diventare

Forms

diventare (first-person singular present divènto or divénto, first-person singular past historic diventài, past participle diventàto, auxiliary èssere)^[1] Older and regional forms are deventare and Tuscan doventare, with the vowel rounded before v.^[2][3][4] The old participle divento “become” survives in rural Tuscan.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *dēventāre, an intensive or iterative verb formed on Latin dēveniō (“to come down, arrive”).^{[5][6][7][8][9]} The Vulgar Latin verb is not recorded: the LEI reconstructs it from Italian and, from Romansh dvantar and daventar of the Engadine and the Surselva.^[8][9] DEI sees it as a verb of Italy only, which passed from there into Engadine.^[4]

Latin ⟨dēveniō⟩ is formed from dē- (“down, from”) and veniō (“to come”),^[1][10] which de Vaan traces to Proto-Indo-European *gʷm̥-yé- (“to come”).^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in the Splanamento of Patecchio, from Cremona, in the first decades of the 13th century, in the sense “to come to be (in a certain way) at the end of a change”.^[11] DELI's first record is in Restoro d'Arezzo, 1282.^[5][7]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian the verb could also mean “to turn out (as a result)” and, impersonally, “to happen”.^[11][8] Dante describes the souls that maravigliando diventaro smorte “grew pale with wonder”.^[12][13]

Diventare is the everyday verb, and divenire its more literary synonym.^[14][3] Common phrases are diventare rosso “to blush”, diventare di tutti i colori “to go red and pale by turns” and diventare matto “to go mad, to lose one's head”.^[2][15][16]

Timeline

• Early 13th century – Patecchio uses the verb.^[11]
• 1282 – Restoro d'Arezzo uses diventare.^[5]
• 15th century – The Tuscan form doventare is recorded.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. To become, to turn into or come to be, with a predicative adjective or noun: diventare ricco, diventare medico, Il latte è diventato acido.^[7][15][3]
2. Used absolutely, to change in appearance or character: Com'è diventata, tua cugina!^[7][15][16]

Word family

• ridiventare

Related words

• divenire
• venire
• Latin devenio

Usage notes

The auxiliary is essere.^[1][15]

References

1. ^ a b c d 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 Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
4. ^ a b c d Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1365
5. ^ a b c Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
6. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c d De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
8. ^ a b c Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 2, 74
9. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ a b c Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
12. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 385
13. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
14. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
15. ^ 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
16. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana