-mente

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin mente (“with the mind”), the ablative singular of the Latin noun for “mind”, meaning “with an intention or frame of mind”.^[2][3][4][1] The ablative was used in phrases with an adjective, such as Lucretius' phrase for “with a shrewd mind”; it came to mean only “in a … manner”, was extended to other adjectives and was fused with the adjective, which keeps its feminine form, agreeing with the feminine noun.^[3][5][6][7] Classical Latin, mainly in poetry, already came close to this adverbial use.^[2]

The noun gave Spanish miente, Portuguese mente, Catalan ment, Occitan ment and Romanian minte, and it forms adverbs almost everywhere in the Romance languages; in southern Italy the suffix seems to come from the standard language, and Dalmatian lacks it.^[8][9] In French it survives only after an adjective.^[9]

The Latin noun goes back to Proto-Italic *mentis and Proto-Indo-European *méntis (“thought”), from *men- (“to think”); cognates include Sanskrit मति (matí, “thought”) and Lithuanian mintis (“thought”).^[10][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record DELI gives is antica mente, written as two words, in the Breve di Montieri of 1219, which has the same kind of adverb with other adjectives.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Virgil's manet alta mente repostum “it remains stored deep in the mind” shows the Latin ablative close to an adverb.^[2] In early Italian the suffix could still be written apart from the adjective, as in antica mente.^[2] Its rules settled into the modern ones: it is added to the feminine of adjectives in -o (lieto, lietamente), to the single form of adjectives in -e (felice, felicemente), and to the stem of adjectives in -le or -re after a vowel, which lose the final vowel (nobilmente, celermente).^[7][5][6]

In the old literary language, when two adverbs followed each other, the suffix was often added only to the last, as in Galileo's resoluta e francamente impugnare la opinione “to attack the opinion so resolutely and frankly”.^[7][11]

Timeline

• 1219 – Antica mente is written in the Breve di Montieri.^[2]

Meanings

Suffix

1. Forms adverbs of manner from adjectives, added to the feminine singular: chiaramente, lentamente, brevemente, facilmente.^{[5][6][12][7][1]}

Related words

• mente
• Latin mēns

Usage notes

Adjectives in -le and -re drop their final -e before the suffix (agile, agilmente, regolare, regolarmente), as do -lo and -ro after a vowel (benevolmente, leggermente).^[5][12][7] Violentemente is formed on the old adjective violente.^[11]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b c d Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
7. ^ a b c d e Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ a b Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
12. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli