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In:Lexical Variation and Knowledge Construction across Historical, Methodological, and Cultural Ecologies
Edited by Rossella Latorraca, Rita Calabrese, Jacqueline Aiello and Dirk Geeraerts
[Terminology and Lexicography Research and Practice 25] 2026
► pp. 142–155

Lessico Etimologico Italiano – Germanismi

Glances from the back shop of a lexicographical project

 | University of Naples “L’Orientale”
This content is being prepared for publication; it may be subject to changes.
Abstract
The Lessico Etimologico Italiano is a lexicographical project conceived by Max Pfister (and now directed by Wolfgang Schweickard and Elton Prifti, University of Saarland) aiming to describe the history of Italo-romance vocabulary in all its dialectal varieties. A separate section is devoted to words of Germanic origin, which represent an interesting research field for scholars both of Romance and Germanic linguistics and philology. The majority of Germanic loanwords in Italian varieties were introduced by populations which ruled Italy (Goths, Lombards, Franks); further contacts with the German language still exist. With regard to the older layers of borrowings, we have to work with scattered data, often even unattested forms, reconstructed by the comparative method. Therefore the challenge of this kind of lexicographical work is mainly due to the scarcity of documentation for the old languages spoken by the gentes who entered the Italian peninsula and to the lack of language standardisation of these Germanic varieties.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Methodology
    • 2.1Etymological research and LEI
    • 2.2Oldest borrowings: Gothic, Longobard, Frankish
    • 2.3The study of Germanic words in the Lessico Etimologico Italiano
  • 3.Results and discussion
    • 3.1Germanic layers
    • 3.2Germanic layers and criteria
    • 3.3Multiple layers
    • 3.4Frankish words
    • 3.5Germanic loanwords and LEI-Germ
  • 4.Conclusions
  • Notes
  • References
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