lento

Forms

lento (feminine lenta, masculine plural lenti, feminine plural lente, superlative lentissimo)^[1] An old form Old Italian lente is used by Francesco da Barberino in 1314.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin lentus (“pliant, flexible; sticky; slow, sluggish; lasting”), whose first sense was “pliant”.^[2][4][5][1] Latin also had the derivative lentitia (“flexibility”), used by Pliny.^[2][6]

The word is pan-Romance: French lent, Occitan len and Portuguese lento, and Spanish liento, which meant “damp” and is now obsolete; the Spanish word for “slow”, lento, is a learned form.^[4][7][8] Romanian keeps only the verb Romanian alinta (“to pamper”).^[6][7] In the southern Italian dialects the adjective also means “thin, weakly”, and Sardinian lentu, in Sardinia, means “soft, damp”.^[6][7]

The Latin adjective goes back to Proto-Italic *lentos (“soft”), from Proto-Indo-European *lentos (“soft, smooth, pliant”).^[9][1] Nocentini finds close relatives only in Germanic: Old High German lindi (“mild, soft”), the source of German lind, and English lithe (“flexible”).^[4] De Vaan adds Lithuanian lentà (“board, plank”) and the Germanic name of the linden, linta, a tree with soft wood;^[9][1][2] DELI, on the other hand, sees no clear relatives inside or outside Latin.^[9][1][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first dated sense is “lacking promptness or speed”, in Dante (1300–1313).^[2] In the Inferno the monster Geryon descends through the air notando lenta lenta (“swimming slowly, slowly”).^[10][3] Iacopone had already used the word, before 1306, for “weak, infirm”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

From “slow” the adjective soon took the sense “lasting long with little intensity”, found in Petrarch before 1375;^[2] “soft, slackened” appears before 1332 in Alberto della Piagentina, and abito lento, a loose-fitting garment, in 1587.^[2] The literary sense “pliant, flexible”, the Latin one, lives on in poets such as Leopardi, who addresses the broom plant as lenta ginestra.^[11][12][10]

As a direction in music lento is recorded from 1619, in Praetorius;^[2][13] Italian lent it as a musical term to French (1703), English (1724) and German (1732).^[2][13] Veleno lento, a poison that acts slowly, is dated 1939–1940, and the noun for a slow dance appears in 1973.^[2] The derivative lentezza “slowness” is recorded from the 14th century.^[2][4]

Timeline

• Before 1306 – Iacopone uses lento for “weak, infirm”.^[2]
• 1300–1313 – Dante uses it for “slow”.^[2][10]
• 1314 – Francesco da Barberino has the form lente.^[2]
• Before 1332 – Alberto della Piagentina uses it for “soft, slack”.^[2]
• Before 1375 – Petrarch uses it for “long-lasting and of little intensity”.^[2]
• 14th century – Lentezza “slowness” is first recorded.^[2][4]
• 1587 – Abito lento, a loose garment, is recorded.^[2]
• 1619 – Lento is a musical direction in Praetorius.^[2]
• 1703 – French takes lento as a musical term.^[13]
• 1724 – English takes lento as a musical term.^[13]
• 1732 – German takes lento as a musical term.^[13]
• 1973 – The noun “slow dance” is recorded.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. slow: taking a long time to do something: Sei sempre lento a vestirti.^[5][14][12]
2. Slow-witted, not quick to understand.^[5][14]
3. Moving at low speed: un traghetto lento.^[5][11][15]
4. Happening gradually or lasting long; of a remedy or poison, acting slowly;^[5][15][12] a fuoco lento, over a low flame.^[5][15][12]
5. Of a film or story, with little action.^[5][15]
6. slack, loose, not tight; of clothes, loose-fitting.^[11][15][12]
7. (literary) Pliant, flexible; of hair, loose and flowing; of the limbs, relaxed.^[11][15][12]
8. (music) Of a tempo slower than adagio and faster than grave.^[11][12]

Noun

1. (music) A slow movement or piece.^[11][15]
2. A slow dance: L'orchestra attaccò un lento.^{[11][15][12][1]}

Adverb

1. Slowly, often doubled as lento lento.^[15][3][12]

Word family

• lentezza
• lentamente
• lentore
• allentare
• allentamento
• rallentare
• rallentamento
• rallentatore
• slentare
• rilento

Related words

• Latin lentus
• French lent

Usage notes

A Tuscan proverb quoted by Tommaseo says uomo lento non ha mai tempo, the slow man never has time.^[3]

DEI, Tommaseo and the GDLI also record an old nautical lento, a boat with two sails, recorded at Lucca in 1373; it is traced to Latin linter (“small boat”).^[6][3][10]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v 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 Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
4. ^ a b c d e Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b c d e f g De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
6. ^ a b c d Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2202
7. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
9. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ 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
11. ^ a b c d e f g Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
12. ^ a b c d e f g h i Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
13. ^ a b c d e Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
14. ^ a b Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
15. ^ a b c d e f g h i Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli