mietere

Forms

mietere or miétere (first-person singular present mièto or miéto, first-person singular past historic mietéi, past participle mietùto, auxiliary avére)^[1] Old and regional forms include mètare, mètere and mèdere.^[2] Northern texts of the TLIO have Old Italian meder.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin metō (“to reap, mow”).^[4][5][6][1] The same verb is Neapolitan metere, Venetian mieder, Piedmontese meye, Romansh meder and Occitan meire.^[7][5][8] In Latin it meant above all cutting grain, while mowing hay was secō, and in the Italian dialects it competes with segare.^[7][8] In French it was replaced by French moissonner, from moisson (“harvest”).^[5][8]

The Latin verb has direct matches in Celtic: Welsh medi (“to mow, harvest”) and Middle Breton midiff (“to harvest”).^[9][4][5] Its deeper origin is disputed.^[9][5] De Vaan connects it with Proto-Indo-European *met- (“to measure”), as in Lithuanian mẽtas (“year, time”), and keeps Ancient Greek ἀμάω (amáō, “to mow”), Old High German māen and Old English māwan apart.^[9] Nocentini and Wiktionary instead compare these words, with a root *h₂meh₁- (“to mow, reap”).^[5][1] Devoto linked the Lithuanian word for “year” with the harvest.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Bono Giamboni's Florentine translation of Orosius, before 1292, in the sense “to cut and gather the ears of ripe cereals”.^[3] Mietitura is recorded in the same text.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The figurative sense “to reap as a reward” is in Dante: Di mia semente cotal paglia mieto “such straw I reap from my own seed”, a reminiscence of Saint Paul.^[4][11] The absolute use, “to do the harvest”, is recorded before 1342 in Cavalca, and the poem attributed to Petrarch has the transitive verb around 1374.^[4]

In 1594 Guarini explained the sense “to kill”: death reaps human lives because a falling man is like cut grass.^[4] The modern dictionaries give mietere vittime “to claim victims” and mietere allori “to win great success”.^[6][12] Several proverbs come from the Bible: c'è chi semina e chi miete, chi semina in lacrime mieterà in gioia and chi non semina non miete.^[11][13]

Mietitrice was first a woman reaper (before 1604) and then the reaping machine (1869), followed by the mietitrebbiatrice, the combine harvester (1957).^[4]

Timeline

• Before 1292 – Bono Giamboni uses mietere and mietitura.^[3][4]
• 1313–1319 – Dante uses the verb figuratively.^[4][5][6]
• Before 1342 – Cavalca uses the verb absolutely and has mietitore.^[4]
• About 1374 – A poem attributed to Petrarch has the transitive verb.^[4]
• 1594 – Guarini explains the sense “to kill”.^[4]
• 1869 – Mietitrice “reaping machine” is recorded.^[4][5]
• 1957 – Mietitrebbiatrice “combine harvester” is recorded.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. To reap: to cut ripe cereals by hand or by machine: A luglio mietevano la segale nei campi alti.^{[6][14][15][13]}
2. (intransitive use) To bring in the harvest.^[6][14][13]
3. To mow grass.^[6]
4. (figurative) To kill in great numbers: mietere vittime.^{[6][14][15][12][13]}
5. (figurative) To gain in abundance: mietere allori.^{[6][14][15][13]}

Word family

• mietitore
• mietitrice
• mietitura
• mietitrebbiatrice
• mietilegatrice

Related words

• messe
• Latin metō

Usage notes

The diphthong ie is kept in unstressed syllables too: mietiamo, mieteva, mietuto.^[13][11] The stressed vowel may be open or closed.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
3. ^ a b c Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ 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
7. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2456
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. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
11. ^ a b c Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
12. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
13. ^ a b c d e f Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
14. ^ 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
15. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse