Board Thread:The Last Sovereign Discussion/@comment-31763506-20171130021854/@comment-31763506-20171201005247

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.