restare

Forms

restare (first-person singular present rèsto, first-person singular past historic restài, past participle restàto, auxiliary èssere)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin restāre (“to stay behind, remain”), a learned word, formed from Latin re- (“back, again”) + stō (“to stand”).^[2][3][4][5] Nocentini lists French rester and Spanish restar beside it, while Meyer-Lübke thought the French verb was taken from Italian.^[3][6] The Latin verb also lies behind resto, arrestare and restio.^[3][6]

A variant ristare, with the inherited prefix ri- in place of the learned one, took the particular senses “to pause” and “to cease”.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record, from an anonymous text of the 13th century, has the sense “to stop, halt”;^[2][3] Nocentini dates restare before 1313 and ristare to the 13th century.^[2][3] GRADIT illustrates the old sense with Petrarch: “come uom che per terren dubio cavalca, / che va restando ad ogni passo, e guarda” (like a man riding over uncertain ground, who stops at every step and looks around).^[4]

Semantic evolution

The sense “to stay in a place” is in Dante (1300–1313), and “to end up in a situation” in Boccaccio (1339–1340).^[2] Boccaccio also has “to be left over” (1348–1353), and Dante and the Novellino have the literary “to cease”.^[2] Later senses are “to stay in a position” (1671), “to be situated” (1872, Tommaseo) and “to survive” (1891).^[2] The noun resto “remainder” is recorded before 1348, and as the change given back after a payment in 1332–1336.^[2]

DELI explains two phrases.^[2] Restare al verde, to be penniless, is linked to the old custom of painting green the bottom of the candles used at auctions: when the flame reached the green, no more bids were taken.^[2] Restare di sale, to be dumbfounded, recalls Lot's wife, turned into a pillar of salt.^[2]

Timeline

• 13th century – An anonymous text uses restare for “to stop”.^[2]
• 1300–1313 – Dante uses it for staying in a place.^[2]
• 1332–1336 – Resto is used for change in a Lucchese merchant's book.^[2]
• 1348–1353 – Boccaccio uses restare for “to be left over”.^[2]
• 1891 – It is recorded in the sense “to survive”.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To stay, to remain in a place: Domenica restiamo in città.^[4][7][8]
2. To remain in a state or condition: La porta è restata aperta tutta la notte.^[4][7][1]
3. To be left, left over: Mi restano solo dieci euro.^[4][8][1]
4. To end up, find oneself in a situation, especially in phrases like restare male, to be hurt or disappointed, and restare a piedi, to be left without transport.^[4][7][9]
5. Of news, to go no further: resti tra noi, between ourselves.^[4][7]
6. (literary) To stop; to cease doing something.^[4][1]

Word family

• resto
• restante
• ristare

Related words

• rimanere
• stare
• arrestare
• restio
• Latin restō

Usage notes

It takes essere (sono restato).^[7][1] In most uses it is a synonym of rimanere, and it also appears in the pronominal form restarsene (me ne resto a casa).^[7][8]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o 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 f Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e f g h De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier, p. 368
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ a b c d e f Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
9. ^ Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli