Etymologically
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est

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Pronunciation

Forms

est m (invariable)[1] The older form este is now obsolete.[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Spanish este and est, which go back to Old English ēast.[2][4][5][1] DELI, following Migliorini, says that the names of the compass points, though English in origin, reached Italian through Spanish: the Spanish-looking forms ⟨norte⟩ and ⟨este⟩ came first and gave way to the forms preferred in France.[2] GRADIT also derives the word from Spanish, recorded in 1492.[4] Nocentini, DEI, Prati and Devoto take it from French, where Old French had le hest in the 12th century.[5][6][7][8] Zaccaria names both languages and notes that writers used these words from the 16th century, but they became common only in the 19th, with the growth of geography, beside the native levante and oriente.[9]

The Germanic words for the east, such as English east and German Osten, go back to the root Proto-Indo-European *aus- of words for the dawn, the point where the sun rises; aurora has the same root.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the form este in Giuseppe Moleto in 1561, cited by Tommaseo;[2][4][9] est appears in 1585 in Filippo Sassetti, as the name of the cardinal point where the sun rises at the equinoxes.[2][4][9]

Semantic evolution

Sassetti also uses the compound est nord est, and the GDLI quotes the word for the winds blowing from these points.[3][7] Daniello Bartoli has este for the east wind.[7] From the compass point the word came to name the eastern part of a country or continent, and with a capital, l'Est, the countries of Eastern Europe under Soviet influence.[4][10][11] As an invariable adjective after a noun it means “eastern”, as in parete est.[11][12]

Timeline

  • 1492 – Spanish este is recorded.[4]
  • 1561 – Giuseppe Moleto uses este.[2][4]
  • 1585 – Filippo Sassetti uses est.[2]
  • 19th century – The compass names become common with the growth of geography.[9]
  • 1938 – Latin est is recorded as the telegraphic spelling of è.[12]

Meanings

Noun

  1. east: the cardinal point where the sun rises at the equinoxes, symbol E; also levante, oriente: Il vento soffia da est.[4][10][12]
  2. The direction of that point: La camera da letto guarda a est.[4]
  3. The eastern part of a country, region or continent: Abitano nell'est della Sicilia.[4][10][12]
  4. (capitalised) Eastern Europe, especially the countries once under Soviet influence: i paesi dell'Est.[4][10][11]
  5. (history) In North America, the area of the first European colonies, New England.[4][10][12]
  6. (bridge) The player in the east position, partner of West.[11]

Adjective

  1. (invariable, after the noun) Eastern, facing east: Saliremo dalla parete est.[4][11][12]
  • levante
  • oriente
  • aurora
  • English east
  • French est

Usage notes

In telegrams the Latin verb form est, “is”, was written for è so that it could not be confused with the conjunction e.[4][10][12]

References

  1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ 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
  3. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  5. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  6. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1547
  7. ^ a b c Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 410
  8. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
  9. ^ a b c d Zaccaria, Enrico (1901), L'elemento germanico nella lingua italiana: lessico con appendice e prospetto cronologico, Bologna: Treves, p. 140
  10. ^ a b c d e f Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
  11. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  12. ^ a b c d e f g Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse