Etymologically
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restare

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Pronunciation

  • /resˈta.re/[1]

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

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