Italian words from Latin
1281 Italian words with Latin in their history, whether borrowed directly or passed on through other languages (page 21).
tribunale
It is a learned borrowed from Latin tribūnal (“raised platform for magistrates”), originally the place where the tribunes sat. The Latin noun is the neuter of a supposed adjective *tribūnālis (“of…
triste
It is borrowed from Latin trīstis (“sad, gloomy; harsh”), a learned form beside tristo, which continues the popular Vulgar Latin trīstus. The popular variant was made on the model of laetus (“glad”)…
troia
It is inherited from Medieval Latin troia (“sow”), first recorded in the 8th-century Kassel Glosses, where it translates the Germanic word for “sow”. The word is found in Italian and Gallo-Romance…
trovare
The origin of this Romance verb, which has no counterpart in Latin, where the idea was expressed by Latin reperiō and inveniō, has been much discussed. In the most widely accepted view it is…
tu
It is inherited from Latin tū (“you (singular)”), the nominative and vocative of the second person singular pronoun. It is panromance: French tu, Occitan tu, Catalan tu, Portuguese tu, Spanish tú…
tuo
It is inherited from Latin tuus (“your”), from Latin tū (“you”). DELI calls the line of descent unclear: a Latin ⟨tŭ-⟩ would give Italian ⟨tuo-⟩, as the plural ⟨tuoi⟩ shows, so a spoken variant…
tutto
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *tōttus, a variant of Latin tōtus (“whole, entire”). A form “tottus” is already recorded in the 5th century, when the grammarian Consentius objected to it…
ubriaco
It is inherited from Late Latin ēbriācus (“intoxicated”), a derivative of Latin ēbrius (“drunk”), the source of ebbro. The Latin word is first found in the mime writer Laberius in the 1st century…
uccello
It is inherited from Late Latin aucellus (“little bird”), a word of the glossaries, formed as a masculine beside the older aucella, which Varro already has; the feminine is a contraction of…
uccidere
It is inherited from Old Italian occidere, inherited from Latin occīdō (“to strike down, kill”), formed from caedō (“to cut, fell”) with the prefix ob- of hostility. According to Festus, a man…
ufficiale
It is a learned word, borrowed from Late Latin officiālis (“relating to an office or service; public servant”), from officium (“service, duty; office”) with the suffix -ālis. In Late Latin the…
ufficio
It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin officium (“duty, service; post, function”). The Latin noun is a contraction of opificium (“the carrying out of a work”), from opifex (“craftsman”), a…
uguale
It is inherited from Latin aequālis (“equal, even, level”), from aequus (“level, even, equal”), formed as sociālis from socius. The old outcome was Old Italian iguale, later made eguale to bring it…
ultimo
It is a learned borrowing, borrowed from Latin ultimus (“farthest, last”). The Latin word is the superlative of a comparative stem seen in ulterior (“farther”), from the archaic adverb uls…
umano
It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin hūmānus (“human; humane”), though some popular forms survive in the dialects. DELI notes that all three senses of the Latin adjective passed into Italian…
un
It is the shortened form of uno, which is inherited from Latin ūnus (“one”). The Latin numeral comes from the older form oinos, from Proto-Italic *oinos, from Proto-Indo-European *h₁óynos (“one…
unico
It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin ūnicus (“one and only; singular, unparalleled”), from ūnus (“one”) with the adjective suffix -icus. Prati notes that it came into Italian through literature…
unire
It is borrowed from Latin ūnīre (“to unite”), a verb derived from ūnus (“one”). Nocentini classes it as a learned borrowing, DEI as semi-learned, and Prati says it came by the literary route. The…
unità
It is borrowed from Latin unitas (“oneness, unity”), from unus (“one”) with the suffix -tās. The GDLI calls it a learned word, and Körting notes that it is learned in every Romance language: Old…
università
It is borrowed from Latin ūniversitās (“the whole, totality”), a learned word. The Latin noun is formed from ūniversus (“whole, entire”), literally “turned into one”, from ūnus (“one”) and versus…
universo
It is borrowed from Latin ūniversus (“all together, whole”), a learned borrowing; the noun is the Latin neuter used as a noun, ūniversum (“the whole world”). The Latin adjective is a compound of…
uno
It is inherited from Latin ūnus (“one; single, alone”). The Latin word served both as a numeral and in the sense “same” (“uno tempore” “at one time”); already in Plautus it can mark a single person…
uomo
It is inherited from Latin homō (“human being, man”), continued in the nominative, while the plural ⟨uomini⟩ continues hominēs. Few Latin nouns for persons survive in the nominative in Italian…
urlare
It is inherited from Latin ululāre (“to howl”), through a Vulgar Latin *urulāre in which the first ⟨l⟩ became ⟨r⟩ by dissimilation. The unstressed vowel then dropped, as Devoto explains. The…
usare
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *ūsāre, recorded in Late and early Medieval Latin, a verb made on Latin ūsus (“used; accustomed”), the past participle of ūtor (“to use”). Devoto and Gabrielli call…
uscire
It is inherited from Latin exeō (“to go out”), from ex- (“out”) and eō (“to go”). The initial /u/ is due to the influence of uscio (“door”), a word of different origin but close in meaning. The…
uscita
It is the feminine past participle of uscire used as a noun. The verb continues inherited from Latin exeō (“to go out”), from ex (“out of”) and eō (“to go”); its initial ⟨u⟩ is due to the influence…
uso
It is inherited from Latin ūsus (“use, practice; experience; benefit”), a noun formed on the past participle of ūtor (“to use”). The participle itself, used early as a noun, was the base of a new…
utile
It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin ūtilis (“usable, useful”), from the accusative ⟨ūtilem⟩. The Latin adjective is formed from ūtor (“to use”). Devoto compares the formation of agilis from…
valere
It is inherited from Latin valēre (“to be strong; to be worth”). The Latin verb first meant “to be strong”, and, of coins, “to have a value”, and then “to be well”. The word is pan-Romance except…
valore
It is borrowed from Late Latin valor (“worth, value”), a noun formed from Latin valeō (“to be strong; to be worth”). DEI and the GDLI call it a learned word; DEI adds that the Late Latin noun, found…
ve
It is the form vi takes before the unstressed pronouns ⟨lo⟩, ⟨la⟩, ⟨li⟩, ⟨le⟩ and the particle ⟨ne⟩, both as the pronoun “you, to you” and as the adverb “there”. Nocentini explains the ⟨e⟩ as…
vecchio
It is inherited from Late Latin veclus, the spoken form of Latin vetulus (“elderly, rather old”), a diminutive of vetus (“old”). The Appendix Probi of the 5th century warns against the popular form…
vedere
It is inherited from Latin videō (“to see; to notice, consider”). The literary present ⟨veggio⟩ continues the Latin first person ⟨videō⟩ directly, and the participle ⟨veggente⟩ is formed on it. The…
veloce
It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin vēlōx (“swift, quick”). The same Latin word gave French véloce and Spanish veloz. With it came velocità, from Latin vēlōcitās (“speed”). The origin of the…
velocità
It is borrowed from Latin vēlōcitās (“speed”), a learned word, from the accusative vēlōcitātem. The Latin noun is derived from vēlōx (“swift, quick”) with the suffix -tās, and Italian has the…
vendere
It is inherited from Latin vēndō (“to sell”), which goes back to the phrase vēnum dō (“to give for sale”). The Latin verb has continuations in every Romance language, from which DÉRom reconstructs a…
vendetta
It is inherited from Latin vindicta (“claim; liberation; vengeance; punishment”), a derivative of vindicō (“to lay claim to; to avenge”), from vindex (“defender, champion; avenger”). The Latin noun…
venerdì
It is inherited from Latin Veneris diēs (“day of Venus”), a phrase recorded in inscriptions of the 1st century AD, “the day of the planet Venus”, after the model of Ancient Greek ἡμέρα Ἀφροδίτης…
venire
It is inherited from Latin veniō (“to come; to arrive; to happen”). The verb is panromance: French venir, Occitan venir, Catalan vindre, Spanish venir, Portuguese vir, Sardinian bènnere, Romansh…
venti
It is inherited from Late Latin vinti, a spoken form of Latin vīgintī (“twenty”). DELI and Nocentini cite the classical form vīgintī. The Late Latin form had a short ⟨i⟩, which gave Italian closed…
vento
It is inherited from Latin ventus (“wind”). The word is found in all the Romance languages: French vent, Occitan vent, Catalan vent, Spanish viento, Portuguese vento, Sardinian bentu, Romanian vânt…
verde
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *virdis, the syncopated form of Latin viridis (“green”) in popular Latin. The short form was very common in rustic speech: Lucilius already has “vird-”, and the…
vergogna
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *verecunnia, the popular outcome of Latin verēcundia (“restraint, modesty; shame”). The learned verecondia is its doublet. The same word is French vergogne, now…
verità
It is borrowed from Latin vēritās (“truth”), from the accusative ⟨vēritātem⟩, a learned word. The older forms Old Italian veritate and veritade were shortened to the modern form. Wiktionary calls…
vero
It is inherited from Latin vērus (“true, real”); the noun use continues the Latin neuter used as a noun, vērum (“the truth”). The word is panromance: Old French voir (modern French vrai is a…
versione
It is borrowed from Medieval Latin versiō, a noun of action from versus, the past participle of vertō (“to turn; to translate”). In Medieval Latin it meant the spoiling of wine poured off and an…
verso
1. The noun is a learned word, borrowed from Latin versus (“a turning; furrow; line; verse”), an action noun from vertō (“to turn”). In the language of the countryside the Latin word meant the turn…
vestito
The noun is inherited from Latin vestītus (“clothing, dress”), the action noun of vestiō (“to clothe”). It is found also in Friulian vistit, Occitan vestit, Catalan vestit, Spanish vestido and…
vi
It is inherited from Latin ibī (“there”), which also gave ivi. The pronoun “you, to you” is the same word: Rohlfs, quoted by DELI, explains that ⟨vi scrivo⟩ originally meant “I write there”, to the…
via
It is inherited from Latin via (“road, way; journey”), a word Latin records from the Twelve Tables on. Varro reports veha as the form used by country people. The word is panromance except in…
vicenda
It continues inherited from Vulgar Latin *vicenda, a neuter plural used as a noun: the gerundive of a verb *vicere formed from Latin vicis (“change, turn, alternation”), the word that gave vece. In…
vicino
It is inherited from Late Latin vēcīnus, inherited from Latin vīcīnus (“of the same village; neighbour”). The Latin adjective, formed from vīcus (“village, street”), meant “belonging to the same…
vincere
It is inherited from Latin vincō (“to conquer, overcome”). The same verb is French vaincre, Occitan venser, Catalan vencer, Spanish vencer, Portuguese vencer, Sardinian bìnchere and Romanian…
vino
It is inherited from Latin vīnum (“wine”). The Latin noun was neuter, and became masculine in the spoken language; Petronius already has a masculine vinus. The old Italian plural in ⟨-a⟩ and the…
violenza
It is borrowed from Latin violentia (“violence, impetuosity”), a learned word. The Latin noun was formed from violentus (“violent”), which Nocentini derives from vīs (“force, violence”) and DELI…
virus
It is a learned borrowing, borrowed from Latin vīrus (“plant juice; slime; venom, poison”). In the 16th century the French surgeon Ambroise Paré used the Latin word for the contagious, corrosive pus…
visione
It is borrowed from Latin vīsiō (“sight; appearance, vision”), a learned word. The Latin noun was formed on vīsus, the past participle of videō (“to see”). DELI and DEI note that Latin philosophical…
visita
It is a noun formed from the verb visitare “to visit”. The verb is a learned word, recorded from the 12th century, borrowed from Latin vīsitō (“to go to see often; to visit”), a frequentative of…
visto
The noun is the past participle of vedere used as a noun, “seen (and approved)”. The participle is inherited from Vulgar Latin *vīsitus, which replaced classical Latin vīsus (“seen”) on the model of…