satollare

Forms

satollare (first-person singular present satóllo, first-person singular past historic satollài, past participle satollàto, auxiliary avére)^[1] Old forms include Old Italian saolare and Old Italian satolare.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin satullō (“to fill with food, satisfy”), a verb formed on the adjective satullus (“well fed, full”), which Italian continues as satollo.^{[3][4][5][6][1]} The adjective is a diminutive of satur (“full, sated”).^[3][7][1] Wiktionary traces this to Proto-Indo-European *seh₂- (“to satiate”), the root also of satis (“enough”).^[1]

The verb has the same Latin source as Old French saüler, modern French souler, and Occitan sadolar, Catalan sadollar and Romansh saduller.^[8][1] Nocentini lists the adjective's outcomes: French soûl “drunk”, sadol “full” and “drunk”, sadol and Romanian sătul.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI dates the verb, and the adjective satollo, from the Novellino at the end of the 13th century, with the sense “make full of food”.^[3] Zingarelli gives the date 1268.^[9] Tommaseo quotes the Novellino: Andò alle nozze, e satollossi, “he went to the wedding and ate his fill”.^[10]

Semantic evolution

The GDLI describes the verb as mostly emphatic: to feed people until they want nothing more, or to feed them lavishly.^[2] The Roman chronicle of the Anonimo romano tells of a promise to fill people up de latte e de caso e lagane (with milk, cheese and lasagne), and a northern translation of John Chrysostom has the old form saolò.^[2] Dante uses the reflexive for the multitudes who will be fed with barley bread.^[11]

Tommaseo notes that satollare is used only in its literal sense, of food: one can saziare one's thirst, but not satollare it, and many figurative senses of saziare are missing in satollare.^[10] The modern dictionaries label it Tuscan or literary.^[12][5][1]

Timeline

• 1268 – Zingarelli's date for the first record.^[9]
• Late 13th century – the Novellino uses satollare and satollo.^[3]
• 13th century – DEI dates satollamento and satollanza.^[13]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive, literary or Tuscan) To sate someone, to feed them until they are full: La zia ci satollava di frittelle.^{[14][15][4][9][1]}
2. (pronominal, satollarsi) To eat one's fill, to stuff oneself: Ci siamo satollati di castagne.^{[15][4][9][12]}

Word family

• satollamento
• satollanza
• insatollabile

Related words

• satollo
• saturo
• Latin satur

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 17, 598
3. ^ 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
4. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
5. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
6. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, 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 Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
11. ^ Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
12. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
13. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3347
14. ^ De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
15. ^ a b Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier