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Etymology and origin of the Italian word nettare

nettare1 nectar

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1313–1319 Dante, Purgatorio
Borrowed from
Latin nectar
Ultimate origin
Ancient Greek νέκταρ
Etymology tree of nettare1
inherited borrowed derived
Ancient Greek νέκταρ (néktar)
Latin nectar
English nectar
French nectar
Italian nettare
The journey of nettare1

Pronunciation

  • /ˈnɛt.ta.re/[1]

Forms

nettare m (plural nettari)[1] The old form was Old Italian nectare.[2]

Etymology

The word for nectar is borrowed from Latin nectar (“drink of the gods”), a learned word, from Ancient Greek νέκταρ (néktar).[3][4][5][6] The same word is French nectar and Spanish néctar.[4]

The origin of the Greek word is uncertain.[3][7] A common view reads it as “that which overcomes death”, from Proto-Indo-European *néḱtr̥h₂, formed from *neḱ- (“to perish”), the root of νεκρός (nekrós, “dead”) and nex (“violent death”), and *terh₂- (“to overcome, to cross”).[4][1][6] Nocentini adds that it forms a pair with ambrosia, the food of the immortals.[4] Griffith proposed instead that it is an older variant of νίτρον (nítron, “natron”), of Egyptian origin.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Dante uses the word in the Purgatorio (1313–1319) for a sweet drink: in the earthly paradise nettare è questo di che ciascun dice (“this is the nectar of which everyone speaks”).[5][3][2]

Semantic evolution

The mythological sense, “the drink of the gods”, is dated in DELI to Petrarch, who writes that he does not envy Jove ambrosia e nettar.[3][2] Boccaccio explains that a god who broke an oath sworn by the Styx lost for a time the divine drink the poets call nettare.[2] From early on any delicious drink, especially a fine wine, could be called nettare, and Tommaseo cites Buti for a drink of wine and spices of the same name.[8][5]

The botanical sense came with the nettario, the gland of flowers that produces it: Tinelli in 1809 explains that botanists took the name from the poets' drink of the gods.[3] At the end of the 20th century the food industry gave the name to a drink of fruit juice and pulp with water and sugar.[5][2]

Timeline

  • 1313–1319 – Dante uses nettare for a sweet drink.[5][3]
  • Before 1374 – Petrarch uses it for the drink of the gods.[3]
  • Before 1638 – nettareo appears in Chiabrera.[3]
  • 1809 – Tinelli uses nettare for the sugary liquid of flowers.[3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (mythology) nectar: the sweet, fragrant drink of the gods of Olympus, said to give immortality.[5][9][10]
  2. Any drink with an exquisite taste, especially a fine wine or liqueur: Questo moscato è un nettare![5][9][11]
  3. (figurative, literary) A delight that satisfies the senses or the mind.[5][12]
  4. (botany) The sugary liquid produced by the nectaries of flowering plants, food for insects and some birds and the raw material of honey.[5][9][11]
  5. A fruit nectar: a drink of fruit juice and pulp with added water and sugar.[5][9][7]

Word family

  • nettareo
  • nettario
  • nettarina

nettare2 to clean

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
1306 before 1306, Iacopone da Todi
Ultimate origin
Latin niteō
Etymology tree of nettare2
inherited borrowed derived
Latin niteō
Italian netto
Italian nettare
From the same root · nettare2
Latin ēniteō ← niteō
Latin interniteō ← niteō
Latin nitēscō ← niteō
Latin nitidus ← niteō
Latin nītor ← niteō

Pronunciation

  • /netˈta.re/[1]

Forms

nettare (first-person singular present nétto or nètto, first-person singular past historic nettài, past participle nettàto, auxiliary avére)[1] Old Italian had nectare, and a dialect form is netare.[2]

Etymology

The verb for cleaning is from Italian netto (“clean”), with the verb ending -are.[3][4][5][9][6] Wiktionary allows a direct descent from Latin nitidāre (“to make bright”).[1]

netto is from Latin nitidus (“shining, bright”), from niteō (“to shine”), whose further origin is not known.[3][4][13] DEI notes that the northern dialects had a type *nitidiare, as in Old Lombard netezàr, matching Old Occitan nedejar and Catalan nedejar.[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Medieval Latin nectare is recorded at Ragusa in 1328, but Italian nettare is older: DELI dates it to Iacopone da Todi, before 1306, in the sense “to make clean by removing dirt and refuse”.[3][5]

Semantic evolution

Boccaccio uses it of a man cleaning out a tub and of Belcolore cleaning cabbage seed after threshing.[2][8] The figurative sense “to cleanse morally” and an old intransitive “to run away in a hurry” are also recorded.[5][7] Printers used it for cleaning type of faults of alignment and inking.[5][9]

Today it is literary or regional beside pulire, and most common for cleaning vegetables (nettare l'insalata).[9][14][1]

Timeline

  • Before 1306 – Iacopone da Todi uses nettare.[3][5]
  • 1328 – Medieval Latin nectare is recorded at Ragusa.[3]
  • 1540 – nettatoio “cleaning tool” is recorded in Biringuccio.[6]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To clean, to make clean: nettare gli stivali dal fango.[5][9][11]
  2. To clean vegetables or fruit of their waste parts or skin; to trim: nettare i carciofi.[5][9][11]
  3. (figurative) To cleanse morally.[5][12]
  4. (printing) To clean typeset matter of faults of alignment and inking.[5][9]
  5. (obsolete, intransitive) To run away in a hurry.[5][7]

Word family

  • nettatoio
  • nettatura
  • nettamento
  • nettatore
  • rinettare

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 Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 11, 390
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
  4. ^ a b c d e f Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  6. ^ a b c d e Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2576
  7. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  8. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
  10. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
  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 Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
  13. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  14. ^ Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Nettare.” Etymologically, 14 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/it/nettare. Accessed 15 Nov. 2026.

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