ritenere

Forms

ritenere (first-person singular present ritèngo, first-person singular past historic riténni or ritènni, past participle ritenùto, first-person singular future riterrò, auxiliary avére)^[1] Old Italian forms include retenere, retenire, retinere and ritinere, and an old past participle retento.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin retineō (“to hold back; to keep”), a compound of re- (“back”) and teneō (“to hold”).^{[3][4][5][6][1]} In Latin the verb already meant both “to keep together, contain” and “to keep in mind”.^[4] Devoto explains the ⟨i⟩ of the Latin stem as the normal weakening of ⟨e⟩ in an open medial syllable, and the Italian initial syllable as a cross with the prefix ri-.^[7]

The same verb is French retenir, Occitan retener, Spanish retener and Portuguese reter.^[4][8] The noun ritegno “restraint” was formed from the verb on the pattern of contegno beside contenere, as Merlo showed in 1951.^[3][4] The learned ritenzione and ritentivo go back to the Latin past participle retentus.^[3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's earliest dated sense is “to believe, judge”, in Giacomino Pugliese in the first half of the 13th century.^[3] “To hold back, stop” is in two poems of Guido Guinizelli, before 1276, including Al cor gentil rempaira sempre amore.^[3][5]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian used the verb for stopping an enemy, keeping a secret, holding a prisoner, possessing, and receiving or lodging a guest; these senses are now archaic.^[2][5][1] The Novellino already has it for keeping back part of a sum owed, and Dante (1304–1308) uses it figuratively for restraining a passion.^[3] Boccaccio has the pronominal verb both for “to consider oneself” and for “to refrain”.^[3]

The sense “to believe” was criticised: in 1831 Lissoni called it a wrong use, and as late as 1939–40 Palazzi thought ritenersi “to consider oneself” a neologism taken up by purists.^[3] It is now the main sense of the verb.^[6][5] From the participle came the noun ritenuta, an amount withheld, especially tax deducted from pay.^[3][4]

Timeline

• First half of the 13th century – Giacomino Pugliese uses ritenere for “to believe”.^[3]
• Before 1276 – Guido Guinizelli uses it for “to hold back”.^[3]
• Late 13th century – The Novellino uses it for withholding part of a sum.^[3]
• 1304–1308 – Dante uses it for restraining a passion.^[3]
• 1348–1353 – Boccaccio uses ritenersi “to consider oneself”.^[3]
• 1598 – Florio records the sense “to hold again”.^[3]
• 1831 – Lissoni condemns the sense “to believe”.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To believe, consider, judge: Ritengo che abbia ragione lui. With a complement: Lo ritenevano un buon medico.^[5][6][9]
2. To hold back, restrain, check: un muro per ritenere la terra; figuratively, ritenere uno sbadiglio.^[5][10][6]
3. To remember, keep in mind: Non riesco a ritenere i numeri di telefono.^[5][10][11]
4. Of the body, to retain (fluids, fat); non ritenere il cibo, to vomit it.^[5][11]
5. To withhold or deduct part of a sum owed: Dallo stipendio gli ritengono le tasse.^[5][6][11]
6. (rare) To hold again.^[5][9]
7. (archaic) To keep (a secret), to hold prisoner, to possess, to lodge.^[5][9][1]

Word family

• ritenuta
• ritegno
• ritentiva
• ritentivo
• ritenzione
• ritenuto
• ritenimento

Related words

• retentivo
• ritenutezza
• tenere
• trattenere
• contenere
• Latin retineo
• French retenir

Usage notes

Ritenersi “to consider oneself” takes a complement: si ritiene fortunato.^[6][11] In music ritenuto marks a sudden slowing of the tempo.^[9]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
3. ^ 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
4. ^ a b c d e f Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
6. ^ 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
7. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
10. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
11. ^ a b c d Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana