ovest

Forms

ovest m (invariable)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French ouest, taken over in writing and read with ⟨v⟩ for ⟨u⟩, since the two letters were once used interchangeably.^[2][3][4][1] The French word, recorded from 1138, comes from Old English west.^[3][5][1] DELI notes Klajn's doubt whether the immediate source was English, or rather Dutch or Norman.^[2] Zaccaria thought that the Old French form west, used with the article and found from the 12th century, had been taken from the Anglo-Saxons, perhaps through the Normans.^[6]

The Germanic word is also Old High German westan, modern German Westen, which meant the sunset and the evening.^[5] Nocentini and DEI connect it with the root of Latin vesper (“evening”) and Ancient Greek ἕσπερος (hésperos, “evening”).^[5][7] Wiktionary therefore calls the word a doublet of vespro.^[1] The Latin word goes back to Proto-Indo-European *wek⁽ʷ⁾speros, which de Vaan analyses as a compound of an obscure element *ue- and a word for “night”.^[8][1]

The old variants oeste and oest come directly from Spanish oeste and Portuguese oeste.^[9][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first records are from the mid-16th century, in geographical and navigation writing: DEI cites Ramusio, Zingarelli dates the word before 1557, and DELI and GRADIT give 1561, in Moleto's geography.^{[7][10][2][3]} Moleto explains that the wind Italian sailors call ponente, the west wind, is called ovest (in GDLI's text oeste) by the sailors of the Ocean.^[2][11][9] GRADIT dates the word in the old variant oeste.^[3]

Semantic evolution

In the 16th century the word was a sailors' term for the west wind as much as for the direction, alongside the native ponente and occidente.^[9][11] Ulloa's version of F. Colombo has ueste and oeste.^[9] Moleto also records the compound ovestnort for the wind between west and north, which Italian sailors called maestro.^[11]

The sense “territory lying to the west of a given point” is recorded in the Milanese press in 1801, and “the part of the horizon where the sun sets” in Tramater's dictionary in 1834.^[2] The word still sounded foreign in the 19th century: in 1876 Pareto declared against the purists that he would write Nord and Sud, Est and Ovest.^[2] Today it also names the North American West, often called by the English word West, and in bridge the player sitting opposite East.^[3][12][4]

Timeline

• Before 1557 – the word is recorded, according to Zingarelli.^[10]
• 1561 – Moleto names the west wind of the Ocean sailors ovest.^[2][3]
• 1801 – the Milanese press uses ovest for a territory lying to the west.^[2]
• 1834 – Tramater's dictionary defines it as the part of the horizon where the sun sets.^[2]
• 1876 – Pareto defends writing Nord, Sud, Est and Ovest against the purists.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. west: the cardinal point where the sun sets at the equinoxes, also called ponente or occidente (symbol O or W): il vento gira a ovest.^{[3][12][13][10]}
2. The direction of that point, opposite est: la casa è rivolta a ovest.^[3]
3. After another cardinal point, an intermediate direction: nord-ovest, sud-ovest.^[3][12]
4. The western part of a country, continent or region: l'ovest della Spagna.^{[3][12][13][4]}
5. (capitalised) The West of the United States and Canada towards the Pacific, settled in the 19th century: i pionieri dell'Ovest.^[3][12][4]
6. (bridge) The position of the player who partners East, sitting opposite; the player in that position.^[3][12][10]

Adjective

1. (invariable, after a noun) western, lying in or facing the west: il lato ovest del castello, Milano ovest.^{[3][12][10][14]}

Related words

• vespro
• ponente
• occidente
• est
• French ouest

Usage notes

Ovest is invariable and is often written with a capital.^[3][1] The old forms òest, oèste and ueste are found in 16th-century texts.^[9]

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 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 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
4. ^ a b c d Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
5. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ Zaccaria, Enrico (1901), L'elemento germanico nella lingua italiana: lessico con appendice e prospetto cronologico, Bologna: Treves
7. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2709
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ a b c d e Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 12, 299
10. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
11. ^ a b c Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
12. ^ a b c d e f g Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
13. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
14. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana