Treccani, the first Italian language dictionary promoting gender equality is born

Treccani presents the first Dictionary of the Italian Language that also lemmatizes the feminine forms of nouns and adjectives traditionally recorded only in the masculine: it therefore introduces soldata, architetta, notaia, medica and chirurga, to record the evolution of the language. In this way, theInstitute of the Italian Encyclopedia abandons “vocabulariese” to become a promoter of inclusiveness and gender equality. At the same time, it recognizes terms such as social distancing, lockdown, smart-working, dad, infodemia, agile work, citizenship income, rider, thermoscanner, terrapiatism and transphobia among the neologisms.

Theupdated edition, it says, is “an ambitious and revolutionary project, in which tradition and progress come together to bear witness to the socio-cultural changes in our country and recognize, validating them, new nuances, definitions and meanings that can best represent and narrate reality and current events through the words we use to experience and describe them.”

The new Treccani vocabulary will feature entries in both the masculine and feminine gender declension: for example, for adjectives, where next to the term in its masculine form it also adds its feminine form in bold type. Always following the alphabetical order. Finally, the identifying names of some professions will have lexical autonomy: notary, surgeon, doctor, soldier. To abolish gender stereotypes, the dictionary points to new examples of word usage and highlights the offensive nature of all words and idioms that may be offensive to dignity.

Directed by linguists Valeria Della Valle and Giuseppe Patota, the Treccani Vocabulary is intended to be much more than an updated version of the work: it is proposed as "the mirror of the changing world and the fruit of the need to validate and dignify a new vision of society, which inevitably passes through a new and different use of words."

Treccani, the first Italian language dictionary promoting gender equality is born

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