Italia

Forms

Ī̆talia f sg (genitive Ī̆taliae); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek Ἰταλία (Italía), probably from Oscan 𐌅𐌝𐌕𐌄𐌋𐌉𐌞 (víteliú, “land of bulls”), the name of the south-western tip of the peninsula.^[1][2] Etymonline calls the origin unknown and gives the Oscan word as a possibility.^[2] The Oscan word is usually connected with vitulus “calf”,^[1][2] and Lewis & Short explain the name as standing for ⟨Vitalia⟩ and referring to the abundance of cattle, as Gellius reports.^[3][4] Köbler sets it beside Proto-Indo-European *wet- (“year”), the root of that word.^[5][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lucilius is its first author,^[5] and he scans the first syllable short, which is its natural quantity.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The Greeks first gave the name only to parts of southern Italy, and Cisalpine Gaul was not officially part of Italy until the time of Augustus.^[7] By metonymy it also meant the people of Italy.^[3][4][1] Pliny the Elder uses iūs Italiae for the privileges of Italian land granted to provincial towns.^[7]

In Old High German glosses it is rendered as the land of the Lombards.^[5] It passed into the Romance languages, as Italian Italia and French Italie, and into Old English as Italia, the source of English Italy.^[1][2]

Timeline

• c. 180–102 BC – Lucilius scans it with a short first syllable.^[7][5]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil lengthens the first syllable in Italiam fātō.^[8][7][5]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses iūs Italiae.^[7][5]

Meanings

Proper noun

1. Italy.^[7][3][1]
2. (metonymy) The people of Italy.^[3][4][1]

Word family

• Italicus

Related words

• English Italy

Usage notes

The first syllable is short by nature, as Quintilian notes, and is lengthened in dactylic verse;^[7] Isidore of Seville cites Virgil's Italiam fātō as a lengthening against nature.^[8]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
5. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
7. ^ a b c d e f g h Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Isidore of Seville, Etymologiarum sive Originum libri XX, ed. W. M. Lindsay (Oxford, 1911).