What's the origin of the rule that composes the adverbial forms finishing in -mente (e.g. velocemente, normalmente, assolutamente, diversamente etc).
Is it somehow connected to mente (Latin mens, English mind) substantive?
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2I took the liberty of correcting absolutamente in assolutamente, and of substituting diversamente for altrimente (which is an ancient form for present-day altrimenti).– DaGDec 15, 2013 at 15:37
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@DaG why did you correct "altrimente" with "diversamente" and not "altrimenti"?– martinaDec 15, 2013 at 15:41
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1@martina: Simply because, even if its etymology is the same, not being a word in “-mente” it could be a bit confusing.– DaGDec 15, 2013 at 15:44
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This is a very interesting question with two very interesting answers!– user193Jan 1, 2014 at 10:42
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2 Answers
Yes, it is. It continues the ablative form of Latin mens, which is indeed mente. So felicemente would have started meaning something like “in a happy state of mind.” (See for example the Treccani article about “-mente”.)
You are on the right track. It is indeed true that those words ending in -mente, which are always adverbs derived from adjectives, take their origin in the Latin mens (mind, but also spirit, intelligence, thought).
This is because in Latin itself, a construction like "A + mente" meant "with an A mind," where A is an adjective.
Starting from this, the word mente came, in Italian, to be attached directly to the adjective to create a new adverb.
