appartenere

Forms

appartenere (first-person singular present appartèngo, first-person singular past historic apparténni or appartènni, past participle appartenùto, first-person singular future apparterrò, auxiliary èssere or avére)^[1] Old Italian forms include apartenere and forms with ⟨-gn-⟩ such as ⟨apartegna⟩ and ⟨apartegnente⟩.^[2] Treccani records an old variant Old Italian appertenere.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *appartenēre, a Vulgar Latin verb formed with ad- on Latin pars (“part”) (genitive ⟨partis⟩).^[4][5][6] Most sources start instead from Late Latin appertinēre (“to belong to”), which is pertineō (“to extend; to concern, belong”) with the prefix ad-, and explain the vowel of the second syllable by the influence of the noun for “part”.^[7][8][9][1] DELI reports the LEI's version of this chain: the Latin verb was remade as *appertinēre and then took its present vowel under the influence of the accusative ⟨partem⟩.^[4][10]

The same Vulgar Latin verb is French appartenir, Old Occitan apartener and Spanish apertenecer, and Portuguese pertencer is related, so DEI calls it a western Romance word.^[10][7][9] The English word appertain goes back to the same Late Latin verb.^[1] The Latin pertineō is formed from per- and teneō (“to hold”), which also gives Italian tenere, and the Italian verb is conjugated like it.^[6][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in Brunetto Latini's Rettorica, written in Florence about 1260–1261.^[2][7] The first sense DELI gives is “to be someone's property” and “to be part of something”.^[4]

Semantic evolution

In the 14th century Giovanni Villani also used the verb for “to concern, be fitting”, and Boccaccio used the noun appartenenza.^[12][4] The pronominal appartenersi meant “to be due to, befit someone”, as in Boccaccio's Ella cercò d'essere più savia che a lei non si apparteneva (“she tried to be wiser than befitted her”).^[5] An old sense “to be related by kinship” survives only in the dictionaries.^[5][13][14]

Modern Italian uses the verb for property, for membership of a family, group, class or category, for the place of a species in a classification, and for a place that lies within a state or region.^[8][11][3] In geometry a point belongs to a line or plane when it lies on it.^[8][3] The sense “to be someone's business or duty” is now uncommon.^[11][6]

Timeline

• c. 1260–1261 – Brunetto Latini uses the verb in his Rettorica.^[2]
• 1288 – Appartenente “belonging” is first recorded.^[7]
• Late 13th century – Appartenenza is first recorded.^[7]
• 14th century – Giovanni Villani uses the verb for “to be fitting”.^[12]
• Before 1363 – Matteo Villani uses appartenenza for the fact of belonging.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive, + a) To belong to someone, to be their property: Questa bicicletta appartiene a mio fratello.^[8][11][6]
2. (intransitive, + a) To be part of a group, class or category, or of a family: Appartiene a una vecchia famiglia di pescatori.^[8][11][3]
3. (intransitive, + a) Of a plant or animal, to be classed in a family, order or genus: Il gatto appartiene alla famiglia dei felidi.^[8][11][3]
4. (intransitive, + a) Of a place, to lie within the territory of a state, region or town.^[8][3]
5. (uncommon) To be someone's duty or responsibility, to concern them.^[8][11][6]
6. (geometry) Of a point, to lie on a line or plane, or of a line, to lie on a plane.^[8][11][3]

Word family

• appartenente
• appartenenza
• appartenersi

Related words

• pertenere
• tenere
• parte
• Latin pertineo
• French appartenir
• English appertain

Usage notes

The verb is conjugated like tenere (appartengo, appartenni, apparterrò) and takes either essere or avere in compound tenses, avere being the rarer.^[5][11][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ a b c d e f g Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
4. ^ a b c d e Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
5. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
6. ^ a b c d e Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
7. ^ a b c d e Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
9. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975)
10. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
11. ^ a b c d e f g h i Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
12. ^ a b Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 61
13. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
14. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca