livello Italian · revision 38412

+ {{infobox|confidence=probable|formation=derivation|attested=before 1494, Giorgio Barbaro|origins=la lībra}}

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+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * /liˈvɛl.lo/^(Wiktionary)

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+ ==Forms==

+ '''livello''' ''m'' (plural livelli)^(Wiktionary)

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+ ==Etymology==

+ It is a deverbal noun of [[livellare|t=to level]], which comes from [[livella|t=spirit level]].^(DELI 1999)^(Nocentini 2010)^(GRADIT 2003)^(Devoto–Oli 2026) The tool's name is [[inh|la|libella|alt=lībella|t=small balance; level]], a diminutive of [[m|la|libra|alt=lībra|t=balance, scales]].^(DELI 1999)^(Nocentini 2010)^(DEI|2255)^(Wiktionary) Clemente Merlo, quoted by DELI, insisted that the noun is neither a masculine made from the feminine “livella” nor a direct derivative of it, but a noun formed from the verb.^(DELI 1999) Wiktionary gives this view first and offers a Vulgar Latin [[m|la-vul|*lībellus]] as the alternative, and Körting had already set up a Latin [[m|la|*libellus]] in place of the feminine.^(Wiktionary)^(Körting 1907) Medieval Latin [[m|la-med|livellum]] is recorded at Parma in 1255, in the phrase for the level of water.^(DELI 1999)

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+ The same Latin word gave [[fro|livel]] and [[m|fro|nivel]], modern [[fr|niveau]], from which [[es|nivel]] was taken.^(Nocentini 2010)^(DEI|2255)^(Körting 1907) Körting thought the change of the first consonant in French perhaps came from dissimilation of the two ⟨l⟩ sounds after the article.^(Körting 1907)

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+ Several modern phrases copy French: “allo stesso livello” answers to [[fr|au niveau]], and “a livello di” “as regards” comes from [[m|fr|au niveau de]] and spread in the 1970s.^(DELI 1999) “Passaggio a livello”, a level crossing, is a calque of [[m|fr|passage à niveau]].^(Devoto–Oli 2026)

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+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ The first Italian record is in Giorgio Barbaro, before 1494, for the surveyor's instrument used to find a horizontal line.^(DELI 1999)^(GRADIT 2003)^(Nocentini 2010) The sense “free surface of a liquid” follows in Giovanni Battista Ramusio (1554–1565), three centuries after the Medieval Latin phrase ''ad livellum aque'' at Parma.^(DELI 1999)

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+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ From the surface of water the word passed to the height of any point above a surface and the height of one horizontal plane above another, recorded in Ludovico Antonio Muratori before 1750.^(DELI 1999) Francesco Algarotti uses ''livello del mare'', sea level, before 1764, and the noun for contour lines, ''curva di livello'', belongs to the same surveying language.^(DELI 1999)^(Zingarelli 2010)

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+ The figurative sense “degree, importance” is recorded in the Milanese press in 1828.^(DELI 1999) Tommaseo still warned against overusing ''trovarsi sul medesimo livello'', which he thought too French.^(DELI 1999) The phrase ''mettere tutti allo stesso livello'', “to make no distinction of worth”, appears in Igino Ugo Tarchetti before 1869, and Luigi Einaudi wrote of transactions “at the so-called high levels” (''ai cosidetti ‘alti livelli’'') in 1956.^(DELI 1999) Physics added the energy level of an electron in 1957.^(DELI 1999)

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+ Today the word also names a geological stratum, a horizontal gallery in a mine and a stage of a computer game.^(Devoto–Oli 2026)^(Sabatini–Coletti 2026)^(Wikizionario)

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+ ==Timeline==

+ * 1255 – Medieval Latin ''ad livellum aque'' is recorded at Parma.^(DELI 1999)

+ * Before 1494 – Giorgio Barbaro uses ''livello'' for a surveying instrument.^(DELI 1999)^(GRADIT 2003)

+ * 1554–1565 – Giovanni Battista Ramusio uses it for the surface of a liquid.^(DELI 1999)

+ * Before 1750 – Ludovico Antonio Muratori uses it for height above a plane.^(DELI 1999)

+ * Before 1764 – Francesco Algarotti writes ''livello del mare''.^(DELI 1999)

+ * 1828 – The figurative sense “degree, importance” appears in the Milanese press.^(DELI 1999)

+ * 1956 – Luigi Einaudi uses ''alti livelli''.^(DELI 1999)

+ * 1957 – The energy level of physics is recorded.^(DELI 1999)

+ * 1970s – ''A livello di'' becomes widespread.^(DELI 1999)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # The [[m|en|height]] of a point or horizontal plane in relation to another plane taken as reference: ''Il giardino è a un livello più basso della casa.''^(GRADIT 2003)^(Devoto–Oli 2026)^(Sabatini–Coletti 2026)

+ # The height reached by the surface of a liquid, ''livello del mare'', sea level: ''Dopo le piogge il livello del lago è cresciuto.''^(GRADIT 2003)^(Zingarelli 2010)^(Treccani 2011)

+ # ''(figurative)'' The degree or [[m|en|standard]] of a quantity or quality: ''un livello di inquinamento preoccupante'', ''un lavoro di alto livello''.^(GRADIT 2003)^(Zingarelli 2010)^(Gabrielli 2020)

+ # ''(figurative)'' A position or [[m|en|rank]] in a social or organizational order: ''una riunione a livello ministeriale''.^(GRADIT 2003)^(Sabatini–Coletti 2026)^(Treccani 2011)

+ # ''(geology)'' A [[m|en|stratum]] with its own recognizable features.^(Devoto–Oli 2026)^(Sabatini–Coletti 2026)^(Zingarelli 2010)

+ # ''(mining)'' A horizontal gallery at one working depth of a mine.^(Devoto–Oli 2026)^(Sabatini–Coletti 2026)^(Zingarelli 2010)

+ # ''(physics)'' Each of the discrete values the energy of a system, such as an electron in an atom, can take.^(DELI 1999)^(Devoto–Oli 2026)^(Wikizionario)

+ # ''(surveying)'' An instrument for establishing horizontal lines of sight.^(GRADIT 2003)^(Gabrielli 2020)

+ # ''(video games)'' Each of the stages into which a game is divided.^(Wikizionario)

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+ ==Word family==

+ * [[dislivello]]

+ * [[livelletta]]

+ * [[soprallivello]]

+ * [[sottolivello]]

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+ ==Related words==

+ * [[livella]]

+ * [[la|libella]]

+ * [[fr|niveau]]

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+ ==Usage notes==

+ ''A livello di'' (“as regards, at the level of”) is common but was long criticized as a Gallicism.^(DELI 1999)^(Zingarelli 2010) A second word ''livello'', in the history of law, is a long agricultural lease of medieval Italy; it is [[la|libellus|t=little book]], because the contract was written in a small document, and it is recorded as ''libellu'' in the 13th century and as ''livello'' at Trento in 1476.^(DELI 1999)^(Nocentini 2010)^(Prati 1951|597) DEI notes that the Latin word was used in Italian documents from the 9th century, and the derivative ''livellario'', the tenant holding land on such a lease, appears before 1250.^(DEI|2255)^(DELI 1999)

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+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}