Etymologically
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bere

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Pronunciation

Forms

bere (first-person singular present bévo, first-person singular past historic bévvi or bevétti or (traditional) bevètti, past participle bevùto, first-person singular imperfect bevévo, first-person singular future berrò, auxiliary avére)[1] The older form bevere survives in archaic and popular use.[2][3] Old and dialect forms include Venetian ber (1307) and Pisan bé’.[4]

Etymology

It is a shortened form of the older bevere, which is inherited from Latin bibō (“to drink”).[5][3][6][1] Sabatini–Coletti describes the change as the loss of the syllable after the stress.[7] Pietro Bembo already noted that although Tuscans use the short form, it came from the longer one, which was in use in Tuscany and other parts of Italy.[5] The shortened form is old: DEI finds it in a glossary that renders a Greek infinitive with it,[8] and the LEI points to similar short forms in Vegliote bar, French boire and Campidanese biri.[4]

The Latin verb lives on across Romance: Occitan beure, Catalan beure, Spanish beber, Portuguese beber, Romanian bea and Logudorese biere.[3][9][4]

Latin bibō continues Proto-Italic *pibō, a reduplicated present of the root meaning “to drink”, Proto-Indo-European *píph₃eti.[10][1] Its initial /b/ arose by assimilation to the /b/ inside the word.[10][8] It is cognate with Sanskrit पिबति (píbati), Old Irish ibid (“drinks”), Ancient Greek πίνω (pínō) and Russian пить (pitʹ).[10][3][1] The same root, without the reduplication, is found in Latin pōtus (“drink”) and pōtō (“to drink”), the source of potabile.[10][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

GRADIT and Nocentini date the word to the 10th century;[6][3][7] Sabatini–Coletti makes clear that the 10th-century record has the form bevere.[6][3][7] The LEI's first record of bere is the Tuscan Fiori e vita di filosafi, about 1274, and DELI's is a Bolognese Memoriale of 1282, in the sense “to swallow a liquid”.[4][5]

Semantic evolution

The infinitive was soon used as a noun, for the act of drinking and for drink itself, in Iacopone da Todi (before 1306).[5] Dante writes of the women of ancient Rome: “E le Romane antiche per lor bere / contente furon d'acqua” (and the Roman women of old were content with water for their drink).[11] By about 1313 Dante also used the verb for drinking to excess, and before 1321 for soaking up a liquid.[4][5]

Drinking to someone's health is recorded in Sannazaro before 1530.[4] The figurative sense “to believe naively” is in Pietro Aretino in 1545,[5] and Berni has darla a bere, “to make someone swallow a story”.[12] In the 21st century the verb is used of a car that burns a lot of fuel: a 2007 newspaper quotes a driver whose Alfa “drinks like a camel”.[13]

Timeline

  • 10th century – The verb is recorded, in the form bevere.[6][7]
  • About 1274 – Bere appears in the Fiori e vita di filosafi.[4]
  • 1282 – A Bolognese Memoriale has bere.[5]
  • Before 1306 – Iacopone da Todi uses bere as a noun.[5]
  • About 1313 – Dante uses it for drinking to excess.[4]
  • Before 1321 – Dante uses it for absorbing a liquid.[5]
  • Before 1530 – Sannazaro uses it for drinking a toast.[4]
  • 1545 – Pietro Aretino uses it for believing naively.[5]
  • 2007 – A newspaper uses it of a car's fuel consumption.[13]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To drink, swallow a liquid: Bevo sempre un bicchiere d'acqua appena sveglio.[6][2][1]
  2. Used absolutely, to drink alcohol, especially to excess or by habit: Da quando ha perso il lavoro beve.[6][7][14]
  3. To drink a toast: bere alla salute di qualcuno.[6][14]
  4. To swallow water by accident while swimming.[6][7]
  5. Of soil or plants, to absorb water.[6][7][14]
  6. Of an engine or a car, to use a lot of fuel.[6][7][13]
  7. (figurative) To believe something naively: darla a bere, to make someone believe a lie.[7][14][12]
  8. (figurative, colloquial) To beat an opponent easily; to cover a distance quickly.[6][2]

Noun

  1. Drinking, and what one drinks: il bere e il mangiare.[5][11]

Word family

  • bevanda
  • bevitore
  • bevuta
  • beone
  • beverone
  • beverino
  • abbeverare
  • abbeveratoio
  • sbevazzare
  • bevibile
  • bevere
  • potabile
  • beveraggio
  • Latin bibō

Usage notes

Most forms are made from the stem bev- (bevo, bevevo, bevuto); the future and conditional are berrò and berrei, and the past historic is bevvi or bevetti.[2][15][16] Set phrases include bere come una spugna “to drink like a fish”, bere le parole di qualcuno “to hang on someone's words” and o bere o affogare “sink or swim”.[6][14][2]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  8. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 491
  9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  10. ^ a b c d 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 Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
  12. ^ a b Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 133
  13. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. Supplemento 2009
  14. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  15. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
  16. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli