Etymologically
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partire

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Pronunciation

  • /parˈti.re/[1]

Forms

partire (first-person singular present pàrto, first-person singular past historic partìi, past participle partìto, auxiliary èssere)[1] In the old sense “to divide” the verb is conjugated partisco, partisci (literary parto), with the auxiliary avere.[2][3][1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin partiō (“to divide, share out”), the Late Latin active form of classical partior, from pars (“part”).[4][5][6][1] DELI treats the verb “to divide” as a learned word, while Nocentini, Wiktionary and Meyer-Lübke count it as inherited.[7][4][1][8] It is found in the western Romance languages: French partir, Occitan partir, Catalan partir, Spanish partir, Portuguese partir and Sardinian partire.[4][8][9]

The sense “to leave” came from the reflexive partirsi “to separate oneself”, hence “to go away”, a development French partir also went through: Old French partir meant “to divide” in the 12th century, and its reflexive “to go away” in the 13th.[7][4][10][9] DELI and GRADIT therefore derive the verb “to leave” from the verb “to divide”.[7][5] The old sense lives on in spartire and in derivatives such as partita, at first a “portion”, partito and partitura.[4] Punto di partenza is a calque on French point de départ.[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is a charter from Fabriano of 1186, with the sense “to cut into parts, to share out among several people”.[7][5][11] The reflexive in the sense “to originate” is found in Guido Faba before 1243, and “to leave, set off” in Giacomo da Lentini before 1250.[7][5]

Semantic evolution

In literary Italian the verb “to divide” remained in use: Petrarch's “il bel paese / ch'Appennin parte, e 'l mar circonda e l'Alpe” (the fair land that the Apennines divide and the sea and the Alps surround) and Dante's Magra, which “parte lo Genovese dal Toscano” (divides the Genoese from the Tuscan), are the classic examples.[5][2][3] German borrowed it as partiren in 1741.[11]

The sense “to leave” became the everyday one, with new uses in the 20th century: “to start a race” (1958), and in film jargon “to start shooting”, as in Mario Soldati in 1964.[7] In colloquial speech a person who parte loses control, especially after drinking, and a mechanism that è partito is broken.[10][1] Partire dal mondo is a euphemism for dying.[5][12]

Timeline

  • 1186 – A Fabriano charter has partire “to share out”.[7][11]
  • Before 1243 – Guido Faba uses the reflexive for “to originate”.[7]
  • Before 1250 – Giacomo da Lentini uses partire “to leave”.[7]
  • Before 1294 – Partenza “departure” in Brunetto Latini.[7]
  • 1741 – German partiren is recorded.[11]
  • 1846 – Punto di partenza is recorded in the Milanese press.[7]
  • 1958 – Partire “to start a race”.[7]

Meanings

Verb

  1. (intransitive, auxiliary essere) To leave, to set off for a place: Domani mattina partiamo per la montagna.[5][6][10][12]
  2. Of a train, ship or other vehicle, to start its journey: L'ultimo autobus parte a mezzanotte.[5][6]
  3. To start moving, especially quickly; to start a race; of a shot, to go off.[5][10]
  4. Of an engine or mechanism, to start: Con questo freddo la moto non parte.[10][1]
  5. (figurative) To start from something, take it as a starting point; to begin: partire da zero.[5][6][1]
  6. (colloquial) To lose one's head, especially from drink; of a mechanism, to break.[10][1]
  7. (literary, transitive) To divide; to share out: partire il bottino.[5][6][2][3]

Word family

  • dipartire
  • impartire
  • parte
  • ripartire
  • spartire

Usage notes

Common phrases are partire in quarta (to start with great energy), partire per la tangente (to go off at a tangent) and partire soldato (to go off to do military service).[5][12]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  3. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
  4. ^ a b c d e 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 De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  6. ^ a b c d e Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
  8. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  9. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2785
  10. ^ a b c d e f Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  11. ^ a b c d Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
  12. ^ a b c Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli