fante

• IPA^(key): /ˈfan.te/
• Rhymes: -ante
• Hyphenation: fàn‧te

Aphetic form of infante (“child”), from Latin īnfāns, īnfantem (“infant, child”). Doublet of infante.

fante m or f by sense (plural fanti)

1. (military) infantryman
2. (card games) jack, knave
3. (obsolete) helper; servant

   Synonyms: garzone, servitore

   1. (loosely) lowly man
4. (obsolete, feminine) maid, domestic

   Synonyms: domestica, donna di servizio, fantesca (literary or jocular)

5. (obsolete) child

   Synonym: bambino

   1. (loosely) man

      Synonym: uomo

Learned borrowing from Classical Latin fāns, fantem (“speaking, saying”), present participle of for (“I speak; I say”).

fante m or f (plural fanti)

1. (Old Italian, literary, very rare) speaking, saying
   • 1310s, Dante Alighieri, “Canto XXV”, in Purgatorio [Purgatory], line 61; republished as Giorgio Petrocchi, editor, La Commedia secondo l'antica vulgata [The Commedia according to the ancient vulgate], 2^nd revised edition, Florence: publ. Le Lettere, 1994:

     Ma come d’animal divegna fante,
     non vedi tu ancor: quest’è tal punto,
     che più savio di te fé già errante

     But you still do not see how a living being becomes one that speaks: this is a part that already led people wiser than you are into error

   • 1385–1396, Francesco di Bartolo, “Canto XXV [Canto 25]”, in Commento di Francesco da Buti sopra la Divina commedia di Dante Allighieri [Commentary of Francesco da Buti on Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy]‎^[1], C. XXV— v. 61-79.; republished, Pisa: Fratelli Nistri, 1858, page 602:

     […] lo feto che è nel ventre de la madre, […] è a modo d’un animale bruto; e se fusse possibile che nascesse così, serebbe come uno cane o come uno asino, che non parlerebbe e non arebbe in sè ragione; e qui pone l’autore fante per ragionevile: imperò che niuno animale parla con intelletto se non l’omo, e però fante si pone per ragionevile

     […] the fetus, which is inside the mother's womb, is akin to a wild animal; if it were possible for it to be born as such, it would be as a dog, or a donkey, which would not talk, and would have no reasoning within itself; and here the author uses speaking as "endowed with reason", for no animal—except for man—speaks with intellect. Therefore, speaking is used as "rational"

• nafte

fante

1. ablative masculine/feminine/neuter singular of fāns

Borrowed from Italian fante.

fante m (plural fanți)

1. womanizer
2. (card games) jack