Etymologically
Log in

saldo

History Permalink

Etymology and origin of the Italian word saldo

Confidence
Probable
Formation
Inherited
First attested
1250–1300 More words from the 13th century
Inherited from
Latin saldus
Ultimate origin
Latin solidus

Pronunciation

Forms

saldo (feminine salda, masculine plural saldi, feminine plural salde, superlative saldissimo, adverb saldamente)[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin saldus, a Late Latin form that Battisti–Alessio, the GDLI and GRADIT explain as a cross between Latin solidus (“solid, firm”) and validus (“strong”).[2][3][4] DELI, Devoto–Oli, Zingarelli and Treccani also see the influence of validus, DELI and Sabatini–Coletti with a “probably” or “perhaps”, and Wiktionary speaks of a Vulgar Latin derivative of such a cross.[5][6][7][8][9][1] Nocentini starts from Late Latin soldus, the contracted form of solidus, and calls the influence of validus a very weak argument; he suggests that Tuscan, reacting against northern forms with ⟨ol⟩ for ⟨al⟩ (⟨oltro⟩, ⟨coldo⟩, ⟨folso⟩ for altro, caldo, falso), wrongly restored an ⟨a⟩ in ⟨soldo⟩.[10] Prati calls the origin doubtful.[11] The contraction soldus is already used by Varro and Horace.[12]

Solidus is from Proto-Italic *soliþo-, from Proto-Indo-European *solh₂-i-dʰh₁-o- (“entire”), from the same root *solh₂- (“whole”) as salvus.[13][1] The same Latin word gave, by regular development, sodo “firm, hard”, and, through the coin name, soldo; solido is the learned form.[14][1][7]

The noun, meaning the settlement of an account, is from Italian saldare, the verb formed from the adjective in the sense “to close, settle an account”.[5][10][4][8] The senses “sum still owed” and “goods sold off cheaply” follow French solde, recorded in 1748 and 1871.[5][10][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

GRADIT dates the adjective to the second half of the 13th century in the sense “firm, stable”, and DELI first finds it in Dante, who uses it for something whole and without cracks, for what has material substance, and for what is firm and steady.[4][5] In the Purgatorio Statius forgets that the souls are empty, trattando l'ombre come cosa salda, treating the shades as solid things.[4][7]

Semantic evolution

Boccaccio has saldo in the moral sense “steadfast, unshakeable” (1353), and the adjective could stand as an adverb, as in Petrarch's che mai più saldo in marmo non si scrisse.[5][15] The early physical sense “intact, compact, all in one piece” is now literary or archaic.[6][7] Avere i nervi saldi means to keep one's composure.[7][16]

The verb saldare grew out of the adjective with two branches: “to join pieces into one”, hence to weld or solder metals, and “to balance an account”, which a Sienese family record already shows between 1231 and 1262.[5] The noun followed from the second branch;[10][4][17][5] Nocentini, GRADIT and DIFIT date it to 1338, DELI to a document of 1444, with the accounting sense “difference between debits and credits”.[10][4][17][5] The sense “sum still due on a partly paid debt” is recorded in 1872, and the clearance sale, i saldi, in 1922.[5]

The accounting term spread abroad: German Saldo is recorded in 1603, and French solde (first salde, 1598) in the same sense.[17] Wiktionary lists borrowings into Dutch, the Scandinavian languages, Finnish, Estonian, Czech, Macedonian and Indonesian.[1]

Timeline

  • 1231–1262 – Saldare “to settle an account” appears in the records of a Sienese family.[5]
  • Before 1321 – Dante uses saldo “whole, solid; firm”.[5]
  • 1338 – The noun saldo is first recorded.[10][4][17]
  • 1353 – Boccaccio uses it for “steadfast, unshakeable”.[5]
  • 1444 – A document uses the noun for the balance of an account.[5]
  • 1598 – French borrows the accounting term, as salde.[17]
  • 1603 – German Saldo is first recorded.[17]
  • 1872 – Tommaseo–Bellini records the sense “sum still owed”.[5]
  • 1922 – Zingarelli records the sense “goods on clearance sale”.[5]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. firm, steady, stable: tenersi saldo alla ringhiera.[4][6][9]
  2. Sturdy, solid, resistant: un ponte ancora saldo.[4][6][18]
  3. (figurative) Unshakeable, steadfast, in beliefs or purposes.[4][6][7]
  4. (figurative) Lasting, durable, of a bond or feeling: un'intesa salda.[4][6][8]
  5. (figurative) Well-founded, sound, of arguments or knowledge.[4][6][16]
  6. (literary, archaic) Whole, compact, without cracks; massive; having material substance.[4][6][7]

Noun

  1. The settlement of a debt, its final payment; also the amount still to be paid: versare il saldo alla consegna.[4][6][9]
  2. (accounting) The balance of an account, the difference between debits and credits: saldo attivo, saldo passivo.[4][6][8]
  3. (statistics) The difference between the people entering and leaving a population in a year (saldo naturale, saldo migratorio).[4][6][8]
  4. The remaining part of a quantity: il saldo della merce arriverà lunedì.[4][9][16]
  5. (commerce, often plural) A clearance sale of leftover goods, and the goods themselves: i saldi estivi.[4][9][16]

Word family

  • saldare
  • saldamente
  • saldezza
  • saldatura
  • saldatore
  • saldatrice
  • saldamento
  • salda
  • rinsaldare

Usage notes

Saldo is also the first person singular present of saldare.[1] Saldo e stralcio is a reduction of overdue taxes for taxpayers in serious difficulty.[6]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3316
  3. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  5. ^ 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
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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 e f g Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  8. ^ a b c d e Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
  9. ^ a b c d e f Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  10. ^ a b c d e f Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  11. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 867
  12. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  13. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  14. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  15. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
  16. ^ a b c d Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
  17. ^ a b c d e f Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
  18. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Saldo.” Etymologically, 10 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/it/saldo. Accessed 11 Nov. 2026.

Last edited on . ·