scendere

Forms

scendere or scèndere (first-person singular present scéndo or scèndo, first-person singular past historic scési, past participle scéso, auxiliary (intransitive) èssere or (transitive) avére)^[1]

Etymology

It is a shortened form, from Italian discendere with the loss of its first syllable.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} The longer verb comes from Latin dēscendō (“to go down”), a compound of dē- and scandō (“to climb”).^[2][3][1] Nocentini treats the longer verb as a learned word, while the LEI places both Italian forms among the inherited outcomes of the Latin verb, which lives on everywhere in Romance except Sardinian: French descendre, Old Occitan deissendre, Catalan descendir, Spanish descender and Portuguese descender.^[3][7][8]

The Latin verb scandō goes back to Proto-Italic *skand- (“to ascend”), related to Sanskrit स्कन्दति (skándati, “to leap, spring”).^[9] The derivative scendiletto “bedside rug” is probably modelled on French descente de lit.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

GRADIT dates the verb to the first half of the 13th century, and DELI's first quotation is in the Novellino (late 13th century), for moving from a higher place to a lower one.^[4][2] Dante uses it for a slope, and in the Inferno writes “omai si scende per siffatte scale” (now we go down by stairs like these).^[2][10]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian forms include scendare, scendre and sciendere, and the past participle had besides sceso the forms scento and scenduto.^[10][7] The figurative sense “to decrease in intensity or value” is recorded in Franco Sacchetti (before 1400), and “to give way, to stoop to” in Ariosto's Orlando furioso (1516).^[2] The sense “to put up at an inn” comes from getting down from a horse or carriage and is in Leopardi (before 1837); “to come down from the north”, of armies and invaders, is recorded in 1827.^[2] The transitive use, scendere le scale, is recorded from Fagiuoli (before 1742).^[2]

The noun scesa “slope” is in Dante, and scendiletto entered the dictionaries in the 20th century (1922, Pirandello).^[2] Many phrases are figurative: scendere in campo “to enter the contest; to stand for election”, scendere in piazza “to take to the streets in protest” and scendere a patti “to come to terms”.^[11][12][4]

Timeline

• First half of the 13th century – Scendere is first recorded.^[4]
• Late 13th century – The Novellino uses the verb.^[2]
• 1300–1313 – Dante uses it for a slope.^[2]
• Before 1400 – Franco Sacchetti uses it for “to decrease”.^[2]
• 1516 – Ariosto uses it for “to give way”.^[2]
• 1827 – The sense “to come down from the north” is recorded in the Milanese press.^[2]
• 1922 – Pirandello uses scendiletto.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To go or come down, to descend: Scendi in cantina a prendere il vino.^{[4][11][5][1]}
2. To get off a vehicle or an animal, to alight: Scendiamo a piazza Garibaldi.^[4][11][12]
3. To move southwards: Ogni estate scendono in Puglia.^[4][5][12]
4. To put up, to stay, at a hotel or in a town: Siamo scesi in un albergo vicino al porto.^[4][12][6]
5. Of rain, snow or a river, to fall or flow down.^[4][11][1]
6. Of a road or land, to slope down: Il sentiero scende verso il lago.^[4][11]
7. To hang down: La barba gli scendeva fino al petto.^[4][5]
8. Of levels, prices or temperature, to drop: La febbre è scesa nella notte.^[5][1]
9. (figurative) To stoop, to give way: scendere a compromessi.^[12][2]
10. (transitive) To go down a slope or stairs: scendere le scale.^[2][1]

Word family

• scesa
• sceso
• scendiletto
• riscendere

Related words

• scendibagno
• scendibile
• discendere
• ascendere
• salire
• Latin dēscendō
• French descendre

Usage notes

The intransitive verb takes essere and the transitive avere; the past historic is scesi and the past participle sceso.^[1][12] The ⟨e⟩ of the stem may be pronounced closed or open.^[1][5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q 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 Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c d e f Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
6. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
7. ^ a b Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 19, 1363
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 17, 932
11. ^ 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
12. ^ a b c d e f Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli