Italian words from Latin
1281 Italian words with Latin in their history, whether borrowed directly or passed on through other languages (page 14).
padre
It is inherited from Old Italian patre, inherited from Latin pater (“father”), from the accusative ⟨patrem⟩. The Latin word is continued across the Romance languages, as French père, Occitan paire…
padrone
It is inherited from Latin patrōnus (“protector, patron”), a derivative of pater (“father”). In Rome the patron was the powerful man in relation to those he protected: the former master of freed…
paese
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *pagēnsis, from the Late Latin adjective pāgēnsis (“of a country district; inhabitant of a district”), formed from Latin pāgus (“village; country district”). The…
pagare
It is inherited from Latin pācō (“to pacify, quieten”), from pāx (“peace”). In late and spoken Latin the verb came to mean quieting a creditor with money, and so “to pay”: Medieval Latin pagāre is…
pagina
It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin pāgina (“column of writing, page”). The Latin word was first a farming term: Pliny uses it for a section of vineyard, the rectangle formed by a crosspiece…
paio
The singular was made in Italian from the plural ⟨paia⟩, which is inherited from Latin paria (“pairs”), the neuter plural of the adjective meaning “equal”, used as a noun. Early medieval documents…
palazzo
It is inherited from Latin palātium (“palace”), originally the name of the Palatine Hill in Rome, Palātium, where Augustus fixed the emperors' residence, and then the imperial palace that stood…
pane
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…
panico
1. The millet is inherited from Latin pānīcum (“Italian millet”), a derivative of pānus (“ear of millet”), named, Nocentini thinks, for its spindle shape. DELI thinks that noun may be the same as…
papa
It is borrowed from Late Latin papa (“father; bishop; pope”), a learned word of the Church. The Latin word was taken from Ancient Greek πάπας (pápas, “father”), a title of priests and bishops…
paradiso
It is a learned word, borrowed from Late Latin paradīsus, from Ancient Greek παράδεισος (parádeisos, “garden, park”). The Greek word is Iranian: Old Persian *paridaiza, the same as Avestan…
parco
1. The park is probably borrowed from Old French parc, recorded in French in 1175. The French word comes from Medieval Latin parricus (“enclosure”), first attested in the 8th-century Lex Ripuaria…
parecchio
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *pariculus (“of the same kind, similar”), a diminutive of Latin pār (“equal”). The Latin adjective is recorded in the Lex Salica. The Italian word moved from…
parente
DELI calls it a learned word, borrowed from Latin parēns (“parent”) (accusative parentem). Nocentini counts it among the inherited words found across the Romance languages. The Latin word meant…
parlare
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *parabolāre, a verb formed from Late Latin parabola (“word”). The verb is attested in Medieval Latin parabolāre from the 9th century, and Nocentini finds it with…
parola
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *paraula, inherited from Late Latin parabola (“parable; word”), from Ancient Greek παραβολή (parabolḗ, “comparison”), a noun of παραβάλλω (parabállō, “to place…
parte
It is inherited from Latin pars (“part, share”), from the accusative ⟨partem⟩. The word is panromance: French part, Occitan part, Catalan part, Spanish parte, Portuguese parte, Sardinian parte and…
partecipare
It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin participō (“to make a sharer; to share in”). The Latin verb is formed from particeps (“sharing, partaking”), a compound of pars (“part”) and capiō (“to…
particolare
It is a learned word, borrowed from Late Latin particulāris (“relating to a part”), from Latin particula (“small part, particle”), the diminutive of pars (“part”). The Latin adjective, used by…
partire
It is inherited from Latin partiō (“to divide, share out”), the Late Latin active form of classical partior, from pars (“part”). DELI treats the verb “to divide” as a learned word, while Nocentini…
partito
It is from Italian partire + -ito: the past participle of the verb in its first sense “to divide”, used as an adjective and then as a noun. Treccani explains the noun as properly “what is divided, a…
passare
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *passāre (“to step, to go through”), a verb formed in spoken Latin from the noun passus (“step, pace”). DEI describes it as a verb of Italy and the western Romance…
passo
1. The adjective “withered” is inherited from Latin passus (“spread out”), the past participle of pandō (“to spread out”), because grapes and other fruit were spread out in the sun to dry. Latin…
patto
It is borrowed from Latin pactum (“agreement, covenant”), which DELI treats as a learned word. The Latin noun is the past participle, used as a noun, of pacīscor (“to make an agreement”), and shares…
paura
It is inherited from Latin pavor (“terror, fear”), from the accusative ⟨pavorem⟩, with its ending replaced by the suffix ⟨-ura⟩. Devoto, Devoto–Oli and Sabatini–Coletti start from a reconstructed…
pausa
It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin pausa (“cessation, pause”). Latin “pausa” is usually derived from Ancient Greek παῦσις (paûsis, “cessation”), from παύω (paúō, “to stop, cease”). Another…
pavimento
It is borrowed from Latin pavīmentum (“beaten earth floor; pavement”), a learned word. The Latin noun is formed on paviō (“to beat, to ram”) with the suffix -mentum. The inherited outcomes of the…
paziente
It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin patiēns (“enduring, patient”), the present participle of patior (“to suffer, endure”). The same participle is French patient, recorded in 1120, and Spanish…
pazzo
The origin is disputed, and DELI, GRADIT and Sabatini–Coletti call it uncertain. Nocentini and Devoto–Oli take it as the short past participle of the verb from Vulgar Latin *pactiāre (“to press…
peccato
It is inherited from Latin peccātum (“error, fault; sin”), the past participle of peccō (“to make a mistake, do wrong”) used as a noun. Zingarelli calls it a learned word, but the DÉRom reconstructs…
peggio
It is inherited from Latin pēius (“worse”), the neuter of peior (“worse”), which served as the comparative of malus (“bad”) and was used in Latin as an adverb. Meyer-Lübke notes that the correct…
peggiorare
It is inherited from Late Latin peiōrō (“to make worse”), a verb formed from Latin pēior (“worse”). DEI finds the Late Latin verb in the jurist Paulus. Devoto adds that the Italian verb was…
peggiore
It is inherited from Latin pēior (“worse”), the comparative of malus (“bad”). The same word is French pire, Occitan pejer, Catalan pejor and Spanish peor, and with the neuter peius Italian peggio…
pelle
It is inherited from Latin pellis (“skin, hide”). The word is panromance: French peau, Occitan pel, Catalan pell, Spanish piel, Sardinian peḍḍe and Romanian piele. Meyer-Lübke adds Dalmatian pial…
pena
It is inherited from Latin poena (“fine; punishment; suffering”), which Latin had taken from Ancient Greek ποινά (poiná, “compensation, price of blood; penalty”), the Doric form of ποινή (poinḗ)…
pensare
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”…
pensione
It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin pēnsiō (“weighing; payment; rent”). The Latin noun is formed from pendō (“to weigh, pay”); the sense “payment” comes from the old weighing out of money, and…
per
It is inherited from Latin per (“through, across; during; by means of”). In Italian it also took over many uses of prō (“in front of; for”), and Devoto described it as a blend of the two Latin…
perca
It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin perca (“perch”), which Latin took from Ancient Greek πέρκη (pérkē, “perch”). Devoto–Oli, GRADIT and Sabatini–Coletti take it more precisely from the…
perdere
It is inherited from Latin perdō (“to destroy, waste; to lose”), formed from per- (“beyond”), here marking a turn for the worse, and dō (“to give”). The verb is pan-Romance: French perdre, Occitan…
perdita
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *perdita (“loss”), the feminine of Latin perditus (“lost, ruined”) used as a noun. The adjective is the past participle of perdō (“to destroy, lose”)…
perdonare
It is inherited from Late Latin perdōnāre (“to grant; to forgive”), a verb recorded in Medieval Latin from the 10th century. It was formed from dōnō (“to give as a gift”) with the prefix per-; DELI…
perfetto
It is borrowed from Latin perfectus (“completed, finished”), a learned word, the past participle of perficiō (“to carry through, complete”). The Latin verb is formed from per- (“thoroughly”) and…
pericolo
It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin perīculum (“trial, attempt; risk, danger”). The Latin noun first meant “trial, test”, then “risk”, and finally “danger”, a shift that was probably helped by…
pericoloso
It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin perīculōsus (“dangerous”), from perīculum (“trial, attempt; risk, danger”) and the suffix -ōsus. Wiktionary considers it probably a semi-learned borrowing…
periodo
It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin periodus (“a rounded sentence; a cycle”), from Ancient Greek περίοδος (períodos, “a going round, circuit, cycle”). The Greek noun is a compound of περί…
permesso
The adjective is the past participle of permettere, from Latin permittō (“to let go; to allow”). The noun is explained in two ways. Nocentini takes it as borrowed from Latin permissus…
permettere
It is borrowed from Latin permittō (“to let go through; to allow, leave to”), from per- and mittō (“to send, let go”). Nocentini classes it as a borrowing from Latin, with the stressed vowel taken…
però
It is inherited from Latin per hoc (“through this; for this reason”), a phrase of per (“through”) and hoc (“this”), the neuter of hic. Its first meaning was causal, “therefore”, which Florentine…
persona
DELI treats it as a learned word, borrowed from Latin persōna (“mask; character; person”). The Latin word first meant the mask of an actor, then the role, the character and the individual. It is…
personale
It is borrowed from Late Latin persōnālis (“personal”), a learned word. In Latin it was a term of the jurists Paulus and Ulpian and, for the grammatical person, of the grammarian Diomedes; it is…
pesce
It is inherited from Latin pĭscis (“fish”), continued from the accusative ⟨piscem⟩. The word is panromance: French poisson, Occitan peis, Catalan peix, Spanish pez, Portuguese peixe, Sardinian…
peso
1. The weight is inherited from Vulgar Latin *pēsum, from Latin pēnsum, which in Latin meant the quantity of wool weighed out to a slave woman to spin in a day. “Pēnsum” is the neuter of pensus…
pessimo
It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin pessimus (“worst, very bad”), the superlative used with malus (“bad”) beside the comparative peior (“worse”). In Italian it serves as the superlative of…
petto
It is inherited from Latin pectus (“breast, chest”). The word is panromance: Old French piz, Old Occitan peitz, Catalan pit, Spanish pecho, Portuguese peito, Sardinian pettus and Romanian piept. The…
piacere
It is inherited from Latin placēre (“to please”). The verb is panromance: French plaire, Occitan plazer, Catalan plaure, Spanish placer, Portuguese prazer, Sardinian piàghere and Romanian plăcea…
pianeta
1. The planet is borrowed from Late Latin planēta, from Ancient Greek πλανήτης (planḗtēs, “wandering, wanderer”), from πλανάω (planáō, “to wander, to stray”). The Greek verb is of uncertain origin…
piangere
It is inherited from Latin plangere (“to strike, beat; to beat one's breast, mourn”). The sense moved from striking to weeping through the gesture of beating one's breast in grief; Migliorini notes…
piano
1. The word meaning “flat; slowly; floor” is inherited from Latin plānus (“flat, level; easy, clear”), with the noun plānum (“level ground, plain”), its neuter used as a noun. The adjective is found…
piatto
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *plattus (“flat”), a popular adaptation of Ancient Greek πλατύς (platús, “broad, flat”) with an expressive double consonant. The Greek adjective is of Indo-European…