parete

Forms

parete f (plural pareti)^[1] Old and dialect forms include Old Italian pariete, Old Italian parede, Old Italian pareta and Old Italian parite.^[2][3] In Old Italian the word could also be masculine.^[4][5][6]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *parētem (“wall”), the spoken form of Latin pariēs (“wall”).^[7][4][8][9] Wiktionary and DEI call the source Late Latin;^[1][10][11] Körting cites the plural ⟨paretes⟩ from a Roman inscription.^[1][10][11]

The word is found across the Romance languages: French paroi, Occitan paret, Spanish pared, Portuguese parede, Friulian paret, Romansh paraid and Romanian părete, and it was borrowed into Welsh as parwyd.^[12][13][10] It kept the masculine gender of the Latin noun in Romanian and in a few Adriatic dialects, at Cerignola, Trieste and Venice.^[10][13]

The origin of the Latin word is unclear.^[14][6] DELI thinks it pre-Indo-European, like abete, and DEI points to its non-Indo-European shape, comparable to Latin abiēs and ariēs, with a possible link to Late Latin paricus (“enclosure”) and the Iberian word behind Spanish parra (“vine arbour”).^[7][10] Nocentini places it in the family of aperiō (“to open”), and Devoto proposes a root meaning “to embrace” found in the Baltic area.^[12][15] De Vaan dismisses the comparison with Germanic words for “beam” such as Old High German sparro as a paper reconstruction.^[14]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is in the Novellino, from the end of the 13th century, for an inner wall of a building that divides the rooms; the passage tells of a husband who was behind la parete della camera (the bedroom wall).^[7][2] Brunetto Latini's Rettorica lists il fondamento, la parete e 'l tetto (foundation, wall and roof) as the parts of a house.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Dante used the word for a shelter or obstacle, in the question com'è che fai di te parete al sol? (how is it that you block the sun?), and for the steep side of a mountain, the sense of the modern climber's parete (la parete nord).^[7][5] Leonardo da Vinci used it for any structure that encloses a space or cavity.^[7] Matteo Villani rendered Horace's paries cum proximus ardet as quando il pariete prossimo a te arde (when your neighbour's wall is burning).^[3]

The bird-catcher's paretaio, recorded in 1296, is named from its nets, which stood like a wall in the birds' way.^[7] From the walls of rooms and vessels the word spread to anatomy (le pareti dello stomaco), botany (parete cellulare), the horse's hoof and the nets of trawling.^[8][16][9]

Timeline

• 1281–1300 – First record, in the Novellino.^[7]
• 1282 – Zingarelli's date of first record.^[9]
• 1296 – The derivative paretaio is recorded.^[7]
• Before 1321 – Dante uses the word for “obstacle” and for a mountain face.^[7]
• Before 1519 – Leonardo da Vinci uses it for a structure enclosing a cavity.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A wall, especially an inner one dividing the rooms of a building; either surface of it: Abbiamo dipinto le pareti di giallo.^{[8][4][16][9]}
2. (figurative) le pareti domestiche: one's home, family life.^[8][4][17]
3. A surface that closes off a space, such as the sides of a cave or tunnel.^[8][4][9]
4. The wall of a hollow object, or its inner or outer surface: le pareti del cassetto.^[8][4][5]
5. (anatomy) The wall of an organ or cavity: la parete addominale.^[8][9][1]
6. (botany) The protective layer around plant organs;^[8][9] parete cellulare, the cell wall.^[8][9]
7. (veterinary) The outer horny part of a horse's hoof.^[8][16][9]
8. (hunting, fishing) Each of the nets of a paretaio; each of the symmetrical parts of a trawl net.^[8][16][9]
9. (mountaineering) A steep rock or ice face of a mountain: scalare la parete est.^{[8][16][9][1]}
10. (figurative) A barrier, an obstacle; what separates people: una parete di diffidenza.^[8][4][16]

Word family

• paretaio
• paretina
• paretella
• interparete

Related words

• parietale
• parietaria
• muro
• Latin pariēs
• French paroi

Usage notes

Parete is the usual word for the wall of a room and for a rock face, and its synonym is muro.^[16][9] Da parete describes furniture and objects made to hang on or stand against a wall, and a parete attrezzata is a wall unit.^[4][9]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 12, 597
3. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
6. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975)
7. ^ 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
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
10. ^ a b c d e Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2775
11. ^ a b Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
12. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
13. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
14. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
15. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
16. ^ a b c d e f g Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
17. ^ Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)