Italian words from Latin
1281 Italian words with Latin in their history, whether borrowed directly or passed on through other languages (page 16).
problema
It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin problēma (“problem, question”), from Ancient Greek πρόβλημα (próblēma, “something put forward; obstacle”), from προβάλλω (probállō, “to throw before, put…
procedere
It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin prōcēdere (“to go forward, advance”), from prō- (“forward”) and cēdō (“to go, advance”), also the source of cedere. The same Latin verb gave the learned…
processo
It is borrowed from Latin processus (“advance, progress, course”), a noun formed from the past participle of prōcēdō (“to go forward, advance”). In Medieval Latin the word took the legal sense…
procuratore
It is borrowed from Latin prōcūrātor (“manager, agent”), a learned word, as is the verb procurare. The Latin noun is formed with “-tor” from prōcūrō (“to take care of, manage”), which is prō (“on…
professionista
It is from Italian professione (“profession”) + -ista. Treccani and the GDLI derive it from professionismo instead. The noun professione is borrowed from Latin professiō (“public declaration”), from…
professore
It is borrowed from Latin professor (“public teacher”), the agent noun of profiteor (“to declare openly”), through its past participle professus. Besides “to declare”, the Latin verb also meant to…
profondo
DELI and Nocentini treat it as a word taken from Latin, borrowed from Latin profŭndus (“deep; bottomless”), from the accusative ⟨profundum⟩. Meyer-Lübke lists it among the Romance outcomes of the…
programma
It is a learned word, borrowed from Late Latin programma (“written notice, posted edict”), from Ancient Greek πρόγραμμα (prógramma, “public notice, edict”), from προγράφω (prográphō, “to write…
promessa
It is inherited from Late Latin promissa (“promise”), originally the neuter plural prōmissa (“things promised”), the past participle used as a noun of prōmittō (“to send forward; to promise”). The…
promettere
It is inherited from Latin prōmittō (“to send forward; to promise”), from prō- (“forward”) and mittō (“to send”), the source of mettere. DEI calls it a learned adaptation of the Latin verb. The same…
pronto
It is borrowed from Latin promptus (“ready, at hand”), the past participle of prōmō (“to bring out”), from prō (“forward”) and emō (“to take; to buy”). The literal meaning was “brought out and set…
proposito
It is borrowed from Latin prōpositum (“plan, intention; theme”), the neuter of prōpositus used as a noun, the past participle of prōpōnō (“to put forward, propose”), so literally “what is put…
proprietà
It is a learned borrowed from Latin proprietās (“peculiarity; ownership”), derived from proprius (“one's own, particular”). The form “proprietà” arose by the loss of the final syllable of the older…
proprietario
It is borrowed from Late Latin proprietārius (“owner”), a learned word formed from Latin proprietās (“property, ownership”) with the suffix -ārius. In Roman law the word named the owner of a thing…
proprio
It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin proprius (“one's own, peculiar”). Tuscan reduced it by dissimilation to ⟨propio⟩, the form the 16th-century writers still used; Migliorini, quoted by DELI…
prossimo
It is borrowed from Latin proximus (“nearest, next”), a learned word, the superlative of prope (“near”). Wiktionary counts it as inherited, but DELI, Nocentini, DEI and GDLI all treat it as taken…
proteggere
It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin prōtegō (“to cover in front; to protect”), from prō- (“in front”) and tegō (“to cover”). The Latin verb goes back to Proto-Indo-European *(s)teg- (“to cover…
protezione
It is borrowed from Late Latin prōtectiō (“protection, shelter”), a learned word. The Latin noun is formed on prōtēctus, the past participle of prōtegō (“to cover in front; protect”), with the…
provare
It is inherited from Latin probō (“to approve, test, prove”), a verb formed from the adjective probus (“good, upright”), so that it first meant “to find good, to approve”. The same verb is French…
provocare
It is borrowed from Latin prōvocō (“to call out, challenge”), from prō- (“forth”) and vocō (“to call”), a verb formed from vōx (“voice”). DELI, DEI and Zingarelli call it a learned word. The same…
pubblico
It is borrowed from Latin pūblicus (“of the people or the state”), a learned word. The popular Old Tuscan form Old Italian piuvico, recorded in the 13th century, is the inherited doublet. The ⟨bb⟩…
pugno
It is inherited from Latin pugnus (“fist; handful”). The word is panromance: French poing, Occitan ponh, Catalan puny, Spanish puño, Portuguese punho and Romanian pumn. Old Italian also had the…
pulire
It is inherited from Latin polīre (“to polish, to smooth”). Sabatini–Coletti call it the popular form beside the learned polire. The same verb is French polir, Occitan polir, Catalan polir and…
punta
It is inherited from Late Latin puncta (“a thrust with a point”), the feminine of punctus used as a noun, the past participle of Latin pungō (“to prick, sting”). DEI cites the late Latin noun from…
punto
It is inherited from Latin punctum (“small hole; dot; point; moment”), the neuter of the past participle of pungō (“to prick, sting”) used as a noun. DELI calls it a learned word, while Nocentini…
pure
It is inherited from Latin pūrē (“purely, simply; fully”), the adverb of pūrus (“clean, pure”). Nocentini explains the ending as the old instrumental case of the adjective. The adverb survives also…
puro
It is inherited from Latin pūrus (“clean, pure”). DELI treats it as a learned word, while Nocentini, Wiktionary and the REW count it among the inherited ones; the old diminutive puretto, which…
puzza
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *putia according to Nocentini and Devoto–Oli, a noun formed on Latin pūteō (“to stink”). GRADIT and Sabatini–Coletti treat it instead as a variant of the masculine…
qua
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *eccum hāc (“look, this way”), made of the presentative Latin eccum (“here he is, behold”) and the adverb hāc (“by this way”). The first part also gave ecco. The…
quale
It is inherited from Latin quālis (“of what kind”), from the accusative ⟨quālem⟩. The word is pan-Romance: French quel, Occitan cal, Spanish cual, Portuguese qual, Sardinian cale and Romanian care…
qualità
It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin quālitās (“quality, nature”), from the accusative quālitātem, with the final syllable dropped. The Latin noun is formed from quālis (“of what kind”) with…
quando
It is inherited from Latin quandō (“when”), the Latin interrogative adverb and temporal conjunction. The DÉRom reconstructs a Proto-Romance adverb and conjunction ⟨*/ˈkuand-o/⟩, which every Romance…
quanto
1. It is inherited from Latin quantus (“how great, how much”), with the adverb from its neuter quantum. The Latin word is formed from quam (“how, as”), which belongs with quis (“who”) (see chi), and…
quarto
It is inherited from Latin quartus (“fourth”), the ordinal of quattuor (“four”). The same word is Old French quart, Occitan quart, Catalan quart, Spanish cuarto, Portuguese quarto, Logudorese kartu…
quasi
It is borrowed from Latin quasi (“as if; about, nearly”), which Nocentini classes as a learned borrowing. Wiktionary takes it as inherited: the final /i/ looks learned, but Italian often has /i/ for…
quattro
It is inherited from Latin quattuor (“four”), through a spoken form quattor in which the ⟨u⟩ before the ending had dropped. The Latin numeral is panromance: French quatre, Occitan quatre, Catalan…
quello
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *eccum ille (“behold, that one”), from Latin eccum (“here he is!”) and ille (“that”), in the accusative “eccu illum”. Nocentini explains the compound as a renewal…
questione
It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin quaestiō (“inquiry; matter in dispute”), from the past participle of quaerō (“to seek; to ask”). DEI calls it a learned word of philosophy and law. The same…
questo
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *eccum istum (“behold, this one”), from Latin eccum (“here he is!”) and iste (“that (of yours), this”). The first part also survives in ecco, the second in Old…
qui
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *eccum hīc (“look, here”), from Latin eccum (“here he is!”) and hīc (“here”). The first part also survives in ecco. Devoto notes that the parts of the compound kept…
quindi
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *eccum inde (“look, from there”), from Latin eccum (“here he is!”) (compare ecco) and inde (“from there; thereafter”). Nocentini explains the final ⟨-i⟩ as an…
rabbia
It is inherited from Late Latin rabia (“rabies; fury”), recorded in imperial times (Servius) in place of classical Latin rabiēs (“madness; rabies”). The same word is French rage, the source of…
radio
1. The bone of the forearm is a learned word, borrowed from Latin radius (“rod, staff; ray; spoke”), named for its straight shape. Nocentini takes it from Late Latin, where the word had come to name…
raggio
It is inherited from Latin radius (“rod, staff; spoke; ray”), the popular outcome of the word beside the learned radio. Devoto starts from Vulgar Latin *radjus, treated like modius, which gave…
ragione
It is inherited from Latin ratiō (“reckoning, account; reason”), from its accusative. The Latin noun is formed on ratus (“counted, fixed”), the past participle of reor (“to count, think”). The same…
rapina
It is borrowed from Latin rapīna (“robbery, plunder”), a learned word. The Latin noun is formed from rapiō (“to seize, carry off”), the source of rapire, with the suffix -īna, as ruīna comes from…
rappresentare
It is borrowed from Latin repraesentō (“to bring before the eyes; to express, reproduce”), a learned borrowing. The Latin verb is a compound of praesentō (“to present”), itself from praesēns…
re
1. The word for a king is inherited from Latin rēx (“king”), from the nominative rather than the accusative, which survives in the literary doublet rege. Nocentini and Devoto–Oli derive it from the…
reagire
It is borrowed from Late Latin reagō (“to drive back”), a Late Latin verb first used by Avienus in the 4th century, with its conjugation and stress remade on agire. The Late Latin verb lived on in…
reale
1. The adjective “real” is borrowed from Medieval Latin reālis (“relating to the thing”), a term of scholastic teaching formed from Latin rēs (“thing”). Wiktionary calls the Latin word Late Latin…
realtà
It is a semi-learned borrowing, borrowed from Medieval Latin reālitās, from Late Latin reālis (“real”), from Latin rēs (“thing”) with the suffix -ālis. Sabatini–Coletti derive it from the accusative…
recente
It is borrowed from Latin recēns (“fresh; new, recent”), a learned word. DEI calls it probably literary: the Latin word has popular outcomes across Romance, but not in the Italian dialects…
recuperare
It is borrowed from Latin recuperō (“to regain, to get back”), a learned word taken from Latin in the sense “to come back into possession”. Sabatini–Coletti calls it the learned counterpart of…
regina
It is borrowed from Latin rēgīna (“queen”), a learned form that replaced the older Old Italian reina. Wiktionary treats the Italian word as inherited instead. The Latin word is related to rēx…
registro
It is a learned word, borrowed from Medieval Latin registrum. The Medieval Latin noun, which seems to have been used first, around 600, for the collected letters of Gregory the Great, was formed…
regno
It is borrowed from Latin rēgnum (“kingship, reign, kingdom”), a learned word. The Latin noun is formed from the stem of rēx (“king”) with the suffix -nus. Wiktionary explains it as the neuter of an…
regola
It is borrowed from Latin rēgula (“straight stick, ruler; rule”), a learned or semi-learned word. The Latin noun is formed from regō (“to guide straight, rule”) with a diminutive suffix. It first…
relazione
It is borrowed from Latin relātiō (“a bringing back; report; relation”), a learned word, from relātus, the past participle of referō (“to bring back, report”). The Latin noun meant both “a…
rendere
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *rendō (“to give back”), a spoken form of Latin reddō (“to give back, restore”). The Latin verb is made of red- (“back”) and dō (“to give”). The /nd/ is explained…
resistere
It is borrowed from Latin resistō (“to stop; to stand firm, resist”), a learned word, formed from re- and sistō (“to cause to stand; to stop”). DELI, GRADIT and the GDLI take the prefix as…