998 colpire to hit, to strike, to affect. 1455 colpo strike (n.) From Latin colaphus (“blow with fist”). Cognate with Spanish golpe and French coup (“strike”), which has entered English in coup d’etat. Examples, colpire la testa con un pugno (“to hit the head with a punch”); un colpo di fortuna (“a stroke of luck”); colpo di stato (“coup d’etat”).

999 principe prince. From Latin principem (“chief”). Cognate with English prince, principle, Spanish príncipe, principio, and French prince, principe. Doublet of but not to be confused with principio (“principle”; “beginning”). To remember the difference between the two doublet words, as a mnemnic, note the -e ending of principe and prince, and the sound-alike endings of -pio of principio and -ple of principle. Examples, Machiavelli scrisse il famoso libro Il principe (“Machiavelli wrote the famous book The Prince”; scrisse is the past historic of scrivere); la principessa Diana (“Princess Diana”).

1003 Firenze Florence. From Latin Florentia (named after florens, “flowering”). When the word entered Italian, Fl- changed to Fi- (just as Latin florem > Italian fiore). Then Fio- lost o. The English name, by way of French, did not change much from Latin.

1009 fissare to fix, to set, to fasten. 2002 fisso fixed, permanent, set. From Latin fixus (“fixed”). Cognate with fix. Note fissare has more diverse meanings than English fix. Examples, fissare un limite a (“to set a limit to”); fissare / prendere un appuntamento (“to make an appointment”); un lavoro fisso (“a permanent job”); coppia fissa (“stable couple”).

1011 sé itself, himself, herself, oneself. From Latin se (“self”). Cognate with Spanish and French se (“self”; reflexive pronoun), and if traced to Proto-Indo-European, with English self. Compared with the reflexive pronoun si, sé is used for emphasis and as a standalone word, not clitic attached to the end of a verb. Examples, lo ha fatto da sé (“he / it did it by him/itself”); pensa solo a sé / a se stesso / a sé stesso (“he only thinks of himself”; if sé is followed by stesso, the acute diacritic mark is often omitted as it won’t be confused with se).

1013 mila plural of mille. 1702 mille thousand. 1724 migliaio about a thousand. Note the plural of mille is mila, not *milli, which does not exist in Italian except as a prefix (as in millimetro). Not to be confused with miglio (“mile”), migliore (“better”, adj.). Examples, mille dollari (“one / a thousand dollars”; note no un before mille); un migliaio di dollari (“about one thousand dollars”; “about” may be omitted in translation); duemila dollari (“two thousand dollars”).

1014 apposito special, appropriate, proper, speciale. From Latin appositus (“appointed”, “placed near”). Something positioned or put nearby must be something special. Example, un apposito dispositivo (“a special device”).

1016 dentro in, inside, within. From Latin de intro (“from inside”, “from within”). Not to be confused with dentale (“dental”). Examples, andare dentro (“to go inside”); dentro e fouri (“inside and outside”); dentro la / all’interno della scatola (“inside the box”).

1017 tramite by means of, through, via; go-between, means, way. From Latin tramitem (“path”), from trans- + meare (“to pass”, “to move from one place to another”), the latter component cognate with the root of permeate, so tramite is like *transmeate, which unfortunately does not exist in English. Cognate with Spanish trámite (“procedure”). Alternatively, as a mnemonic, think of a tram going between various places. Examples, tramite email (“by email”); per il tramite di (“by means of”, per mezzo di); fare da tramite (“to act as a go-between”; da means “as”).

1018 rilevare to notice, to observe, to detect; to point out, to show; to remove, to take away. From Latin relevare (“to raise”; “to relieve”). When you lift a cover or something that covers, you notice or observe what was beneath. The literal meaning, “to remove”, is less common. Example, il consulente ha rilevato / notato alcuni errori nel contratto (“the consultant noticed some errors in the contract”).

1021 indagine investigation, inquiry, survey. From Latin indago (“encircling wild animals or pushing them into an enclosure”), from indu (“in”) + agere (“to drive”; “to act”; “to do”), which is cognate with act, French agir and Spanish actuar (“to act”). On the surface, this word corresponds to in + act in English; one type of action or work inside something is inquiry into it. Example, fare un’indagine su (“to make a study of / an investigation into”; note indagine is feminine, hence un’, not un, but not una here due to the initial vowel).

1026 condividere to share. From con- + dividere (“to divide”, cognate with divide). Sharing something implies dividing it together with others. Example, condivido la tua opinione (“I share your opinion / agree with you”).

1027 comportamento behavior, conduct, comportment (cognate). From comportarsi (“to behave oneself”) +‎ -mento. See also comportare.

1030 lettura reading, interpretation. From Latin lectura. Cognate with lecture, Spanish lectura and French lecture (“reading”). In spite of cognation with English lecture, this word most commonly means “reading” while conferenza or lezione is a better word for “lecture”. Example, comprensione della lettura / del testo (“reading comprehension”).

1031 ricco rich (cognate), wealthy, abundant. 2419 ricchezza wealth, richness, affluence, abundance. From Lombardic rihhi, from Proto-Germanic *rikijaz, from which English rich is derived (by way of other historical languages). To see the cognation of ricco with rich, imagine ch in English rich is pronounced as /k/. Ricchezza is from ricco + -ezza (noun suffix); to preserve the /k/ sound, c changes to ch when it’s followed by e.