Ten Italian words that come from other languages

Some members of Italy's current government may not like the foreign influences they see as "demeaning" the Italian language and threatening "national identity" - but the adoption of words from other languages is nothing new.

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Like most contemporary languages, modern Italian was born out of centuries of interactions with other nations and cultures, and the range of foreign influences on its vocabulary reflects the country's rich history.

From English to Arabic, German to Spanish, here are the foreign origins of just a few common Italian words - some of which might surprise you.

Appartamento - Spanish

Both apartment and appartamento come from the Old Spanish apartamiento (secluded place), which in turn came from the verb appartarse, to set oneself apart.

It's thought to have come into use in Italian in the sixteenth or seventeenth century, a period when many ispanismi or 'hispanicisms' made their way into the language due to the intensification of political relations between Spain and Italy.

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Beauty case - English

A beauty case, sometimes shortened just to un beauty, is a make up or cosmetics bag.

This is obviously a term that has entered the Italian language relatively recently, and could be considered one of those ‘anglicisms’ that the current government opposes.

The word beauty - which in turn comes from the Old French beauté, from the Latin bellus - has made its way into several other Italian expressions. You'll also come across beauty centre, usually part of a spa or gym devoted to providing cosmetic treatments, and beauty farm, a day spa or health centre.

Dogana/divano - Arabic

Dogana, the Italian word for customs, originates from the Arabic word dīwān, meaning a registry or office. One of first recorded uses of the word in Italy reportedly dates back to 1281 in Naples, when dohanne was used to refer to the building where import and export duties were collected.

Divano - sofa - also comes from dīwān: workers in these administrative offices used to sit on benches with cushions on them, and eventually divano became the word for the type of long cushioned furniture the offices were filled with.

Fiction - English

The Italian word fiction has a very similar meaning to its English counterpart, but with the difference that it's primarily used as a noun rather than an adjective. Una fiction is a drama or narrative - usually used to describe a dramatised TV series, though it could also be a novel or a film.

The Rai-HBO adaptation of My Brilliant Friend? That's a prime example of a fiction. 

Materasso - Arabic

Materasso is, as you might have guessed, a mattress. The word originates from the Arabic maṭraḥ, literally meaning 'a place to throw' oneself or 'a place to rest on'.

The words in English, French (matelas) and German (matratze) for mattress all have the same Arabic origin, which is thought to have spread to the rest of Europe via southern Italy.

Ragazzo - Arabic

Ragazzo - boy - also comes from Arabic: specifically, the word raqqāṣ or raqqa¯sò, which in the 13th century meant a messenger or letter delivery boy. 

It's thought to have passed into the Italian language via customs terminology and - like many Italian words of Arabic origin - spread throughout the peninsula from Sicily, which did a thriving trade with Maghreb countries.

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The Italian word for 'boy' is thought to come for the Arabic for messenger. Photo by Joanna Kosinska on Unsplash

Regalo - Spanish

Regalo, or 'gift', entered the Italian language from Spain in around the sixteenth or seventeenth century, according to the Treccani dictionary.

It originally comes from the Latin regālis, and in its original Spanish use it referred to a gift given by a subject to the king ('re'), deriving from the Spanish tradition of offering gifts to the sovereign as a diplomatic gesture.

Sala - German

Sala, a room, living room, or theatre or conference hall in Italian, comes from the Middle Low German word, sal, to mean room, home or dwelling (in modern German the word is Saal, pronounced 'z-ahl').

Going further back in time, sal started out as sel, which meant calm or quiet - you can see how sala might have evolved from the idea of a quiet, contained space.

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Schermo - German

Schermo is a screen in English - the kind you'd find on your phone, TV or computer, but also a shield or guard.

It comes from the German word Bildschirm, which in turn comes from skerm or skirm: Old High German words meaning protection. 

Taccuino - Arabic

Taccuino - notebook in Italian - derives from the Arabic word taqwīm, for 'reorganisation, arrangement'. In the Middle Ages, the Latin word tacuinum meant a collection of medical prescriptions for medicines and treatments taken from Arab countries (the tacuinum sanitatis).