Portuguese words from Italian
34 Portuguese words with Italian in their history, whether borrowed directly or passed on through other languages.
apoiar
Houaiss takes it as borrowed from Italian appoggiare (“to lean one thing against another; to support”), an Italian verb recorded from 1310 that continues Vulgar Latin *appodiō, formed on Latin…
artesão
1. The word for the craftsman is borrowed from Italian artigiano, according to Houaiss, Wiktionary, Aurélio and Nascentes. Houaiss compares French artisan. Machado derives it from the French word…
artista
Houaiss takes it as borrowed from Italian artista (“artisan; one who practises a liberal art”), recorded in Italian before 1321, and notes that some find the word already in Medieval Latin. Cunha…
assassino
It is borrowed from Italian assassino (“murderer”), from Arabic حَشَّاشِين (ḥaššāšīn, “hashish users”). Houaiss, Cunha, Machado and Nascentes all take the word through Italian, where it is old…
brilhar
It is borrowed from Spanish brillar, from Italian brillare (“to sparkle”), in the view of Houaiss, Cunha and Aurélio; Wiktionary and the dictionary of the Lisbon Academy take it straight from the…
busto
It is borrowed from Italian busto (“upper body; bust”), from Latin bustum (“place where the dead were burned and buried; tomb”). Houaiss derives it from the Latin word but traces the senses of…
calma
Houaiss and Cunha take it as borrowed from Italian calma, from Late Latin cauma (“burning heat”), which the language of the Church borrowed from Ancient Greek καῦμα (kaûma, “burning heat, heat of…
coronel
Houaiss takes it as borrowed from Italian colonnello, a diminutive of colonna (“column”): the Italian word meant “small column” in 1472, then “a column of soldiers” in Machiavelli and “the commander…
durante
It is inherited from Latin dūrāns (“lasting”), the present participle of dūrō (“to harden; to endure, last”). Vieira still called it the active participle of the Portuguese verb, and Nascentes's…
empresa
It is borrowed from Italian impresa (“undertaking”). The Italian noun is the feminine past participle of imprendere (“to undertake”) used as a noun, from Vulgar Latin *imprehendō, formed from in-…
espião
It is borrowed from Italian spione in the view of Houaiss, Aurélio, the Porto Editora dictionary and the DLP. Houaiss and Aurélio think the word may have come through French spion, and Porto takes…
esquadrão
It is borrowed from Italian squadrone, an Italian word recorded before 1470 for a cavalry unit under a captain. The Italian noun is squadra (“squad”) with the augmentative suffix -one, and that noun…
fragata
It is borrowed from Italian fregata, a name for a fast ship that the DELI records from 1353 in Boccaccio and that later meant a warship. Nascentes derives the Portuguese form from a dialectal…
fresco
1. The word for “fresh, cool” is inherited from Vulgar Latin *friscum, written Old Galician-Portuguese fresco in the oldest texts and recorded from the 13th century. The Vulgar Latin word was…
garbo
It is borrowed from Italian garbo (“courteous manner”), recorded in Italian in 1540–1541. Houaiss calls the Italian word of disputed origin. Nocentini and Corominas derive it from Arabic قالب…
grana
Houaiss calls its origin obscure and reports the view of Aurélio that it comes from Portuguese grão (“grain”). Nascentes also derives it from that word. Wiktionary instead takes it as borrowed from…
infante
1. The word for the child and the prince is inherited from Latin īnfāns (“not speaking; small child”), written Old Galician-Portuguese infante and Old Galician-Portuguese ifante in the oldest texts…
lá
1. The word for the musical note is borrowed from Italian la, recorded in Italian before 1527. Its name is the first syllable of labiī (“of the lip”), the first word of the sixth line of a medieval…
lata
The origin is disputed. Machado and Cunha, as Houaiss reports them, take it as borrowed from Italian latta (“tinplate”), an Italian word recorded from 1333 for a thin sheet of iron coated with tin…
levante
1. The word for the east is borrowed from Italian levante (“east, the quarter where the sun rises”), according to Houaiss, Nascentes and Aurélio. The Italian noun, recorded from the second half of…
lista
Houaiss takes it as borrowed from Italian lista, which meant “a long narrow strip of paper or cloth” from about 1300–1313 and “a sheet listing names” from 1327. Wiktionary gives the same chain…
manjedoura
Houaiss takes it as borrowed from Italian mangiatoia (“manger”), recorded in Italian before 1292, and notes that others derive it from the Portuguese verb manjar “to eat”. Nascentes, Michaelis and…
máscara
It is borrowed from Italian maschera (“mask”), in its old form mascara. Houaiss dates the Italian word to 1348–1353 in that old form, and its sense “masked person” to 1529. The origin of the Italian…
medalha
It is borrowed from Italian medaglia. The Italian word meant a coin of little value from the 13th century and took the sense of a small cast or struck piece of metal with a sacred or secular figure…
milhão
It is borrowed from Italian milione (“million”). Houaiss thinks it probably came through French million. Cunha calls it an adaptation of the Italian word, Vieira took it from French, and Aurélio…
modelo
It is borrowed from Italian modello (“model, pattern”), first recorded in Portuguese in a text of 1562–1575. Nascentes notes that it came in as a term of the arts. Older scholars proposed other…
novelista
It is formed from Portuguese novela + -ista. The noun novela is from Italian novella (“news; tale”), the noun use of the feminine of novello (“new”), from Latin novellus (“new, young”), a diminutive…
piloto
It is borrowed from Italian piloto, the older Italian form beside pilota. In Italian the first form is recorded before 1375 (Boccaccio) and the second from 1532 (Ariosto), and earlier still are…
raça
It is borrowed from Italian razza, an Italian word of the 15th century for a group of animals or plants of one species with constant inherited features. The DELI dates the Italian word before 1446…
salsicha
It is borrowed from Italian salsiccia (“sausage”), from Late Latin salsīcia, the neuter plural of salsīcius (“seasoned with salt”) taken as a feminine noun, from Latin salsus (“salted”). Nascentes…
soldado
It is borrowed from Italian soldato, first recorded in the 14th century. The Italian word, recorded from 1353, first meant a man who bore arms for pay, a mercenary; it is the past participle of…
tartaruga
It is borrowed from Italian tartaruga according to Cunha, Nascentes, Aurélio and the DLP, and Nocentini also takes the Portuguese word from Italian. Nascentes adds that it came by way of trade, and…
torta
It is inherited from Late Latin torta (“round loaf”) according to Nascentes and Aurélio. Houaiss gives the same Latin word, glossed “pastry, pie”. For Cunha, instead, it is borrowed from Italian…
vogar
Its origin is disputed: Houaiss takes it as borrowed from Italian vogare (“to row”) or from Old Occitan vogar, both of obscure origin. Cunha and Aurélio name the same two sources, and Cunha derives…