Origins and life events in Italian

Two thirds of the way down the list stands il cognome da nubile, and the word doing the work inside it is one an English reader already owns, in a shape that will mislead. On an Italian form nubile is a civil-status label: it means unmarried woman, and it stands opposite celibe, unmarried man. Both are dry administrative words, and stato civile: nubile says nothing about a person beyond what the register holds. The English word began in the same place — behind both stands the Latin verb nubere, to marry, said of the woman — but it drifted from « marriageable » towards young and physically desirable, and it now carries a faint leer that would keep it off any official page. So « nubile » in an English sentence about a bride does not render nubile; it invents something the Italian never said. Two consequences follow, both small and permanent. The field on the English form is « maiden name », and that, not the look-alike, is what cognome da nubile corresponds to. And when nubile turns up in Italian paperwork, read it as single and move on.