parente

Forms

parente m or f by sense (plural parenti)^[1]

Etymology

DELI calls it a learned word, borrowed from Latin parēns (“parent”) (accusative parentem).^[2][3] Nocentini counts it among the inherited words found across the Romance languages.^[4] The Latin word meant “father or mother”, and in Late Latin also “relative”.^[5][6][7] DELI quotes the jurist Gian Vincenzo Gravina, who found in Tertullian, Vopiscus and Jerome that ordinary people and soldiers already used parentes for the whole family, as Italian does.^[2]

The same word is French parent (plural parents (“parents”), whence English parents), Occitan paren, Catalan paren, Spanish pariente, Portuguese parente and Sardinian parente; Romanian părinte has kept the sense “parent”.^[4][8]

The Latin word is in origin the present participle of pariō (“to give birth to, bear”).^[2][4][9] De Vaan thinks it may preserve an old root aorist of the verb, from Proto-Indo-European *perh₃- (“to provide, bring forth”).^[10] Devoto instead links it with a verb meaning “to produce”, close to parō (“to prepare”).^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Contrasto of Cielo d'Alcamo, before 1250, in the sense “relative, someone bound to another by kinship”.^[2][9][3]

Semantic evolution

The Latin sense “parent” is found in Giordano da Pisa, before 1311, and in Dante, whose Virgil says “li parenti miei furon lombardi” (“my parents were Lombards”).^[2][9][12] It is now only literary;^[5][6] i primi parenti are Adam and Eve.^[5][6] Petrarch, before 1374, extended the word to a thing very like another, calling sleep “parente de la morte”, the kinsman of death.^[2][3]

Derivatives are old: parentado “kinship; relatives” (parentatu in the Ritmo di Sant'Alessio, early 13th century), and parentela (1304–1308, Dante).^[2] The proverb parenti serpenti warns that relatives are not to be trusted.^[3][6][5] In drug users' slang a parente is a dealer.^[9]

Timeline

• Before 1250 – Cielo d'Alcamo uses parente for a relative.^[2]
• Before 1243 – Parentado “kinship” is recorded in Guido Faba.^[2]
• 1304–1308 – Dante uses parentela.^[2]
• Before 1311 – Giordano da Pisa uses parente for a parent.^[2]
• Before 1374 – Petrarch uses it for something closely akin to another thing.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A relative, a person related by blood: È un mio parente da parte di madre.^[9][5][12]
2. (by extension) A relative by marriage or adoption, parente acquisito, an in-law.^[9][5][3]
3. (figurative) A thing closely akin to another.^[9][12][3]
4. (literary) A parent; an ancestor.^[9][5][12]
5. (slang) A drug dealer.^[9]

Word family

• parentado
• parentela
• parentale
• apparentare
• apparentamento
• imparentare
• monoparentale

Related words

• genitore
• genitrice
• partorire
• Latin parēns
• French parent

Usage notes

Parente is a false friend of English parent: the Italian for “parents” is genitori.^[1][9] Degrees of kinship are expressed as parente stretto or prossimo (close relative) and parente lontano or alla lontana (distant relative).^[9][12]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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 Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
4. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ 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
6. ^ a b c d Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
7. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
8. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
12. ^ a b c d e Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse