costruito

Costruito is the past participle of the Italian verb costruire, meaning to build or construct. It is used to form compound tenses with the auxiliary avere or essere, and it also functions as an adjective meaning built or constructed.

In verb forms, the past participle with avere generally does not change for gender or number, as in Ho costruito una casa. When used with essere, or as an adjectival modifier, it agrees with the noun in gender and number: La casa è stata costruita; I ponti sono stati costruiti; un edificio costruito in stile moderno; una strada costruita nel 1990.

Etymology traces the word to Latin construere or constructus, through Old Italian development of costruire, combining the prefix con- with struere meaning to pile up or arrange. The semantic shift from “to pile up” to “to construct” is reflected in the modern Italian verb and its past participle.

Usage notes include distinction between its verbal and adjectival functions. As a verbal participle, it participates in tenses such as passato prossimo (ho costruito), trapassato prossimo (avevo costruito); with essere, it forms passive or descriptively completed states (la casa è stata costruita). As an adjective, it appears before or after the noun it modifies (edificio costruito, edificio costruito nel 1920), with appropriate gender/number agreement.

Related terms include costruzione (construction, building process), costrutto (framework or construct in a different semantic sense), and costruttivo (constructive). The term is common in architectural, historical, and descriptive contexts.