deserto

Forms

deserto (feminine deserta, masculine plural deserti, feminine plural deserte)^[1] As a noun it is masculine, plural deserti; the old plural was Old Italian desertora.^[1][2][3] The older form diserto is now archaic or literary.^[1][4][5]

Etymology

It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin dēsertus (“abandoned”), the past participle of dēserō (“to abandon, forsake”).^[6][4][1][7] The noun is borrowed from Late Latin dēsertum (“desert”), the neuter used as a noun: classical Latin used only the neuter plural, “solitary places”, and the singular is Late Latin, found in Jerome in the 4th century.^[6][8][9] The LEI says the noun spread through the translations of the Bible.^[10]

The verb is formed from dē- and serō, but the sources disagree on its sense: DELI takes the one meaning “to join, bind”, while Nocentini, the DEI and Tommaseo take “to sow, plant”, so that the first meaning would be “to leave uncultivated”.^{[6][11][9][12]}

The same Latin words gave French désert, Occitan dezert, Catalan desert, Spanish desierto, Portuguese deserto, Romanian deșert and Friulian disiàrt, and were borrowed into Welsh diserth.^{[11][10][13][9]}

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record of the adjective is in the Bolognese Parlamenti of Guido Faba, of about 1243, meaning “empty of people”; the noun first appears in the Lombard Istoria of Pseudo-Uguccione, of the first half of the 13th century.^[14][7]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian the adjective often described people: alone, without comfort, deprived of something, or ruined by misfortune; a place could be laid waste.^[14] Dante uses it as a true participle, dalla qual non fui diserto (“by whom I was not forsaken”), and Petrarch walks i più deserti campi, the loneliest fields.^[15][3]

The noun meant first a wild, lonely place where hermits withdrew to pray, in the language of the Bible and the Church Fathers, and a barren, empty land;^[10][3] Marco Polo's travels describe deserts of fifty or sixty miles without water.^[10][3] In Sicilian dialect the word has also meant a miscarriage.^[10] The geographical adjective desertico is French désertique (1877).^[6][10]

Timeline

• 4th century – Jerome uses Latin desertum in the singular.^[9]
• About 1243 – Guido Faba's Parlamenti have the adjective.^[14][7]
• First half of the 13th century – The noun appears in Pseudo-Uguccione.^[14]
• Before 1294 – Guittone d'Arezzo uses the noun and the sense “desolate”.^[6]
• 1304–1308 – Dante uses the adjective for “uninhabited”.^[6]
• 1918 – Desertico is first recorded.^[6]
• 1975 – Desertificazione is first recorded.^[11]

Meanings

Adjective

1. uninhabited, deserted; empty of people: A mezzanotte la piazza era deserta.^[16][4][8]
2. Uncultivated, desolate, abandoned.^[16][4]
3. (literary) Of a person, alone, wretched, unhappy.^[16][4][8]
4. (law) Of an auction without bidders (asta deserta), a case lapsed through the inactivity of the parties (causa deserta), or a hearing postponed because the parties did not appear (udienza deserta).^[4][2]

Noun

1. A desert: a vast, arid, almost uninhabited region with very little rain.^[16][4][8]
2. (figurative) An empty, lifeless place.^[16][4]

Word family

• desertico
• subdesertico
• desertificare
• desertificazione
• semideserto
• subdeserto

Related words

• diserto
• Latin dēsertum
• Latin dēserō

Usage notes

Predicare or parlare al deserto is to speak to people who will not listen, and essere una voce nel deserto comes from the biblical vox clamantis in deserto.^[5][4] Fare il deserto intorno a sé is to drive everyone away.^[4][5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ a b c d Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 4, 240
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b c Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
6. ^ a b c d e f g Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
7. ^ a b c Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 19, 1423
8. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
9. ^ a b c d Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1260
10. ^ a b c d e f Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 19, 1407
11. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
12. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
13. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
14. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
15. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 4, 239
16. ^ a b c d e De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET