perdere

Forms

perdere (first-person singular present pèrdo, first-person singular past historic pèrsi or perdétti or (traditional) perdètti or (less common) perdéi, past participle pèrso or perdùto, auxiliary avére)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin perdō (“to destroy, waste; to lose”), formed from per- (“beyond”), here marking a turn for the worse, and dō (“to give”).^[2][3][4][5] The verb is pan-Romance: French perdre, Occitan perdre, Catalan perdre, Spanish perder, Portuguese perder and Romanian pierde.^[3][6] The base verb goes back to Proto-Indo-European *deh₃- (“to give”).^[7]

Of the participles, perduto continues the regular formation, while perso was made on the model of preso.^[1] The noun perdita, meaning loss, comes from the Latin participle perditus, and perdizione, meaning perdition, is a learned borrowing of Christian Latin perditiō.^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's earliest record is in Giacomino Pugliese, before 1250, with the sense “to cease to have, to be deprived of”.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

The other senses followed quickly: “to mislay” in Brunetto Latini (before 1294), “to let something slip, miss” in Onesto da Bologna (before 1303), “to leak, let flow out” in the Romanzo di Tristano (late 13th century), and in Dante “to waste”, “to end in defeat” and, reflexively, “to get lost”.^[2] The reflexive “to be ruined” is in the 14th-century Collazioni dei Santi Padri, the transitive “to ruin” in Saviozzo before 1420, and “to lose money, lose out” in Pietro Aretino (1546).^[2]

Compounds of the imperative type were formed in the 16th century: perdigiorno “idler” (Aretino has un uccel perde-il-giorno in 1536, Firenzuola the noun in 1549) and perditempo;^[2] a perdifiato “at the top of one's voice” is in Ippolito Nievo (1857–1858).^[2] A perdita d'occhio “as far as the eye can see” is probably a calque of French à perte de vue, recorded from 1606.^[2]

Timeline

• Before 1250 – Giacomino Pugliese uses perdere for ceasing to have something.^[2]
• Before 1294 – Brunetto Latini uses it for mislaying.^[2]
• Before 1303 – Onesto da Bologna uses it for missing something.^[2]
• Before 1321 – Dante uses it for wasting, for losing a contest, and reflexively for getting lost.^[2]
• 1536 – Pietro Aretino coins perde-il-giorno.^[2]
• 1546 – Aretino uses perdere for losing out.^[2]
• 1857–1858 – Ippolito Nievo uses a perdifiato.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To lose, to cease to have something, or to mislay it: Ho perso le chiavi della macchina.^[5][8][1]
2. To lose a part of the body, a faculty or a quality: perdere l’udito, perdere la calma, perdere peso, to lose weight.^[5][4]
3. To lose someone through death or estrangement.^[5][4]
4. To leak, let a liquid or gas escape: La lavatrice perde acqua.^[5][8]
5. To miss something through lateness or carelessness: Abbiamo perso l'ultimo treno.^[5][1]
6. To waste: perdere tempo.^[5][1]
7. To be defeated, lose a game, a war, a lawsuit; to lose money.^[5][8][2]
8. (pronominal, perdersi) To get lost, go astray; figuratively, to be ruined.^[2][4][1]

Word family

• perdita
• perdente
• perduto
• perso
• perdizione
• perdigiorno
• perditempo
• perdifiato
• perdibile
• sperdere
• disperdere

Related words

• Latin perdo

Usage notes

Both past participles are in use, perso being the commoner, and the past historic has persi, perdei and perdetti.^[8][4][1] Common phrases include lasciar perdere “to let something go, drop it”, perdere la testa “to lose one's head”, perdere le staffe “to lose one's temper” and perdere di vista “to lose sight of”.^[5][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q 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 Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ a b c d Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier