posto

Forms

posto m (plural posti)^[1] In Naples the noun is first recorded as Old Italian puosto (1452), and the GDLI gives puòsto as the dialect form.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin positus (“placed, put”), the past participle of pōnō (“to place, put”), through the shortened form postus with the loss of the vowel after the stress.^[2][1][4] The adjective “placed, situated” came first, and the noun is that participle used as a noun, in the sense “the place fixed or assigned”.^[5][6][7] DEI explains the close /o/ of the word by the influence of porre.^[8]

The same participle gave Catalan post, Spanish puesto and Portuguese posto.^[5] Latin pōnō goes back to an older compound meaning “to put down”, made of the prefix po- and sinō (“to let, allow”); its old perfect was formed like that of the simple verb, and the newer perfect posuī was built on the participle once the link with the simple verb was no longer felt.^[9]

The noun was borrowed as French poste in the 15th or 16th century,^[8] first in the military sense of a place of watch or combat (1636) and then of a job (1663).^[10] English post “position, job” (1562) and “place assigned to a soldier” (1598) is from French and Italian, and German Posten is a borrowing too.^[10][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The participle used as an adjective, “placed, situated”, is recorded in 1211 in a Florentine bankers' book.^[2] The noun first appears in 1452 at Naples, as puosto, for a place assigned to someone or something;^[2][10] posto itself is in Cosimo Bartoli before 1572.^[2][10]

Semantic evolution

The noun spread through military language: in 1553 a journal of the siege of Montalcino uses it for the place of each soldier in the ranks of his unit.^[2][10] In 1611 Lodovico Melzo uses it for a space kept free or reserved for someone, Paolo Segneri in 1673 for an office or employment, and Rigutini and Fanfani in 1875 record it for a locality or site.^[2]

From the idea of the right place come the everyday phrases a posto “in order” (also of a person, “decent, reliable”), fuori posto “out of place”, mettere a posto “to tidy up” and, figuratively, “to put someone in their place”.^[11][6][12] Compounds name reserved places: posto letto (a hospital or hotel bed), posto macchina, posto barca, posto di blocco (a roadblock) and posto di lavoro (a job).^[11][13][1] The adjective survives in posto che “given that”, used by Dante and, in the 13th century, by Jacopone with the old meaning “although”.^[8][14]

Timeline

• 1211 – The participle posto “placed, situated” appears in a Florentine bankers' book.^[2]
• 1452 – The noun is recorded at Naples as puosto, “an assigned place”.^[2]
• 1553 – Posto is used for a soldier's place in the ranks.^[2][10]
• 1562 – English post “position, office” is first recorded.^[10]
• 1611 – Lodovico Melzo uses it for a reserved space.^[2]
• 1636 – French poste in the military sense is first recorded.^[10]
• 1673 – Paolo Segneri uses it for a job or office.^[2]
• 1875 – Rigutini and Fanfani record the sense “locality, site”.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. Room, space: a portion of space that people or things can occupy, also figuratively: Nella mia macchina c'è posto per cinque.^[11][6][14]
2. The usual or proper place of something: Rimetti le forbici al loro posto.^[11][7]
3. A place assigned to someone, in a group, a classroom or a queue, or a person's position in a ranking: È arrivato al terzo posto.^[11][7]
4. A seat in a theatre, stadium or vehicle: un'auto a cinque posti.^[11][1]
5. A job, an office or employment: Ha trovato un posto in banca.^[2][11][1]
6. A place, spot or locality: un bel posto per le vacanze.^[2][1]
7. (military) A post: a place where soldiers or police are stationed, as in posto di blocco, a roadblock.^[2][11]

Adjective

1. Past participle of porre: placed, situated: un paese posto in cima alla collina.^[11][7]
2. Agreed, fixed, or taken as given; in posto che “given that, supposing that”.^[11][14]

Word family

• postare
• postazione
• impostare
• impostazione
• spostare
• spostamento
• appostare
• avamposto
• postaccio
• posticino

Related words

• porre
• posta
• posizione
• positivo
• Latin positus

Usage notes

Zingarelli records the jocular superlative appostissimo of a posto.^[12]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 13, 1082
4. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier, p. 340
5. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c 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 Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
8. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3039
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ a b c d e f g h Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
11. ^ 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
12. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
13. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
14. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana