the language of the Church it became a title of respect…
normale
It is borrowed from Latin normālis (“made with a carpenter's square, perpendicular”), from norma (“carpenter's square; rule”). GRADIT and Sabatini–Coletti also point to French normal, recorded from…
nostro
It is inherited from Latin noster (“our”), from Latin nōs (“we”), with the suffix -ter that marks a contrast between two, as in alter (Italian altro). The word is panromance: French notre, Occitan…
nota
It is borrowed from Latin nota (“mark, sign; character; musical note”), a learned word. Italian took over with it the derivatives notabile, notaio (from Latin notārius (“stenographer, secretary”))…
notare
It is borrowed from Latin notō (“to mark; to point out”), a learned borrowing, from nota (“mark, sign”). The same Latin verb gave French noter and Spanish notar; a popular outcome survives only in a…
notizia
It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin nōtitia (“fame; knowledge, acquaintance”), derived from nōtus (“known”), the past participle of nōscō (“to get to know”). The same Latin word gave French…
notte
It is inherited from Latin nox (“night”), from the accusative ⟨noctem⟩. The word survives in every Romance language: French nuit, Occitan nuech, Catalan nit, Spanish noche, Portuguese noite…
nove
It is inherited from Latin novem (“nine”). The same word is French neuf, Occitan nou, Catalan nou, Spanish nueve, Portuguese nove, Sardinian noe, Romansh nuf, Friulian nuf and Romanian nouă…
novità
It is borrowed from Latin novitās (“newness, novelty”), from novus (“new”). The older forms Old Italian novitade and novitate continue the Latin accusative novitātem, and the modern word is their…
nudo
It is inherited from Latin nūdus (“naked; bare”). The same word is French nu, Occitan nut, Catalan nu, Spanish nudo and Portuguese nu, as well as Romansh nüd, Friulian nut and Dalmatian noid. GDLI…
nulla
It is inherited from Latin nūlla, the neuter plural of the Latin adjective for “no, none”; Wiktionary reads the form as both the feminine singular and the collective neuter plural, and Tommaseo…
numero
It is borrowed from Latin numerus (“number; rank; measure, rhythm”), a learned word. The inherited Italian form of the Latin noun is novero. The Latin word was inherited as Romanian număr, French…
nuovo
It is inherited from Latin novus (“new”). The word is pan-Romance: French neuf, Occitan nuou, Catalan nou, Spanish nuevo, Portuguese novo, Friulian ñuf, Sardinian nou and Romanian nou. The Latin…
o
1. The conjunction is inherited from Latin aut (“or”). The Latin word lives on in every Romance language in its popular form: French ou, Occitan o, Catalan o, Spanish o, Portuguese ou, Sardinian o…
obiettivo
It is a learned word, borrowed from Medieval Latin obiectīvus (“relating to the object”), a term of scholastic philosophy probably coined by Duns Scotus. The Medieval Latin adjective is formed from…
occasione
It is borrowed from Latin occāsiō (“a favourable moment, opportunity”), a learned word. The Latin noun is formed from the supine occāsum of occidō (“to fall down; to set”), from ob- (“before”) and…
occhio
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin oclus, inherited from Latin oculus (“eye”), with the loss of the unstressed vowel: the late Latin list of corrections known as the Appendix Probi condemns ⟨oclus⟩…
occupare
It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin occupō (“to seize, take possession of”). The Latin verb is formed from the intensive prefix ob- and the root of capiō (“to take”). Devoto explains the ⟨-u-⟩…
odiare
It is formed in Italian from the noun for “hatred”: from Italian odio + -are. The noun is a learned word, borrowed from Latin odium (“hatred”), from ōdī (“I hate”), a perfect with present sense; the…
odio
It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin odium (“hatred”), from the verb ōdī (“I hate”), a perfect with present meaning. DEI notes that it came down mainly through the Medieval Latin of the Church…
odore
It is borrowed from Latin odor (“smell, scent; stench”), from the accusative “odōrem”. Nocentini counts it as a learned borrowing, while Spanish olor continues the spoken variant Latin olor…
offrire
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *offerīre, a reshaping of Latin offerō (“to put in someone's way; to offer”) on the model of verbs in ⟨-īre⟩. The classical verb has an irregular infinitive, and…
oggetto
It is borrowed from Medieval Latin obiectum (“what strikes the senses”), a word of scholastic philosophy, and the form that prevailed over its doublet obietto. The Medieval Latin noun is the neuter…
oggi
It is inherited from Latin hodiē (“today”), literally “on this day”. De Vaan explains the Latin word as a compound of hic (“this”) and diēs (“day”), probably in an old ablative; the form of the…
ogni
It is inherited from Old Italian onne, inherited from Latin omnis (“all, every”). DELI starts from a form omnim for the usual accusative omnem, if a reading in a passage of the Itala is correct, as…
ognuno
It is from Italian ogni (“every”) + uno (“one”), first written as a phrase and later as one word. ogni is inherited from Latin omnis (“all, every”), and uno is ūnus (“one”). De Vaan traces the Latin…
oh
It is inherited from Latin ōh, also written ō, an onomatopoeic exclamation of surprise and strong feeling. Nocentini and Sabatini–Coletti treat it as a word inherited from Latin, common to the other…
oltre
It is inherited from Latin ultrā (“beyond, further”). The same word gave French outre, Occitan oltra and Catalan oltra, and Dalmatian ultra. Latin ultrā is the ablative feminine of an adjective…
ombra
It is inherited from Latin umbra (“shadow, shade”). The word is found in almost all the Romance languages: French ombre, Occitan ombra, Catalan ombra, Sardinian umbra and Romanian umbră, while…
omicidio
It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin homicīdium (“homicide”), from homicīda (“man-slayer”). The Latin noun is a compound of homō (“man, human being”) and -cīdium (“killing”), from the stem of…
onesto
It is borrowed from Latin honestus (“honourable, respectable”), a learned word. The Latin adjective is derived from honōs (“honour, esteem”), the older form of honor (see onore). The OLD and DEI…
onore
DELI and the GDLI treat it as a learned word, borrowed from Latin honor (“honour, esteem; public office”), from the accusative ⟨honōrem⟩. Wiktionary and Nocentini instead derive it by direct descent…
opera
It is inherited from Latin opera (“work, effort; a day's work; day labourer”), originally the plural of the neuter opus (“work”), taken as a feminine singular as early as Plautus. DELI explains the…
operazione
It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin operātiō (“work, activity”), taken from the accusative ⟨operationem⟩. Zingarelli and the GDLI call the Latin word Late Latin. It is the action noun of…
opinione
It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin opīniō (“supposition, belief, opinion”), the action noun of opīnor (“to think, to suppose”). DEI notes that the philosophical term passed into the European…
opportunità
It is borrowed from Latin opportūnitās (“fitness, convenience; favourable occasion”), a learned word. The Latin noun is formed from opportūnus (“suitable, convenient”) with the suffix -tās. The…
oppure
It is a compound from Italian o + pure, with the consonant doubled after ⟨o⟩. The conjunction o continues inherited from Latin aut (“or”), which survives in a popular form in all the Romance…
ora
The noun is inherited from Latin hōra (“hour; time”), from Ancient Greek ὥρα (hṓra), whose first meaning was “season, part of the year”. Nocentini and Wiktionary relate the Greek word to Old High…
orario
The adjective is borrowed from Medieval Latin horārius (“of the hours”), a learned word formed from hōra (“hour”). Wiktionary takes it from Late Latin hōrārium; DEI notes that the Latin noun meant…
ordinare
It is borrowed from Latin ōrdinō (“to arrange in rows; to regulate”), a learned word. The Latin verb comes from ōrdō (“row; order; rule”). In Ecclesiastical Latin it also meant to ordain a priest…
ordine
It is borrowed from Latin ōrdō (“row, line; rank; order”), from the accusative. DEI and the GDLI class it as a learned word, while Nocentini lists it among the words common to all Romance languages…
orecchio
It is the masculine form of orecchia, which is inherited from Latin ōricula, a variant of auricula (“little ear; outer ear”), the diminutive of auris (“ear”). In popular Latin the diminutive…
organizzare
It is borrowed from Medieval Latin organizāre (“to give form; to form the organs of a living body”), a learned borrowing. The Medieval Latin verb, recorded about 980 in the sense “to shape”, was…
originale
It is a learned word, borrowed from Late Latin orīginālis, from orīgō (“origin”) with the suffix -ālis. DEI notes that Medieval Latin documents already have originalis at Nonantola in 989 and at…
oro
It is inherited from Latin aurum (“gold”), pronounced early as “ōrum”: Festus notes that country people called the gilthead fish “orata” after the colour of gold, which they said “orum”. The word…
orologio
It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin hōrologium (“sundial, water clock”), from Ancient Greek ὡρολόγιον (hōrológion). The Greek word is a compound of ὥρα (hṓra, “hour; season”) and a derivative…
orribile
It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin horribilis (“dreadful”), from horreō (“to bristle; to shudder”). Wiktionary calls the borrowing probable. The Latin verb first meant that the hair stood on…
orso
It is inherited from Latin ursus (“bear”). The word is panromance: French ours, Occitan ors, Catalan os, Spanish oso, Portuguese urso, Sardinian ursu and Romanian urs, with feminines beside them as…
oscuro
It is borrowed from Latin obscūrus (“dark; obscure”), a learned word. The more popular scuro continues the same Latin adjective. The Latin word is learned in French obscur and Spanish obscuro too…
ospedale
It continues inherited from Vulgar Latin *hospitāle (“lodging for strangers, inn”), the neuter of Latin hospitālis (“of a guest; hospitable”) used as a noun, from hospes (“guest; host; stranger”)…
ospite
It is borrowed from Latin hospes (“host; guest”), from the accusative ⟨hospitem⟩, a learned word beside the inherited oste, which came through Old French. The Latin word had both meanings, the one…
osservare
It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin observāre (“to watch; to comply with”), from servō (“to keep, watch over”) with the prefix ob- (“towards”). The Latin verb had two meanings, “to pay…
ottenere
It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin obtineō (“to hold firmly; occupy; obtain”), from ob- (“before, against”) and teneō (“to hold”). The stem vowel was remade on the model of tenere. Wiktionary…
ottimo
It is borrowed from Latin optimus (“best”), which served in Latin as the superlative of bonus (“good”); DEI and Zingarelli call it a learned word. Nocentini compares Spanish óptimo. DELI, Nocentini…
otto
It is inherited from Latin octō (“eight”). The numeral is panromance: French huit, Occitan uech, Catalan vuit, Spanish ocho, Portuguese oito, Friulian vot, Sardinian otto and Romanian opt. The Latin…
ovviamente
It is formed from Italian ovvio + -mente, from the adjective “obvious” with the adverb suffix. Ovvio is a learned word of the 17th century, first recorded in Paolo Segneri in 1672, borrowed from…
ovvio
It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin obvius (“in the way, meeting; easy, ordinary”). The adjective was drawn from obviam (“towards, to meet”), the phrase ob (“towards, against”) viam (“the…
pace
It is inherited from Latin pāx (“peace”), continuing its accusative pācem. The word is found throughout Romance: French paix, Occitan patz, Catalan pau, Spanish paz, Portuguese paz, Sardinian paghe…