Italian Genealogical Word List

This list contains Italian words with their English translations. The words included here are those that you are likely to find in genealogical sources. If the word you are looking for is not on this list, please consult an Italian-English dictionary. (Also, see the “Additional Resources” section.)

Italian is a Romance language derived from Latin. Many of the words resemble those of Latin. See Latin Genealogical Word List (34077). Italian is spoken in Italy and the southern part of Switzerland in the cantons of Ticino and Graubünden. Italian is also spoken in Yugoslavia near the border with Trieste. Some of the records of Corsica, Nice, and Savoy were written in Italian before those areas became part of France. Clusters of Italian immigrants in major cities like New York, Chicago, Montreal, Toronto, and Melbourne also speak Italian. Sicilian, Neapolitan, Romanesque, and Venetian are major dialects of Italian, and they use words similar to the words on this list. Several other minor dialects are spoken in the various provinces of Italy.

Language Characteristics
In Italian, the endings of most words vary according to the way the words are used in a sentence. Who— whose—whom or marry—marries—married are examples of words in English with variant forms. This word list gives the most commonly seen form of each Italian word. As you read Italian records, be aware that almost all words vary with usage. Only some variations are explained in this guide.

Gender
Italian nouns are designated as masculine or feminine. For example, vicinanza (neighborhood) is a feminine word, and villaggio (village) is a masculine word. Generally, nouns ending in !a are feminine, nouns ending !e may be either masculine or feminine, and nouns ending in !o are masculine. Adjectives and articles (a, an, the) will have either masculine or feminine endings for the noun they modify: !a for feminine singular nouns, !o for masculine singular nouns. For example, in Italian you write ava paterna (paternal grandmother) or avo paterno (paternal grandfather).

Plurals
For nouns ending with !a, the plural is formed by replacing the last letter with !e; for nouns ending in !o or !e, replace the last letter with !i to form the plural. For example, figlia (daughter) becomes figlie (daughters), and padrino (godfather) becomes padrini (godparents). Articles and adjectives take e as the feminine plural ending, and i as the masculine plural ending. Buona figlia becomes buone figlie (good daughters) and buono padrino becomes buoni padrini (good godparents).

Verb tense
Verbs also vary depending on mood, who is acting, and whether the action is in the past, present, or future. For example, the Italian verb sposare (to marry) could appear with various endings: Present - Past Tenses marry married, was married (she/he) sposa è sposato, fu sposato, sposò (they) sposano sono sposati, furono sposati, sposarono

Diacritic Marks
The Italian language has several additional letters with diacritic marks: à, è, ì, ò, and ù. These diacritic marks indicate a change in pronunciation, but do not affect alphabetical order. They are more often used in recent documents.

Spelling
Spelling rules were not fixed in earlier centuries when records of our ancestors were written. The k, j, and w are only used in foreign words. The following spelling variations may be found:


 * y or j used for i
 * i used for j

Additional Resources
This word list below includes words most commonly found in genealogical sources. A list of Italian Occupations and the English equivalents can be found at RootsWeb (click on this link).

For further help, use an Italian- English dictionary. At the Family History Library, the Italian dictionaries are cataloged with the call number 453.21. The following dictionary is also available on microfilm for use in family history centers:


 * Orlandi, Giusseppe. Dizionario Italiano-inglese, Inglese-italiano [Italian-English, English-italian Dictionary]. Milano: Carlo Signorelli, 1957. (FHL film 1181660 item 5.)

Key Words
To find and use specific types of Italian records, you will need to know some key words in Italian. This section gives key genealogical terms in English and the Italian words with the same or similar meanings. For example, in the first column you will find the English word marriage. In the second column you will find Italian words with meanings such as marry, marriage, wedding, wedlock, unite, and other words used in Italian records to indicate marriage.

Numbers
In some genealogical records, numbers are spelled out. This is especially true with dates. The following list gives the cardinal (for example, 1, 2, 3) and the ordinal (for example, 1st, 2nd, 3rd) versions of each number. Days of the month are usually written in cardinal form. Note that all ordinal numbers are adjectives and will end with; o or a depending on the gender of the word it modifies.

Dates and Time
In Italian records, the registrar often indicated the exact time of day when an event occurred. This is generally written out, for example:


 * L’anno del Signore milleottocentocinquantasette ed alli undici del mese di gennaio alle ore sei della mattina (In the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred fifty-seven on the eleventh of the month of January at six o’clock in the morning)

To understand Italian dates, use the following lists as well as the preceding “Numbers” section.

Times of the Day
Italian birth and death records often indicated the exact time of day when the birth or death occurred. This is usually written out.

General Word List
This general word list includes words commonly seen in genealogical sources. Numbers, months, and days of the week are listed both here and in separate sections that follow this list.

In this list, optional versions of Italian words or variable endings (such as some plural or feminine endings) are given after a hyphen. Parentheses in the English column clarify the definition. In Italian, some words have both a male and female form, such as:

Italian - English


 * neonato - male child
 * neonata - female child

When a word has both a male and female version, this word list gives the feminine ending of words after a hyphen, such as:

Italian - English


 * neonato, -a - male child, female child
 * cognato, -a - brother-in-law, sister-in-law
 * cugino, -a - male cousin, female cousin
 * † = morto, -a - died

The following list first shows the Italian word followed by the English word.