«A te l’estremo addio»? Il problema dell’ultima attestazione nella linguistica e nella lessicografia italiana

The investigation of early occurrences of Italian words is in full swing, constantly providing the opportunity to backdate their first attestations. Lexicography and lexicology have, however, paid less attention to the ‘last attestation’ of words and forms which have fallen out of use: on this point the only data available are in practice those provided by Battaglia’s Grande Dizionario della Lingua Italiana (GDLI), specifically the last references provided there under the individual entries. This study considers some of the problematic aspects of this topic, exemplified by reference to a number of words (both grammatical and lexical) for which occurrences later than those indicated by GDLI are attested. Some general considerations on the notion of ‘last attestation’ and its valence are furthermore provided, as well as on the difficulties involved in identifying the ‘last attestation’ of a word in the context of the complex relationship between literary Italian and contemporary usage.