persino

Etymology

It is from Italian per + sino, the phrase “per sino” written as one word, with “per” strengthening the preposition.^{[2][3][4][5][1]} “Sino” “up to, until” is itself fino with the ⟨s⟩ of sì, or of an old “si” for “se”.^[2][3][4] The synonym perfino was formed in the same way from “per fino”.^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI dates the sense “even” to the 14th-century Bible translation;^[2][4][3][6] GRADIT gives 1470, in the old form persì, and Nocentini and Devoto–Oli the 15th century.^[2][4][3][6] In the old texts quoted by the GDLI the word is still a preposition, “up to, until”: the Bible translation asks how long the Lord will forget the speaker, “persino alla fine”, and Leon Battista Alberti writes “persino a qui” for “up to this point”.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The prepositional use, “as far as, until”, and the conjunctions persino che and persino a quanto “until” are found from the Bible translation to Apostolo Zeno in the 18th century, who writes of a chronicle that runs “persino al 1386”.^[7] Tommaseo explained persino as sino with more force, and gave the absolute, emphatic use, as in “mi ha detto persino che non mi voleva più bene” (“they even told me they did not love me any more”).^[8] This is the modern sense: it marks something as the extreme case, beyond what one would expect.^[4][6][9]

Timeline

• 14th century – Persino appears in the Bible translation.^[2]
• 1470 – The old form persì is recorded.^[4]
• 1807 – The synonym perfino is first written as one word.^[2]
• 1861 – Tommaseo records the emphatic use “even”.^[8]

Meanings

Adverb

1. even: marks what follows as the extreme or least expected case; the same as perfino: Alla festa è venuto persino il nonno.^[4][6][9][1]
2. With a comparative, “even (more)”: Oggi fa persino più freddo di ieri.^[6]
3. (archaic) Up to, until, as a preposition.^[7][8]

Related words

• sino
• fino
• perfino
• insino
• finanche

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g 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 Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e f g De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
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 Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
8. ^ a b c Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
9. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse