dipartire

Forms

dipartire (first-person singular present dipàrto, first-person singular past historic dipartìi, past participle dipartìto, auxiliary èssere)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Italian di- + partire, with the prefix used as an intensive.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} The LEI instead takes it as inherited from Late Latin dēpartīre (“to divide in two”), as Wiktionary does.^[7][1] Its base Latin partiō (“to divide”) is from pars (“part”).^[8][1]

GRADIT and Treccani's shorter dictionary give separate headwords, one built on partire in the sense “to divide” and one on partire “to leave”, and Devoto explained the prefix as intensive in the first and as marking separation in the second.^[3][9][10] The LEI and DELI treat it as one verb whose first sense was “to divide, separate”, from which “to share out” and “to leave” followed.^[7][2]

The same verb is Old French departir (about 1050), French départir, Old Occitan departir, Catalan departir, Spanish departir and Portuguese departir and Romansh departir.^[7][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is a document from Molise of 1171.^[12] DELI's first is in Rinaldo d'Aquino, early in the 13th century, with the sense “to leave, go away”, and the Lombard poet Patecchio uses departir for “to separate” at the same time.^[2][7]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian used the verb for separating things or people, for a boundary that divides land, for leaving a place, for straying from a rule (Guittone, before 1294), for the soul leaving the body, and for sharing out goods or scattering an army.^[12][2] Dante has it in both senses: un fesso che muro diparte “a crack that splits a wall” and l'ombra sua torna, ch'era dipartita “his shade returns, that had departed”.^[6][3]

The nominalised infinitive il dipartire “departure” was a favourite of Petrarch.^[13] From the verb came dipartuta (Guittone) and dipartita (Petrarch, before 1374), later also “death”.^[2] Dipartimento in the senses “ministry” and “administrative district” was borrowed from French département.^[7]

The verb is now literary; its liveliest use is dipartirsi, of roads or lines branching out from a point.^[14][5][9]

Timeline

• 1171 – The verb is recorded in a document from Molise.^[12]
• Early 13th century – Rinaldo d'Aquino uses dipartire “to leave”.^[2][3]
• Before 1294 – Guittone d'Arezzo uses it for “to stray”, and dipartuta.^[2]
• 1306–1321 – Dante uses the verb in the Divine Comedy.^[6]
• 1364 – Dipartita “death” is recorded in Niccolò Cicerchia.^[2]
• Before 1374 – Petrarch uses dipartita “departure”.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. (literary, intransitive, also dipartirsi) To depart, go away: Si dipartì dalla città all'alba.^[3][14][15]
2. (literary, euphemistic) To die.^[14][9]
3. (literary, figurative, dipartirsi) To stray from a principle or from the truth.^[14][9]
4. (dipartirsi) Of roads or lines, to branch off from a point.^[14][5][9]
5. (archaic, transitive) To divide into two or more parts.^[3][4][14]
6. (literary, transitive) To separate, keep apart.^[3][4][5]
7. (archaic, transitive) To distribute.^[3][14]

Word family

• dipartita
• dipartenza

Related words

• dipartimento
• partire
• spartire
• French départir

Usage notes

In the sense “to divide” the present is also dipartisco, and in the sense “to leave” it is diparto.^[6][1][4] The intransitive verb takes essere, the transitive avere.^[1][14]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ 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
4. ^ 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
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 c d Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
7. ^ a b c d e Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 19, 1194
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c d e Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
10. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
11. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975)
12. ^ a b c Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
13. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
14. ^ a b c d e f g h Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
15. ^ Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)