chetare

Forms

chetare (first-person singular present chéto or chèto, first-person singular past historic chetài, past participle chetàto, auxiliary avére)^[1] Old Italian has the variant chitare, the form of the first record.^[2][3] The TLIO's Old Italian forms include chetar and chieta.^[4]

Etymology

DELI, Nocentini, GRADIT, DEI and Devoto–Oli treat it as a verb from Italian cheto (“quiet, still”), with the verb ending -are.^{[2][5][6][7][8]} Wiktionary and Meyer-Lübke instead derive it straight from Late Latin quiētāre (“to quiet, calm”), through a Vulgar Latin form with ⟨qu⟩ for ⟨qui⟩, the same verb that gave Spanish quedar (“to stay”) and Portuguese quedar.^[1][9] The TLIO's etymology also names the Late Latin verb.^[4]

The adjective cheto is the popular form of the word that was taken again from Latin as quieto: it continues a Vulgar Latin *quētus, classical Latin quiētus (“calm, at rest”).^[2][5] The Latin adjective quiētus is formed from quiēs (“rest”).^[5] The learned quietare is a doublet of the verb.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the form chitare in Giacomo da Lentini, before 1250.^[2][6] The form chetare itself appears in Florentine documents of 1281–1297.^[2][6][4] The early sense is “to calm, make quiet”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian the verb covered more than silence: it meant to stop or soften distress, agitation or pain, to put down a riot, and to make a sound cease.^[4] It also had a commercial use, to cancel a debt or to free a debtor from it, and a sense “to satisfy fully”.^[4] The modern phrase chetare i creditori “to pay off one's creditors” continues that use.^[8][10][11]

The reflexive chetarsi means to become quiet or calm, and in older use to find peace;^[11][8] Dante has il vero … nel quale si cheta l'anima nostra “the truth … in which our soul finds rest”.^[11][8] By the 19th century Tommaseo records it of hunger and illness, as in a Tuscan proverb on bread soaked in soup that quiets the appetite.^[12] Today it is a Tuscan or literary word.^[10][11][13]

Timeline

• Before 1250 – Giacomo da Lentini uses the form chitare.^[2][6]
• 1281–1297 – Chetare appears in Florentine documents.^[2][4]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To quiet or hush someone, make them stop crying or shouting: La nonna riuscì a chetare il piccolo con una ninna nanna.^[6][10][11]
2. (transitive, figurative) To calm or appease a feeling or a need: chetare la fame, chetare l'ira.^[6][14][11]
3. (transitive) To satisfy a creditor by paying them.^[8][10][14]
4. (reflexive, chetarsi) To become quiet or calm; of wind or pain, to subside.^[8][13][14]

Word family

• acchetare
• chetichella

Related words

• cheto
• quieto
• quietare
• Latin quiētus

Usage notes

The verb is marked Tuscan or literary; the common words are calmare and acquietare.^[10][11][13]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
4. ^ a b c d e f Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
5. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 890
8. ^ a b c d e f Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
11. ^ a b c d e f g Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
12. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
13. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
14. ^ a b c Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli