montare

Forms

montare (first-person singular present mónto, first-person singular past historic montài, past participle montàto, auxiliary (transitive) avére or (intransitive) èssere)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *montāre (“to climb a mountain”), from Latin mōns (“mountain”).^[2][3][4][1] DELI defends this traditional explanation against Corominas, who had rejected it.^[2] The same verb is French monter, Occitan montar, Catalan muntar, Spanish montar and Portuguese montar, and REW adds Sardinian, Engadine and Friulian forms.^[3][5][6] The Latin noun goes back to Proto-Indo-European *món-tis, from the root Proto-Indo-European *men- (“to stand out”).^[1][7]

The sense “to assemble, put together the parts of something” is a later use of the same verb under the influence of the French verb.^[8][9][1] Devoto–Oli dates it to the mid-18th century, and DELI's first example, from notes to a 17th-century mock-epic poem (1688–1750), calls it popular usage.^[8][2] Its derivative montaggio is a formal calque of French montage, and montatore and montacarichi follow French models too.^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first example is in Bono Giamboni, before 1292, where the verb means “to rise in level, rank or tone”.^[2] The sense “to go up, climb onto” follows in Dante (1300–1313) and Dino Compagni (before 1324), and “to ride” in Jacopone da Todi (before 1306).^[2]

Semantic evolution

Other uses followed in Old Italian: “to swell, magnify” (before 1348, Giovanni Villani) and “to amount to”, still found as a rare sense.^[2][4] It also meant “to matter” and “to be of use”, as in che monta? “what does it matter?”^[8][10] The sense “to mate with” appears in Agnolo Firenzuola before 1543, and the noun monta “mating of animals” before 1597.^[2]

The sense “to assemble” spread to setting a stone, framing a picture, loading a gun and staging a show, and in 1958 to editing a film.^[8][2] In cooking, cream and egg whites montano when whipped.^[4][8] The pronominal montarsi, “to get excited”, appears in Benedetto Croce in 1929.^[2]

Timeline

• Before 1292 – Bono Giamboni uses the verb for rising in level or rank.^[2]
• 1300–1313 – Dante uses it for climbing.^[2]
• Before 1306 – Jacopone da Todi uses it for riding.^[2]
• Before 1348 – Giovanni Villani uses it for “to swell, magnify”.^[2]
• Before 1543 – Agnolo Firenzuola uses it for animals mating.^[2]
• 1688–1750 – The notes to the Malmantile record the sense “to assemble”.^[2]
• 1890 – Montaggio is borrowed from French montage.^[3]
• 1929 – Benedetto Croce uses montarsi “to get worked up”.^[2]
• 1958 – The verb is recorded for editing a film.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive) To go up, climb onto something; to get on a vehicle or a horse: Monta in macchina, ti porto io.^[4][8][10]
2. (intransitive) Of a road, to rise steeply; of a star, to rise above the horizon.^[4][10]
3. (intransitive) Of water, to rise in level; of cream or eggs, to swell when whipped.^[4][8][11]
4. (intransitive, figurative) To grow, increase: Il malcontento montava di giorno in giorno. In phrases such as montare in collera, montare in bestia, to fly into a rage.^[4][8][10]
5. (intransitive) To go on duty, start a shift: montare di guardia.^[4][8][12]
6. (intransitive, uncommon) To amount to (a sum).^[4][8][12]
7. (intransitive, uncommon) To matter;^[8][10] (archaic) to be of use.^[8][10]
8. (transitive) To go up (stairs, a slope); to ride (a horse); of animals, to mate with.^[8][11][12]
9. (transitive) To whip (cream, egg whites); (figurative) to exaggerate: Hanno montato un caso da nulla.;^[11][12][10] montare la testa a qualcuno, to make someone conceited.^[11][12][10]
10. (transitive) To assemble, put together; to set (a stone), to frame (a picture); to load (a gun).^[8][10][1]
11. (transitive) To edit (a film); to stage (a show).^[8][1]

Word family

• monta
• montaggio
• montante
• montata
• montato
• montatoio
• montatore
• montatura
• montacarichi
• montascale
• montavivande
• rimontare
• rimonta
• smontare
• smontaggio
• sormontare

Related words

• monte
• Latin mōns
• French monter

Usage notes

As an intransitive verb it takes essere, as a transitive verb avere.^[1][10] Devoto–Oli and Wiktionary list “to assemble” as a separate verb borrowed from French monter.^[8][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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 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 Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
6. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
9. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
11. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
12. ^ a b c d e Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana