Etymologically
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scegliere

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈʃeʎ.ʎe.re/[1]
  • Regional: /ˈʃɛʎ.ʎe.re/[1]

Forms

scegliere (first-person singular present scélgo, first-person singular past historic scélsi, past participle scélto, auxiliary avére)[1] The literary scerre is a second type of the same verb.[2][3] Old forms include Old Italian scelgere.[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin, but the exact base is disputed.[5][6] DELI, GRADIT and Wiktionary derive it from Vulgar Latin *exēligere, a compound of Latin ex- and ēligō (“to choose”), as Diez and Meyer-Lübke proposed.[7][8][1][9] Nocentini and the LEI prefer Latin sēligō (“to choose, select”), attested in Latin as early as Varro, from legō (“to gather”) with the separative prefix se(d)-.[6][3] The reconstruction was proposed above all to explain the initial /ʃ/, but in Italian /s/ before a front vowel can give the same sound, as in scemo and scimmia, so it is not needed.[6][3]

Gallo-Romance and Ibero-Romance continue a Vulgar Latin *exligere, with the vowel before the stress lost: Old French eslire, Old Occitan eslire and Old Spanish esleer.[3] It was adapted as Sicilian assiddiyiri.[9][10] Italian also has the learned eleggere “to elect”, from ēligō, and selezione, from the family of sēligō.[7][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is in Brunetto Latini, before 1294, in the sense “to pick out the best of several persons, things or solutions”.[7][8] The noun scelta “choice” is in Bono Giamboni before 1292.[7]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian the verb also meant “to sort, separate, distinguish”, close to cernere.[10] Ariosto used it in 1516 for “to take the best part, separating it from the worse”.[7] The sense “to prefer to do something” is recorded by Tommaseo in 1872, and in 1950 Migliorini noted scegliere la libertà, an allusion to Victor Kravchenko's anti-Bolshevik book I Chose Freedom.[7]

The participle scelto “select, choice” and the noun scelta formed set phrases: a scelta “as one prefers” (Ariosto, 1516) and di prima scelta “first-rate” (1959).[7] Sceglitore was a worker who sorted wool, already in Medieval Latin in 1317–1319.[7]

Timeline

  • Before 1292 – Scelta “choice” in Bono Giamboni.[7]
  • Before 1294 – Brunetto Latini uses scegliere.[7][8]
  • 1317–1319 – Medieval Latin sceglitor, a wool sorter.[7]
  • 1516 – Ariosto uses a scelta and the sense “to take the best part”.[7]
  • 1872 – Tommaseo records the sense “to prefer”.[7]

Meanings

Verb

  1. (transitive) To choose, select among several things the one that best suits a purpose: Abbiamo scelto un tavolo vicino alla finestra.[8][2][1]
  2. (transitive) To choose a person for a role or task: La squadra ha scelto un nuovo allenatore.[8][2]
  3. (intransitive, absolute) To make a choice: Prenditi tempo per scegliere, c'è poco da scegliere “there is little choice”.[8][2]
  4. To prefer, decide on: Ha scelto di restare.[7][8]

Word family

  • scelta
  • scelto
  • sceglitore
  • prescegliere
  • trascegliere

Usage notes

The verb is irregular: scelgo, scegli; past historic scelsi; past participle scelto.[1][2] Scegliere fior da fiore means “to pick only the best”.[8]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
  3. ^ a b c d Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 22, 114
  4. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 17, 908
  5. ^ Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it
  6. ^ a b c d Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
  8. ^ 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
  9. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  10. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3381