sé

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin sē (“himself, herself, themselves”), the reflexive pronoun.^[2][3][4][1] The same pronoun is French soi, Occitan se, Catalan se, Portuguese si, Sardinian se, Spanish sí and Romanian sine.^[3][1] Meyer-Lübke notes that in Romanian, Dalmatian and many Italian, Rhaeto-Romance and southern French dialects the pronoun also serves as the reflexive of the first and second persons.^[5]

The Latin pronoun continues an older sēd, used as accusative and ablative.^[3][6] De Vaan reconstructs stressed Proto-Italic *s(w)ē and Proto-Indo-European *se “oneself”, beside *swó- (“own”), the source of suus and so of suo.^[6][3] Related forms are Oscan siom, Gothic 𐍃𐌹𐌺 (sik), Old Church Slavonic сѧ (sę) and Lithuanian reflexive -si.^[6][3][7]

In the dialects of northern Italy, old and modern, the pronoun is si, with the /i/ taken over from mi, from Latin mihi.^[8] Extended forms such as Old Italian sene, seve and sete are also found.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Ritmo bellunese (1193–1196), a short poem from Belluno: con sé duse li nostre cavaler, “led our knights away with them”.^[2][9][4]

Semantic evolution

The use is the same from the earliest texts: the stressed reflexive, referring back to the subject, after a preposition or as an emphatic object.^[2][9] Dante writes in se medesmo si volgea co' denti, “he turned on himself with his teeth”.^[10]

Many fixed phrases grew up around it: da sé, by oneself, di per sé and in sé, in itself, fuori di sé, beside oneself, tornare in sé, to come to one's senses, and fra sé e sé, to oneself.^[4][11][12] Meyer-Lübke compares the Italian phrase da per sé with Spanish and Portuguese ones.^[5] In modern psychology and philosophy the word is also used as a noun, il sé, the self.^[4][10]

Timeline

• 1193–1196 – First record, in the Ritmo bellunese.^[2][9]

Meanings

Pronoun

1. oneself, himself, herself, themselves: the stressed reflexive pronoun of the third person, used after a preposition to refer to the subject: Tiene sempre le chiavi con sé.^[4][11][10]
2. Used as an emphatic direct object, especially in contrast with others: Pensa a salvare sé e non gli altri.^[4][11][13]
3. Strengthened by stesso or medesimo: Ha fiducia in sé stessa.^[4][14][10]

Noun

1. (psychology, philosophy) The self, the lasting core of a person's identity.^[4][10]

Related words

• se
• si
• suo
• seco
• Latin sē

Usage notes

Before stesso and medesimo the accent may be left out (se stesso), since there is no risk of confusion with the conjunction se.^[14][10][12] After the reflexive pronoun the following consonant is doubled in standard pronunciation.^[13]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d 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 h De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
6. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3435
9. ^ a b c d Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
10. ^ a b c d e f Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
11. ^ 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
12. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
13. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
14. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli