Italian words from Latin
1281 Italian words with Latin in their history, whether borrowed directly or passed on through other languages (page 18).
scientifico
It is borrowed from Late Latin scientificus (“producing knowledge”), a learned word first used by Boethius. GRADIT gives the immediate source as Medieval Latin. The Latin adjective is formed from…
scienza
It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin scientia (“knowledge”). The Latin noun, attested from Varro, is formed from sciēns (“knowing”), the present participle of sciō (“to know”), with the…
sciocco
The origin is uncertain. The usual explanation is a inherited from Vulgar Latin *exsuccus (“without juice”), beside Late Latin exsūcus, from ex- and sūcus (“juice”). The Latin adjective is used by…
scopare
It is inherited from Late Latin scōpō (“to sweep”), formed from scōpae (“twigs; broom”). The verb survives across the Romance languages: Sardinian iscobare, Old French escover, Spanish escobar and…
scopo
It is a learned word, borrowed from Late Latin scŏpus (“target; aim”), recorded in Suetonius. Nocentini instead calls it a modern loan straight from Greek. The Latin word is borrowed from Ancient…
scorso
It is the past participle of scorrere (“to run, to flow; to pass”), used as an adjective and a noun. According to the LEI and Wiktionary, it is inherited from Latin excursus (“run out; a sally”)…
scritto
It is inherited from Latin scrīptus (“written”), the past participle of scrībō (“to write”); the noun continues scrīptum (“something written”), the neuter of the participle used as a noun. The same…
scrivere
It is inherited from Latin scrībō (“to draw with a stylus, write”). Every branch of Romance has it, so that DÉRom reconstructs it for Proto-Romance: French écrire, Occitan escriure, Catalan…
scuola
It is inherited from Latin schŏla (“school”), borrowed from Ancient Greek σχολή (skholḗ, “free time, rest; study; school”). The Greek word first meant “free time, quiet, rest”, then study and…
scusare
It is inherited from Latin excūsō (“to excuse, justify; to plead as an excuse”), with the loss of the first syllable. The LEI counts it among the inherited words, like Friulian scusâ and Romansh…
se
1. The conjunction “if” is inherited from Late Latin se(d), a Late Latin form recorded from the 6th century, which DELI, GRADIT, Sabatini–Coletti and the GDLI explain as a blend of Latin sī (“if”)…
sé
It is inherited from Latin sē (“himself, herself, themselves”), the reflexive pronoun. The same pronoun is French soi, Occitan se, Catalan se, Portuguese si, Sardinian se, Spanish sí and Romanian…
secolo
It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin saeculum (“generation; lifetime; age; century”). In Christian Latin it also meant “mortal life, the world”, a calque of Ancient Greek αἰών (aiṓn, “lifetime…
secondo
It is from Latin secundus (“following; second; favourable”), an old participle of sequor (“to follow”), so properly “the one that follows, comes after”. The preposition continues secundum (“behind…
sedere
It is inherited from Latin sedeō (“to be seated, sit”). The verb is panromance: French seoir, Occitan sezer, Catalan seure, Sardinian sèzzere and Romanian ședea; in Spanish and Portuguese it merged…
segnale
It is inherited from Late Latin signāle, the neuter of the adjective signālis (“serving as a sign”) used as a noun, from Latin signum (“mark, sign”). The same Late Latin noun gave Old French seignal…
segno
It is inherited from Latin signum (“mark, sign; standard; image; constellation”). DELI gives the Latin vowel as long, Nocentini and GRADIT as short. The word is found across the Romance languages…
segretario
It is borrowed from Medieval Latin sēcrētārius (“confidential officer”), a learned word. The Medieval Latin noun, recorded in Salimbene (1281–1288), is a derivative of Latin sēcrētum (“a secret”)…
segreto
It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin sēcrētus (“separated, set apart; hidden”) for the adjective and its neuter used as a noun, sēcrētum (“a secluded place; a secret thing”), for the noun. The…
seguire
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *sequīre, the spoken Latin form that replaced the deponent Latin sequor (“to follow”) and moved it into the conjugation in ⟨-ire⟩. Nocentini gives the Vulgar Latin…
semplice
It is borrowed from Latin simplex (“simple, single”), from sem- (“one”) and -plex (“-fold”). Nocentini connects the second part with plicō (“to fold”), and Sabatini–Coletti and Treccani with plectō…
sempre
It is inherited from Latin semper (“always”). The word is Old French sempre, Occitan sempre, Catalan sempre, Spanish siempre and Portuguese sempre, but it did not survive in Romanian, and in French…
senatore
It is borrowed from Latin senātor (“member of the senate”), a learned word. The Latin noun is formed on senātus (“senate”) with the agent suffix -tor. The senate was originally the assembly of…
sensazione
It is a learned borrowed from Late Latin sēnsātiō, derived from Latin sēnsus (“sense”). Sabatini–Coletti, Zingarelli and Treccani call the Latin word Medieval, and DEI also compares French…
senso
It is borrowed from Latin sēnsus (“perception, feeling; meaning”), a learned word, from the past participle of sentiō (“to perceive, feel”), the source of sentire. The inherited outcomes of the…
sentire
It is inherited from Latin sentiō (“to perceive, feel; to think”). The word is panromance: French sentir, Occitan sentir, Catalan sentir, Spanish sentir, Portuguese sentir, Sardinian sentire…
senza
It is inherited from Latin absentia (“absence”), used in the ablative ⟨absentiā⟩ “in the absence of” as a preposition, with the loss of the first syllable. The same reduced form survives in…
sera
It is inherited from Late Latin sēra, short for the classical phrase ⟨sera dies⟩ “late day”, the feminine of the adjective Latin sērus (“late”), used as a noun. DEI notes that the Late Latin noun is…
serie
It is borrowed from Latin seriēs (“row, chain, succession”), a learned word, from serō (“to join, to link in a row”) with the suffix -iēs. DELI calls the Latin verb of Indo-European origin, and…
serio
It is borrowed from Latin sērius (“grave, earnest”), a learned word. The sources date it differently: Zingarelli to 1499, GRADIT to 1551, Nocentini and Devoto–Oli to the middle of the 16th century…
servire
It is inherited from Latin serviō (“to be a slave, to serve”), a verb formed from servus (“slave”). The same verb is French servir, Occitan servir, Catalan servir, Spanish servir and Portuguese…
servizio
It is a learned borrowing, borrowed from Latin servitium (“slavery; the condition of a slave”), derived from servus (“slave”). Nocentini treats servigio together with this word and sees that variant…
servo
It is inherited from Latin servus (“slave”). The Latin word is panromance: French serf, Occitan ser, Spanish siervo, Portuguese servo, Sardinian servu and Old Romanian ⟨șerb⟩, and DÉRom reconstructs…
sesso
It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin sexus (“sex, gender”). The same Latin word gave French sexe and Spanish sexo, and it has spread through the European languages. DEI suggests that a popular…
sessuale
It is a learned word, borrowed from Late Latin sexuālis (“relating to sex”), used by Caelius Aurelianus and formed on sexus (“sex”) with the suffix -ālis. DEI suggests that it came in through French…
sette
It is inherited from Latin septem (“seven”). The cluster ⟨pt⟩ became ⟨tt⟩ and the final ⟨m⟩ was lost. The numeral is found throughout Romance: French sept, Occitan set, Catalan set, Spanish siete…
settimana
It is borrowed from Late Latin septimāna (“week”), a learned word according to DELI, the feminine, used as a noun, of septimānus (“of seven”), from septimus (“seventh”). The Late Latin noun is a…
si
1. The pronoun is inherited from Latin sē (“himself, herself, itself, themselves”), the Latin reflexive pronoun: “si” is the unstressed clitic form beside the stressed sé. GRADIT and Treccani add a…
sì
It is inherited from Latin sīc (“so, thus”). As a word of assent it is short for the phrase ⟨sīc est⟩ “it is so”, used like ⟨ita est⟩. The adverb “so” is panromance: French si, Occitan si, Catalan…
sicuro
It is inherited from Latin sēcūrus (“free from care, untroubled”), through a Vulgar Latin form with the usual change of the unstressed ⟨e⟩ before the stress to ⟨i⟩. The Latin adjective is formed…
significare
It is borrowed from Latin significāre (“to make a sign, indicate; to mean”), a learned word. The Latin verb is a compound of signum (“sign”), Italian segno, and the verb-forming -ficō, which comes…
signore
It is inherited from Latin senior (“older”), in the accusative seniōrem, the comparative of senex (“old”). In classical Latin ⟨senior⟩ was a man between 45 and 60. It became a title in late Latin…
signorina
It is a diminutive, from Italian signora + -ina, formed from the word for a lady. That noun is the feminine of signore, which continues inherited from Latin senior (“older”) through its accusative…
silenzio
It is borrowed from Latin silentium (“silence”), a learned word. The Latin noun is formed from silēns (“silent”), the present participle of sileō (“to be silent”). De Vaan derives the verb from an…
simile
It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin similis (“like, resembling”). The popular continuations of the Latin word are found elsewhere: Old Neapolitan semele, Sardinian simele in Logudorese, Old…
sincero
It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin sincērus (“clean, pure, unmixed; sound, honest”). French sincère (1549) and Spanish sincero are learned words too, while popular outcomes survive in…
sindaco
It is borrowed from Late Latin syndicus (“representative of a community”), from Ancient Greek σύνδικος (súndikos, “advocate, public defender”), a compound of σύν (sún, “with, together”) and δίκη…
singolo
It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin singulus (“single, one at a time”), a Latin adjective used mostly in the plural as the distributive of ūnus (“one”). The derivatives singolare and…
sinistra
It is the feminine of the adjective sinistro (“left”) used as a noun, short for the phrases meaning “left hand” and “left side”. The adjective is inherited from Latin sinister (“left”), and Latin…
sistema
It is a learned word, borrowed from Late Latin systēma, from Ancient Greek σύστημα (sústēma, “a gathering, organized whole”). The Greek noun comes from συνίστημι (sunístēmi, “to put together”)…
sistemare
It is formed in from Italian sistema + -are. The noun is borrowed from Late Latin systēma, from Ancient Greek σύστημα (sýstēma, “a whole made of parts; gathering”), from συνίστημι (synístēmi, “to…
sito
1. The place is borrowed from Latin situs (“position, site”), a learned borrowing. The Latin noun comes from the past participle of sinō (“to put down; to leave, let”). Nocentini sees an older…
situazione
It is from Italian situare + -zione, from situare “to place, locate”. The verb is borrowed from Medieval Latin situāre, from Latin situs (“position, site”), the past participle of sinō (“to put…
sociale
It is borrowed from Latin sociālis (“companionable; of allies”), a learned word from socius (“companion, ally”). The Latin adjective is formed from the noun with the suffix -ālis. French social and…
società
It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin societātem (“fellowship, association; alliance”), in the accusative form whose ending was cut short in Italian. The Latin noun is formed from socius…
socio
It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin socius (“companion, ally”). Sabatini–Coletti contrasts it with the inherited soccio, which Nocentini records from the 14th century as a term of livestock…
soffrire
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *sufferīre, a Vulgar Latin form of Latin sufferre (“to bear, endure; to suffer”). The Latin verb is made of sub- (“under”) and ferō (“to carry”), so it first meant…
sognare
It is inherited from Latin somniō (“to dream”), formed from somnium (“dream”), itself from somnus (“sleep”). The Italian verb is therefore a sister of the noun sogno rather than a derivative of it…
sogno
It is inherited from Latin somnium (“dream”), derived from somnus (“sleep”), which also gave sonno. The verb sognare is from the Latin derivative somniō (“to dream”). The same Latin word is French…
sole
It is inherited from Latin sōl (“sun”), from the accusative ⟨sōlem⟩. The Latin noun survives in Occitan sol, Catalan sol, Spanish sol, Portuguese sol, Sardinian sole and Romanian soare; French…