conservare

Forms

conservare (first-person singular present consèrvo, first-person singular past historic conservài, past participle conservàto, auxiliary avére)^[1]

Etymology

It is learned: it is borrowed from Latin cōnservō (“to keep, guard, preserve, save”),^[2][3][4][1] made of con- and servō (“to keep, guard”).^[2][4][5] The derivatives conservabile, conservativo, conservatore and conservazione continue the Latin words of the same family, the first two from Late Latin.^[2][3] Conserva “preserve” is a deverbal noun with no suffix.^[2]

The same verb is French conserver and Spanish conservar.^[3][6] Körting found it in the other Romance languages too, except Romanian.^[6] Wiktionary takes the Latin simple verb as a denominative, perhaps of an older noun meaning “observation”, according to Rix, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ser-.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is a document from Montieri of 1219.^[7][3][8] DELI's first dated sense, “to make last, maintain”, is in Dante's Convivio (1304–1308), where temperance governs our appetite ne le cose che conservano la nostra vita (“in the things that preserve our life”).^[2][9]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian the verb covers keeping from decay or destruction, protecting and saving, looking after things and moral qualities, holding someone in a place, keeping something going, continuing to have a quality, saving money, and observing a law; in legal language conservare senza danno meant to compensate someone.^[7] Dio la conservi was a formula of good wishes and farewell in letters and speech.^[10]

Food preservation came with the noun conserva, used for preserved vegetables from 1578.^[2] Conservatorio first meant a boarding school, especially for girls (1706): such institutions for orphans arose at Naples in the 16th century, taught music, and gave their name to music schools, recorded in 1812.^[2] French borrowed conservatoire in the musical sense from Italian (1784).^[11] The political sense of conservatore, “opposed to change”, is recorded before 1829.^[2]

Timeline

• 1219 – First record, in a document from Montieri.^[7][3]
• 1304–1308 – Dante uses it in the Convivio.^[2][4]
• Before 1306 – Iacopone uses conservativo.^[2]
• Before 1348 – G. Villani uses conservatore for a city magistrate.^[2]
• 1578 – Conserva is used for preserved food.^[2]
• 1706 – Conservatorio is used for a girls' boarding school.^[2]
• 1784 – French conservatoire is borrowed from Italian.^[11]
• 1812 – Conservatorio is used for a music school.^[2]
• Before 1829 – Conservatore takes the sense “opposed to change”.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To keep, store: to look after something so that it is not spoiled or lost: Conservo ancora le sue cartoline.^[4][12][5]
2. To preserve food so that it does not go bad, in oil, salt or the cold.^[4][12][8]
3. (figurative) To maintain, keep from failing: peace, power.^[4][12][5]
4. To still have, not to have lost: a quality, one's memory, one's calm.^[4][12][13]
5. (literary) To protect, preserve from harm.^[4][8][14]
6. (pronominal, conservarsi) Of food or wine, to keep; of a person, to stay well and in good shape.^[8][13][5]

Word family

• conserva
• conservazione
• conservatore
• conservatorio
• conservativo
• conservante
• conservabile
• conservatoria
• conservatorismo
• conserviere
• conserviero
• conservificio

Related words

• serbare
• osservare
• riservare
• preservare
• French conserver
• Latin cōnservō

Usage notes

A separate old and dialect verb conservare, “to converse, keep company”, comes from conversare by metathesis;^[15] GDLI quotes it from Paolo da Certaldo.^[15]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ a b c d e Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e f g h De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
6. ^ a b Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
7. ^ a b c Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
8. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
9. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 3, 592
10. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
11. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1068
12. ^ 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
13. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
14. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
15. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 3, 593