camera Italian · revision 37992

+ Italian has two words spelled ''camera'': the inherited word for a room, and a 20th-century loan from English for a photographic or film camera.^(Nocentini 2010)^(GRADIT 2003)^(Devoto–Oli 2026)

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+ {{homograph|1|room}}

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+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=inherited|attested=late 12th century, Ritmo di Sant'Alessio|origins=grc καμάρα}}

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+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * /ˈka.me.ra/^(Wiktionary)

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+ ==Forms==

+ '''camera''' ''f'' (plural camere, diminutive camerétta or camerìna or camerìno m or (literary) camerèlla, augmentative cameróna or cameróne m, pejorative cameràccia, derogatory camerùccia)^(Wiktionary)

+ Old Italian forms include ''cammora'', ''cambra'', ''camora'' and ''camara''.^(DELI 1999)^(TLIO) Southern dialects have ''càmmara'' or ''càmmera'' with a double consonant.^(LEI|10, 21)^(GDLI|2, 576)

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+ ==Etymology==

+ The word for a room is [[inh|la|camera|t=vault, vaulted ceiling]], [[der|grc|καμάρα|tr=kamára|t=vault; vaulted room]].^(DELI 1999)^(Nocentini 2010)^(GRADIT 2003)^(Wiktionary) DELI calls the origin of the Greek word unclear, and Nocentini compares [[la|camur|t=curved]].^(DELI 1999)^(Nocentini 2010) The Latin sense “vault” did not survive in popular use, and the sense “room”, recorded only in Augustine and Cassiodorus, continues in all the Romance languages except Romanian: [[fr|chambre]], [[es|cámara]] and [[pt|câmara]].^(LEI|10, 21)^(Nocentini 2010) DEI notes that the original sense was lost and that the modern one begins with Isidore.^(DEI|700) [[ro|cămară]], however, comes from Greek or Slavic.^(REW 1935)^(DEI|700) The Latin word was also borrowed into [[goh|chamara]] and Old Irish.^(DEI|700)

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+ The Appendix Probi already corrects a form with doubled ⟨mm⟩, which shows that this feature of southern forms is very old.^(LEI|10, 21)^(Körting 1907) [[zambra]], an old word for a room, came from French and is a doublet.^(REW 1935)^(Wiktionary)

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+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ The first record is the Marchigian Ritmo di Sant'Alessio of the late 12th century: “Entro en cammora s'enn entrao / et po l'ussu dereto sì 'mserrao” (he went into the room and shut the door behind him).^(DELI 1999)^(TLIO)^(GDLI|2, 576) The sense is a room of a house, and especially the room where one sleeps.^(TLIO)

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+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ Inghilfredi has the form ''cambra'' in the 13th century, Dante ''camera'' (1294–1298), Iacopone ''camora'' and Francesco da Barberino ''camara'' (1314).^(DELI 1999) Already in Old Italian the word also named the place where public money was kept and administered, and the office or magistracy in charge of it: Florentine documents of 1277–1296 have it for the treasury of the state.^(DELI 1999)^(TLIO)

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+ The sense “legislative assembly” (1531) is a calque of English ''Chamber'' of Parliament, and ''camera alta'', ''camera bassa'' and ''camera dei comuni'' copy ''Upper Chamber'', ''Lower Chamber'' and ''House of Commons''.^(DELI 1999)^(Devoto–Oli 2026) ''Camera ardente'', the room where a body lies in state, follows French ''chambre ardente'', and Panzini explained in 1905 that the ''camera del lavoro'' imitated the French ''Bourse du travail''.^(DELI 1999) ''Musica da camera'' was at first music played in the chambers of princes with few instruments.^(DEI|700) The Latin-looking phrase ''in camera caritatis'' “in private, among friends” seems to mean “in the room of charity”.^(DELI 1999)^(DEI|700)

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+ Several derivatives came back from other Romance languages: ''cameriere'' from Provençal ''camarier'', ''camerata'' “comrade” probably from Spanish ''camarada'', and ''camerista'' from Spanish ''camarista''.^(DELI 1999)^(Nocentini 2010)

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+ ==Timeline==

+ * Late 12th century – ''Cammora'' appears in the Ritmo di Sant'Alessio.^(DELI 1999)^(TLIO)

+ * 1277–1296 – It is used for the treasury of the state.^(DELI 1999)

+ * 1294–1298 – Dante uses the form ''camera''.^(DELI 1999)

+ * 1531 – It is used for a legislative assembly, after English ''Chamber''.^(DELI 1999)

+ * Before 1665 – ''Camerata'' “comrade” is recorded in Lorenzo Lippi.^(DELI 1999)

+ * 1905 – Panzini explains ''camera del lavoro'' as an imitation of the French ''Bourse du travail''.^(DELI 1999)

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+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # A [[m|en|room]] of a house or flat used for living in: ''un appartamento di tre camere e cucina''.^(GRADIT 2003)^(Devoto–Oli 2026)^(Sabatini–Coletti 2026)

+ # A [[m|en|bedroom]]; also the set of bedroom furniture: ''I bambini dormono nella loro camera.''^(GRADIT 2003)^(Devoto–Oli 2026)^(Zingarelli 2010)

+ # A hotel room, or a room let to lodgers: ''Abbiamo prenotato una camera con vista sul lago.''^(GRADIT 2003)^(Sabatini–Coletti 2026)^(Treccani 2011)

+ # A closed room or space used for a special purpose: ''camera oscura'' (darkroom), ''camera ardente'', ''camera blindata'' (strongroom), ''camera a gas''.^(Zingarelli 2010)^(Treccani 2011)^(Sabatini–Coletti 2026)

+ # A legislative [[m|en|chamber]], especially the ''Camera dei deputati''; in the plural, the two houses of a parliament.^(GRADIT 2003)^(Sabatini–Coletti 2026)^(Wiktionary)

+ # A body that protects economic or working interests, as in ''camera di commercio'' and ''camera del lavoro''.^(Sabatini–Coletti 2026)^(Zingarelli 2010)

+ # ''(historical)'' The treasury of a state and the magistracy that ran it.^(GRADIT 2003)^(Sabatini–Coletti 2026)

+ # ''(anatomy, technology)'' A small closed cavity in an organ or a device: ''camera d'aria'' (inner tube).^(GRADIT 2003)^(Sabatini–Coletti 2026)^(Wiktionary)

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+ ==Word family==

+ * [[cameretta]]

+ * [[camerino]]

+ * [[camerone]]

+ * [[cameriere]]

+ * [[cameriera]]

+ * [[camerata]]

+ * [[camerale]]

+ * [[camerista]]

+ * [[incamerare]]

+ * [[anticamera]]

+ * [[bicamerale]]

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+ {{homograph|2|camera (photography)}}

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+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=borrowing|attested=1902|origins=la-new camera obscura}}

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+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * /ˈka.me.ra/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''camera''' ''f''^(Devoto–Oli 2026)^(Sabatini–Coletti 2026)

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+ ==Etymology==

+ The word for a camera is [[bor|en|camera]], which English took about 1840 from [[la-new|camera obscura|t=dark chamber]], formed from [[m|la|camera|t=room]] and [[la|obscūrus|t=dark]].^(Nocentini 2010)^(GRADIT 2003)^(DELI 1999)^(GDLI) DELI treats the photographic sense as a calque of the English word within the older Italian one.^(DELI 1999)

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+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ Nocentini dates the word to 1902 and GRADIT to 1910;^(Nocentini 2010)^(GRADIT 2003)^(DELI 1999)^(Sabatini–Coletti 2026) DELI and Sabatini–Coletti give 1942, from Migliorini's appendix to the Panzini dictionary.^(Nocentini 2010)^(GRADIT 2003)^(DELI 1999)^(Sabatini–Coletti 2026) The sense is a camera for photography or film.^(DELI 1999)^(GRADIT 2003)

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+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ It now covers cameras for photography, cinema and television, and GRADIT refers the reader to the native words ''macchina fotografica'', ''cinepresa'' and ''telecamera''.^(GRADIT 2003)^(Sabatini–Coletti 2026) The compound ''cameraman'', an English word, is recorded from 1908.^(Nocentini 2010)^(DELI 1999)

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+ ==Timeline==

+ * 1902 – The loan from English is first recorded, according to Nocentini.^(Nocentini 2010)

+ * 1908 – ''Cameraman'' is recorded.^(Nocentini 2010)

+ * 1942 – Migliorini records ''camera'' for a film camera.^(DELI 1999)

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+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # A [[m|en|camera]] for photography, film or television, the same as ''macchina fotografica'', ''cinepresa'' or ''telecamera''.^(GRADIT 2003)^(Devoto–Oli 2026)^(Sabatini–Coletti 2026)

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+ ==Word family==

+ * [[cameraman]]

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+ ==Related words==

+ * [[camerlengo]]

+ * [[zambra]]

+ * [[la|camera]]

+ * [[fr|chambre]]

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+ ==Usage notes==

+ Tommaseo held that ''camera'' properly means a bedroom, and thought the dialect use of it for any room was not to be imitated, since it would make ''stanza'' useless; today both are used.^(Tommaseo–Bellini 1861)^(Sabatini–Coletti 2026) ''Musica da camera'' is chamber music.^(Treccani 2011)^(Gabrielli 2020)

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+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}