Board Thread:The Last Sovereign Discussion/@comment-31763506-20171130021854/@comment-29984007-20171201115929

DukeLeto7 wrote: My understanding was that the "da" prefix was an indicator of aristocracy, similar to the way "von" was used in the German speaking countries. I remember that da Vinci's father was what would be called "gentry" in England a few centuries later, but that Leonardo was a bastard.

At least Italian is mostly free from the schizophrenia of English (or Spanish), in which two language families have been fighting for control of the adjectives for the last millenia.

no, the word "da" is used for the origin of a person, but also for a trip's starting point. the italian's nobiliary particles are the words "de" and "di" [lorenzo de medici, carlo alberto di savoia]