motore Italian · revision 38909

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=borrowing|attested=1298, Questioni filosofiche|origins=ine-pro *m(i̯)euh₁-}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * /moˈto.re/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''motore''' (feminine motrice, masculine plural motori, feminine plural motrici)^(Wiktionary)

+ Old forms include [[roa-oit|motor]] and [[roa-oit|mutori]].^(TLIO) Older and dialect forms ''mottore'' and ''mutore'' are recorded too.^(GDLI|11, 9)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is a learned borrowing, [[bor|la|motor|t=one who moves]]. ^(DELI 1999)^(Nocentini 2010)^(GRADIT 2003)^(Wiktionary) The Latin noun is formed from [[m|la|moveō|t=to move]] with the agent suffix [[m|la|-tor]].^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary)^(Devoto 1968) Devoto explains it from an older [[m|la|*movitor]], which stands to the verb as [[m|la|monitor]] stands to [[m|la|moneō]].^(Devoto 1968) DEI lists [[fr|moteur]] from the 15th–16th century beside it, and Nocentini notes that [[es|motor]] and the French word spread the term through the languages of Europe.^(DEI|2520)^(Nocentini 2010)

+

+ The Latin verb continues an aorist [[itc-pro|*mow(a)-]], from [[ine-pro|*m(i̯)euh₁-|t=to move]].^(de Vaan 2008)

+

+ The modern sense “engine” is a 19th-century development of the old adjective and noun: DEI gives it a separate entry and compares the use of the French noun in the same century.^(DEI|2520)^(DELI 1999)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ The TLIO's first record is in the ''Questioni filosofiche'' from south-eastern Tuscany, about 1298, where the word is a term of Aristotelian physics: what gives or passes on motion, and above all the first cause that moves the heavens.^(TLIO) DELI dates both the adjective “that moves” and the noun “mover of the heavens” to Dante's ''Convivio'' (1304–1308).^(DELI 1999)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ In medieval philosophy and astronomy the plural ''motori'' were the angelic intelligences that turn the celestial spheres, and Dante writes of the movement of the holy wheels breathed in ''da' beati motor'', “from the blessed movers”.^(TLIO)^(Tommaseo–Bellini 1861) God was the ''primo motore'' or ''motore immobile'', the first or unmoved mover of Aristotelian and scholastic thought, a phrase Petrarch varies as ''il Motore eterno delle stelle''.^(Tommaseo–Bellini 1861)^(Zingarelli 2010)^(Treccani 2011) From the start the word was also figurative, a cause or stimulus, and in Old Italian a person who instigates something.^(TLIO) DELI records the sense “cause, motive” in Leonardo da Vinci before 1519.^(DELI 1999)

+

+ The mechanical sense, a machine that turns some other form of energy into mechanical work, appears in Tommaseo's dictionary in 1869.^(DELI 1999)^(Sabatini–Coletti 2026) With the car it became the everyday sense, and the word passed by extension to a vehicle with an engine.^(GRADIT 2003)^(Sabatini–Coletti 2026) The derivatives ''motorista'' (1916), ''motorino'' (1947) and ''motorizzare'' (1931, after French ''motoriser'') belong to this sense.^(Nocentini 2010) The GDLI supplement adds ''motore di ricerca'', “search engine”, recorded in 1995.^(GDLI|11, 9)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * About 1298 – First record, in the Tuscan ''Questioni filosofiche''.^(TLIO)

+ * 1304–1308 – Dante uses the adjective and the noun in the ''Convivio''.^(DELI 1999)

+ * Before 1519 – Leonardo da Vinci uses ''motore'' for a cause or motive.^(DELI 1999)

+ * 1869 – The sense “engine” is recorded by Tommaseo.^(DELI 1999)^(Sabatini–Coletti 2026)

+ * 1916 – ''Motorista'' “mechanic” is recorded.^(Nocentini 2010)

+ * 1931 – ''Motorizzare'' is formed after French ''motoriser''.^(Nocentini 2010)

+ * 1995 – ''Motore di ricerca'' “search engine” appears in the press.^(GDLI|11, 9)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # [[m|en|engine]], [[m|en|motor]]: a machine that turns a form of energy (thermal, electric, hydraulic…) into mechanical work, to drive vehicles or machinery: ''Ha lasciato il motore acceso davanti al negozio.''^(GRADIT 2003)^(Devoto–Oli 2026)^(Treccani 2011)

+ # (by extension) A motor vehicle.^(GRADIT 2003)^(Sabatini–Coletti 2026)

+ # ''(figurative)'' The driving force or main cause of something: ''Il turismo è il motore dell'economia dell'isola.''^(GRADIT 2003)^(Devoto–Oli 2026)^(Zingarelli 2010)

+ # ''(philosophy)'' The principle that moves the heavenly bodies, ''primo motore'', ''motore immobile'': God as the first, unmoved mover.^(GRADIT 2003)^(Sabatini–Coletti 2026)^(Treccani 2011)

+ # ''motore di ricerca'': a [[m|en|search engine]] on the Internet.^(GDLI|11, 9)^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ===Adjective===

+ # That produces or passes on motion: ''forza motrice'', ''albero motore''.^(GRADIT 2003)^(Zingarelli 2010)^(Devoto–Oli 2026)

+ # ''(anatomy)'' Of a nerve or other structure: that produces a movement.^(GRADIT 2003)^(Zingarelli 2010)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[motorino]]

+ * [[motoretta]]

+ * [[motorista]]

+ * [[motorismo]]

+ * [[motoristico]]

+ * [[motorizzare]]

+ * [[motorizzazione]]

+ * [[motrice]]

+ * [[motricità]]

+ * [[motorio]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[moto]]

+ * [[muovere]]

+ * [[la|motor]]

+ * [[fr|moteur]]

+

+ ==Usage notes==

+ The feminine of the adjective is ''motrice'' (''forza motrice''), which is also a noun, the power car of a train or tram.^(GRADIT 2003)^(Nocentini 2010)^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}