convitare

Forms

convitare (first-person singular present convìto, first-person singular past historic convitài, past participle convitàto, auxiliary avére)^[1] Old Italian forms include northern convidare and conviare.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *convitāre (“to invite”), from Latin invītō (“to invite”) with its prefix changed.^[3][4][1][5] DELI, GRADIT, Devoto–Oli and the REW explain the change by the influence of convīvium (“banquet”), whose meaning is close;^{[3][6][7][8][4][5]} Nocentini and the DÉRom see a plain exchange of prefixes, a view the DÉRom traces to Diez, Gröber and von Wartburg.^{[3][6][7][8][4][5]} DEI and the GDLI start from Medieval Latin.^[9][10]

The DÉRom reconstructs a Proto-Romance verb meaning “to ask someone to come, to invite”, with reflexes in Sardinian and the Italo-Western Romance languages.^[5] Its outcomes are French convier, Occitan covidar, Catalan convidar, Spanish convidar and Portuguese convidar.^[4][8] In most of these languages the inherited descendants of the Latin verb came to mean “to challenge” or “to bid” in games, and this verb took over the Latin sense.^[8]

The origin of the Latin verb is uncertain; de Vaan suggests a verb from Proto-Indo-European *weyh₁- (“to pursue”) with the prefix in-.^[11][1] convito, “banquet”, is a back-formation from the verb.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the Ritmo di sant'Alessio, a poem from the Marche of the late 12th century, in which the patrician gathers tutta Roma convitata (“all Rome invited”), in the sense to call to a banquet.^[3][2][10]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian used the verb for inviting to a meal or a feast, for offering hospitality at one's table, and more generally for inviting, urging or summoning to a meeting; it also had the intransitive sense “to feast”.^[2] Guittone d'Arezzo uses it for inviting in general, and Giovanni Villani for inviting to dinner.^[12][13] The participle convitato, a guest at a banquet, is in Dante (1304–1308), and convito itself is recorded from 1233–1243.^[3]

In modern Italian the verb is literary or archaic, replaced in ordinary use by invitare.^[6][7][14]

Timeline

• Late 12th century – First record, in the Ritmo di sant'Alessio.^[3][2]
• 1233–1243 – Convito “banquet” is recorded.^[3]
• 1304–1308 – Dante uses convitato.^[3]
• 14th century – Giovanni Villani uses the verb for inviting to dinner.^[12][13]

Meanings

Verb

1. (literary) To invite to a banquet or feast: Il principe convitò a palazzo gli ambasciatori.^[6][7][15]
2. (archaic) To invite in general.^[7][14][1]
3. (intransitive, literary) To feast, banquet.^[6][15][14]

Word family

• convitato
• convito
• convitante
• convitatore

Related words

• invitare
• convivio
• Latin invītō

Usage notes

A separate obsolete convitare “to covet, desire”, used by Giovanni Villani, comes from Old French coveitier (modern French convoiter).^{[6][9][10][12]}

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d 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 h i Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
4. ^ a b c d Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b c d Buchi, Éva; Schweickard, Wolfgang, eds. (2008–), Dictionnaire Étymologique Roman (DÉRom), Nancy: ATILF, http://www.atilf.fr/DERom
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. ^ 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
8. ^ a b c d Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1092
10. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
11. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
12. ^ a b c Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
13. ^ a b Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti
14. ^ a b c Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
15. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse