realtà Italian · revision 37742

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=borrowing|attested=1617–1619, Paolo Sarpi|origins=la rēs}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * /re.alˈta/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''realtà''' ''f''^(Wiktionary)

+ The older form is [[realità]], which the DEI places before ''realtà'' and which survives as a technical and legal word.^(DEI|3215)^(GRADIT 2003)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is a semi-learned borrowing, [[bor|la-med|reālitās]], from [[la-lat|reālis|t=real]], from [[la|rēs|t=thing]] with the suffix [[m|la|-ālis]].^(Nocentini 2010)^(Wiktionary)^(Devoto–Oli 2026) Sabatini–Coletti derive it from the accusative [[m|la-med|reālitās|alt=reālitātem]], with the loss of the final syllable and of the unstressed vowel before the stress.^(Sabatini–Coletti 2026) Wiktionary calls [[realità]] the learned doublet.^(Wiktionary) GRADIT treats the word as a variant of that learned form, recorded before 1550.^(GRADIT 2003) The Medieval Latin word was coined in late scholastic philosophy; the GDLI attributes it to Duns Scotus.^(GDLI)^(DEI|3215)

+

+ De Vaan traces the Latin noun to [[ine-pro|*reh₁ís|t=wealth, goods]], cognate with [[sa|रयि|tr=rayí|t=property, goods]].^(de Vaan 2008)^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ DELI's first record is from Paolo Sarpi, 1617–1619, in the sense “what has a real existence”.^(DELI 1999) Galileo also uses it, as in ''non già in esistenza e realtà'' (“not, however, in existence and reality”).^(DEI|3215)^(Tommaseo–Bellini 1861) GRADIT dates the word from before 1673.^(GRADIT 2003)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ The sense “truth of the matter” is recorded in 1651, in F. Palmerini, and the adverbial ''in realtà'' “actually, in fact” is in Galileo.^(DELI 1999)^(Tommaseo–Bellini 1861) Petrocchi's dictionary of 1891 records the senses “the world of concrete things” and “the condition of being real”.^(DELI 1999) Tommaseo noted that ''realtà'' was the common word and that ''realità'' might serve in philosophy.^(Tommaseo–Bellini 1861)

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+ In the 20th century the word gained the sense of a local or social situation (''la realtà del quartiere''), the computing term ''realtà virtuale'', and Freud's ''principio di realtà''.^(Zingarelli 2010)^(Gabrielli 2020)^(GRADIT 2003) The ''Domenica del Corriere'' ran a column called ''realtà romanzesca'' for true but incredible stories.^(DEI|3215)^(Devoto–Oli 2026)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * Before 1550 – The older form ''realità'' is recorded.^(GRADIT 2003)

+ * 1617–1619 – Paolo Sarpi uses ''realtà''.^(DELI 1999)

+ * 1651 – F. Palmerini uses it for “the truth of a fact”.^(DELI 1999)

+ * 1891 – Petrocchi's dictionary records “the world of concrete things”.^(DELI 1999)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # The condition of being real; actual existence: ''la realtà di un pericolo''.^(Devoto–Oli 2026)^(Sabatini–Coletti 2026)^(GRADIT 2003)

+ # Everything that exists, the real world, as opposed to the imagined: ''fuggire dalla realtà''.^(GRADIT 2003)^(Devoto–Oli 2026)^(Zingarelli 2010)

+ # Something real, a fact: ''Il progetto è ormai una realtà.''^(Devoto–Oli 2026)^(Sabatini–Coletti 2026)

+ # Everyday life in its concrete aspects: ''la realtà del lavoro in fabbrica''.^(Sabatini–Coletti 2026)^(Devoto–Oli 2026)

+ # The set of conditions of a place or community; a [[m|en|situation]]: ''la realtà economica della regione''.^(Zingarelli 2010)^(Gabrielli 2020)^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[irrealtà]]

+ * [[surrealtà]]

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+ ==Related words==

+ * [[reale]]

+ * [[irreale]]

+ * [[realità]]

+ * [[la-med|reālitās]]

+

+ ==Usage notes==

+ ''In realtà'' means “actually, in fact” and can introduce a correction.^(Devoto–Oli 2026)^(Zingarelli 2010) Set phrases include ''realtà virtuale'' (virtual reality), ''realtà aumentata'' (augmented reality) and ''principio di realtà'' (the reality principle).^(GRADIT 2003)^(Gabrielli 2020) A separate old word ''realtà'' meant “royalty, kingship”, from Old French ''reauté'' (Latin ''rēgālitās''); it was used from the 14th to the 19th century, for example in the 1363 Italian translation of Marsilius of Padua.^(DEI|3215)^(GDLI)

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}