Italian words from Latin
1037 Italian words with Latin in their history, whether borrowed directly or passed on through other languages (page 4).
complicato
It is the past participle of complicare, used as an adjective: from Italian complicare + -ato. The verb is a learned word, borrowed from Latin complicāre (“to fold together, roll up”), from com-…
comportare
It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin comportō (“to carry together, collect”), from com- (“with, together”) and portō (“to carry”). De Vaan takes the Latin simple verb as probably formed from a…
comprare
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *comperāre, from Latin comparō (“to prepare; to procure; to buy”), formed with com- and parō (“to prepare, furnish”). The LEI reconstructs the Vulgar Latin verb…
comune
It is inherited from Latin commūnis (“shared, common; public”). DELI regards the whole family as learned, while the LEI, which finds the Latin word continued in every Romance language except…
con
It is inherited from Latin cum (“with”), Old Latin ⟨com⟩, from Proto-Italic *kom, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱóm (“next to, with”). In Latin compounds it appears as the prefixes ⟨con-⟩ and ⟨co-⟩. The…
condizione
It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin condiciō (“agreement, terms; condition”), from condīcō (“to agree on, fix”), formed from Latin con- (“together”) + dīcō (“to say”). The Latin noun first…
confermare
It is inherited from Latin cōnfirmāre (“to strengthen; to ratify”), formed with con- on firmō (“to make firm”), from firmus (“firm, stable”). The LEI counts the form with e among the popular…
confuso
It is borrowed from Latin cōnfūsus (“mingled; disordered; dismayed”), the past participle of cōnfundō (“to pour together, to mix, to confuse”). DELI, DEI and the LEI call it learned, and it serves…
conoscenza
It is inherited from Late Latin cognōscentia (“knowledge, wisdom”), formed on cognōscēns, the present participle of cognōscō (“to get to know”). GDLI calls it a learned word formed like essenza and…
conoscere
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *conōscere, the spoken form of classical Latin cognōscō (“to get to know”), from co- and nōscō (“to get to know”). Wiktionary takes the shorter form as Late Latin…
considerare
It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin cōnsīderāre (“to examine, to observe”). The Latin verb is formed on sīdus (“star, constellation”) with the prefix con-, so that it first meant “to observe…
consiglio
It is inherited from Latin cōnsilium (“deliberation; council; advice”), from cōnsulō (“to consult, deliberate”). Meyer-Lübke lists it among the regular Romance outcomes of the Latin noun, while…
contare
It is inherited from Latin computō (“to reckon, count”), with the loss of the unstressed middle vowel. The Latin verb is formed from putō (“to reckon, think; to prune”) with con-. The learned…
contatto
It is borrowed from Latin contāctus (“a touching, contact”), a learned word. The Latin noun is formed on the past participle of contingō (“to touch, come into contact”), from con- and tangō (“to…
contento
It is inherited from Latin contentus (“contained; content, satisfied”), the past participle of contineō (“to hold together, contain, keep within bounds”), which also gave contenere. DELI explains…
continuare
It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin continuō (“to join together; to carry on without a break”), a verb formed from the adjective continuus (“uninterrupted, continuous”). Devoto calls the Latin…
continuo
It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin continuus (“uninterrupted”), from contineō (“to hold together”), from com- and teneō (“to hold”). Devoto compares the relation of contiguus to tangō and of…
conto
It is inherited from Late Latin computus (“calculation, reckoning”), through a spoken Latin form *contus. DEI and GDLI instead treat it as a noun formed in Italian from the verb contare, and DELI…
contrario
It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin contrārius (“opposite, facing; hostile”), from the accusative ⟨contrārium⟩. The Latin adjective is contrā (“against, opposite”) with the suffix -ārius. De…
contratto
The noun is borrowed from Latin contractus (“a drawing together; an agreement”), a noun of the fourth declension formed from contrahō (“to draw together; to conclude (a bargain)”). DEI calls it a…
contro
It is inherited from Old Italian contra, inherited from Latin contrā (“opposite, against”). The form in -a is well represented in the dialects, and in southern Italy it is the usual one, while DEI…
conversazione
It is borrowed from Latin conversātiō (“being together, association, way of life”), a learned word. The Latin noun was formed from conversor (“to keep company with, live with”), which is con- with…
convincere
It is borrowed from Latin convincō (“to prove; to convict”), a learned word, from vincō (“to conquer”) with the prefix con-. Nocentini glosses the Latin as “to prove in a winning way”, and Battaglia…
copertura
It continues inherited from Late Latin coopertūra (“covering”), a derivative of coopertus (“covered”), the past participle of cooperiō (“to cover completely”). DEI finds the Late Latin word in…
copia
It is borrowed from Latin cōpia (“abundance, plenty”), a learned word. The Latin noun is formed from co- and the stem of ops (“wealth, means”), through an adjective cōps (“well supplied”) with the…
coppia
It is inherited from Latin cōpula (“a band, a leash”), inherited from Vulgar Latin *cōpla, with the middle vowel lost. The short form is attested in Latin as the accusative coplam in a papyrus. The…
coprire
It is inherited from Latin cooperīre (“to cover completely”), formed with co- on operiō (“to cover, close”). The unstressed vowel before the stress was lost in the normal way. The past historic…
corpo
It is inherited from Latin corpus (“body; corpse; substance; body of people”). The Latin neuter became a masculine noun in Italian. The word is pan-Romance: French corps, Occitan cors, Catalan cos…
corrente
It is inherited from Latin currentem (“running”), the present participle of currō (“to run”), and it still serves as the present participle of correre. The feminine noun is the adjective used as a…
correre
It is inherited from Latin currō (“to run”), a verb of Indo-European origin. The verb survives across the Romance languages: French courir (rarely courre), Occitan corre, Catalan córrer, Spanish…
corso
1. The noun “course” is inherited from Latin cursus (“a running; course, direction”), the action noun of currō (“to run”). The word is found throughout Romance: French cours, Occitan cos, Catalan…
corte
It is inherited from Latin cohors (“enclosure, farmyard; troop”), in the contracted form cors that Latin already had. The Medieval Latin curtis is a false Latinisation of the Romance word. Italian…
cosa
It is inherited from Latin causa (“cause, reason; lawsuit”), which through the sense “affair, business” took the place of rēs (“thing”) in speech. The Latin diphthong “au” became “o”, as in other…
così
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *eccum sīc, a strengthened form of Latin sīc (“so, thus”) with eccum (“here he is, behold”). By surface analysis it is ecco + sì. Latin ⟨eccum⟩ was a contraction of…
costa
It is inherited from Latin costa (“rib; side, flank”). The word is common to the Romance languages: French côte, Catalan costa, Spanish cuesta, Portuguese costa, Sardinian costa, Romanian coastă…
costare
It is inherited from Latin cōnstāre (“to stand firm; to cost, be worth”), from stō (“to stand”) with the prefix con-. Sabatini notes that it is a popular word, with the Latin cluster /nst/…
costringere
It is borrowed from Latin cōnstringō (“to bind fast; to restrain”), formed with con- from stringō (“to draw tight, bind”), the source of stringere. DELI and Zingarelli call it a learned word, while…
costruire
It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin cōnstruō (“to heap up, arrange, build”), which moved to the verbs in ⟨-ire⟩. The Latin verb is formed from con- (“together”) and struō (“to arrange…
creare
It is borrowed from Latin creō (“to beget, produce; to elect”), a learned word according to DELI. The old form Old Italian criare has a more popular look, and Wiktionary suggests that the modern…
creatura
It is borrowed from Late Latin creātūra (“creation; creature”), a derivative of Latin creō (“to create, bring forth”). Zingarelli and Battaglia call it a learned word, and Prati says it came in…
credere
It is inherited from Latin crēdō (“to trust, believe; to entrust”). The word is panromance: French croire, Occitan creire, Catalan creure, Spanish creer, Portuguese crer, Sardinian crere and…
credo
It is borrowed from Latin crēdō (“I believe”), the first person singular present of the Latin verb behind credere, the word that opens the Apostles' Creed. GRADIT names the opening of the liturgical…
crescere
It is inherited from Latin crēscō (“to grow, increase”). DÉRom reconstructs a Proto-Romance verb that was both intransitive, “to grow”, and transitive, “to make larger”, since nearly every branch…
criminale
It is borrowed from Late Latin crīminālis (“relating to crimes”), a learned word of legal Latin, from Latin crīmen (“charge, accusation; crime”). In Latin the adjective meant “criminal” as opposed…
crimine
It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin crīmen (“charge, accusation; crime”). GRADIT, Zingarelli and Gabrielli start from the Latin ablative, which Late Latin also used as a nominative. Iacopone's…
cristo
It is borrowed from Latin Christus, the Church Latin name, from Ancient Greek Χριστός (Khristós, “the Anointed”), the noun use of the verbal adjective χριστός (khristós, “anointed”), from χρίω…
cucina
It is inherited from Late Latin cocīna (“kitchen”), the Late Latin form of classical coquīna, a derivative of coquō (“to cook”). The Late Latin verb cocīnō stood beside it in the same way for…
cucinare
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *cocināre, a variant of Late Latin coquināre (“to cook”), which is derived from coquīna (“kitchen”). DEI explains the Late Latin form with ⟨c⟩ as remodelled on…
cui
It is inherited from Latin cui (“to whom, to which”), the dative of the relative pronoun Latin quī (“who, which”). Devoto gives the older Latin form quoi. In Italian the dative spread to all the…
culo
It is inherited from Latin cūlus (“backside, anus”), a word recorded in Latin from Catullus on. It survives in every Romance language without exception, so the DÉRom reconstructs a Proto-Romance…
cuore
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *corem, inherited from Latin cor (“heart”). The Latin neuter took a final “-e” and became masculine in Vulgar Latin, as did the words for “bile” and “honey”. The…
cura
It is inherited from Latin cūra (“care, concern; treatment; administration”). DELI classes the word as learned, together with curare and curatore, while DEI and Meyer-Lübke count it among the words…
da
It is inherited from Latin dē (“from, down from”) joined to ab (“from, away from”), prepositions that both expressed motion away from a place. Nocentini sees in it the strengthening of short…
dannazione
It is borrowed from Latin damnātiō (“condemnation”), from damnō (“to condemn”). Wiktionary also analyses it as dannare with the suffix -zione. The LEI explains that the Latin noun meant a legal…
dare
It is inherited from Latin dō (“to give”). The past historic ⟨diedi⟩ continues the Latin reduplicated perfect dedī. The verb survives in nearly every Romance language: Occitan dar, Catalan dar…
data
It is borrowed from Medieval Latin data, the feminine past participle of Latin dō (“to give”), from the formula “littera data” or “epistola data”, “letter given (on this day)”, with which a letter…
dato
The adjective is the past participle of dare; it is inherited from Latin datus (“given”), the participle of dō (“to give”). The noun, “a datum”, is a learned word from the Latin participle used as a…
davanti
It is inherited from Late Latin dē abante (“from in front”), a Late Latin combination of dē (“from”) and abante (“in front; before”). According to the LEI, the adverb and preposition abante, formed…
debito
It is borrowed from Latin dēbitum (“what is owed, debt”), the noun use of the neuter of dēbitus (“owed”), the past participle of dēbeō (“to owe”); the adjective is the participle itself. DELI and…
debole
It is borrowed from Latin dēbilis (“weak; crippled”). Prati says the word came late and by a literary route, and the LEI places the standard form among the learned ones; only Romagnol débul and a…