click (Italian)
Where does "click" come from?
Italian click is a direct, unadapted borrowing from English click, used for the act of pressing a button, especially a computer mouse. The English word is much older: it began as an imitative word in the 1500s, echoing the sharp sound itself, and only later came to name the action associated with that sound.
Full etymology tree
- click (Italian), 'alternative form of clic (“the act of pressing a button, especially a computer mouse”)'
- unadapted borrowing from click (English), 'A brief, sharp, not particularly loud, relatively high-pitched sound produced by the impact of something small and hard against something hard, such as by the operation of a switch, a lock, or a latch.'
Ancestors
- click (English)
Updated April 2026
Etymology data from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · About Miraris