Italian

Etymology

From Middle English Italian, from Medieval Latin Italiānus, from Latin Italia (“Italy”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɪˈtæliən/, enPR: ĭ-tăl'ē-ən

  • Audio (General American):

    (file)

• (US, less common, see Eye-talian) IPA^(key): /aɪˈtæliən/, enPR: ī-tăl'ē-ən
• Rhymes: -æliən

Adjective

Italian (comparative more Italian, superlative most Italian)

1. Pertaining to Italy.

   Italian borders

2. Pertaining to its people or their cultures.

   Hypernym: European

   Italian cuisines

3. Pertaining to their language.

   Hypernym: Indo-European

   Italian verbs

4. (obsolete, not comparable) Using an italic style; italic.
   • 1868, Henry Noel Humphreys, A History of the Art of Printing, page 175:

     It has been shown that there was a great disposition on the part of some German printers, especially Albert Durer, to adopt the rounded Italian type; others preferring the crisp angularity of the Gothic black-letter, even for general purposes; while for books of devotion it appears to have been deemed the more orthodox; the Italian style of type being deemed an innovation.

Noun

Italian (countable and uncountable, plural Italians)

2. (countable) An inhabitant of Italy, or a person of Italian descent.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:Italian person

   • 2012 May 5, Phil McNulty, “Chelsea 2-1 Liverpool”, in BBC Sport‎:

     As Di Matteo celebrated and captain John Terry raised the trophy for the fourth time, the Italian increased his claims to become the permanent successor to Andre Villas-Boas by landing a trophy.

4. (uncountable) The official language of Italy, also spoken in San Marino, the Vatican, and parts of Argentina, Slovenia and Switzerland.
5. (uncountable, cooking) A style of cuisine or individual dishes of or associated with Italy or Italian people.
   • 1995, Betty Crocker's New Italian Cooking, page 5:

     Simple Cannoli, Lemon Ice, or a delicious Tira Mi Su. With so many wonderful recipes, you can eat Italian anytime.

6. (countable, textiles) Short for Italian cloth.
7. (uncountable) Short for Italian vermouth, a dark-colored sweet or mildly bitter vermouth.

   gin and Italian

   • 1971, John Doxat, The World of Drinks and Drinking, page 102:

     So the English women would have been interested in American drinks, and in came the gin-and-Italian, for example.

8. (countable, Maine) Short for Italian sandwich.

See also

• Wiktionary’s coverage of Italian terms
• Appendix:Italian Swadesh list for a Swadesh list of basic vocabulary words in Italian

Further reading

• ISO 639-1 code it, ISO 639-3 code ita (SIL)
• Ethnologue entry for Italian, ita ⁠

Anagrams

• Antilia, Taliani

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /italian/ [i.t̪a.li.ãn]
• Rhymes: -ian, -an
• Hyphenation: I‧ta‧li‧an

Proper noun

Italian

1. inessive indefinite of Italia

Proper noun

Italian

1. genitive singular of Italia

Anagrams

• laitain, liaanit, litania