seme

Forms

seme m (plural semi)^[1] There was an old plural Old Italian semina, used by Iacopone.^[2][3] At Lucca the word was also feminine.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin sēmen (“seed”), a neuter noun with the genitive sēminis.^[4][5][6][1] DELI and GRADIT give the Latin form without its final ⟨n⟩.^[4][6] Of the Romance languages only Italian and Sardinian sèmene continue the word.^[5][7] The derived Vulgar Latin *sēmentia lives on in semenza, French semence and Occitan semensa.^[5][8]

The Latin noun is formed from the root of serō (“to sow”) with the suffix -men.^[9][10] It comes from Proto-Italic *sēmn̥ and Proto-Indo-European *séh₁mn̥ (“seed”), from the root Proto-Indo-European *seh₁- (“to sow”), whose reduplicated present gave the Latin verb.^[10][1] The same noun is Old High German samo, whence German Same.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is a document from San Gimignano of 1238, with the sense of the part of a plant that, when it sprouts, gives a new plant.^[11] Bono Giamboni, before 1292, uses it both for the seed of plants and for the sperm of animals.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Before 1321 Dante used the word for lineage and descent and for the origin of something;^[4][12] il mal seme d'Adamo is the sinful offspring of Adam.^[4][12] About 1350 the translation of Crescenzi uses it for the stone of a fruit.^[4] In 1619 Michelangelo Buonarroti the Younger used it for the suits of playing cards.^[4][13]

The plural semi has named a soup pasta in the shape of seeds since the 20th century, and salted toasted pumpkin seeds as well.^[4][14] In silk farming the word survives in seme bachi, the eggs of the silkworm, though in that sense semenza is more widespread.^[15][2]

Timeline

• 1238 – A San Gimignano document has seme.^[11]
• Before 1292 – Bono Giamboni uses it for seed and for sperm.^[4]
• Before 1321 – Dante uses it for descent and for origin.^[4]
• c. 1350 – The translation of Crescenzi uses it for a fruit stone.^[4]
• 1619 – Michelangelo Buonarroti the Younger uses it for a card suit.^[4]
• 1952 – Semi di mela is listed among pasta shapes.^[4]
• 1970 – Zingarelli records semi for a soup pasta.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. (botany) seed: the part of a plant or fruit from which a new plant grows: i semi del girasole.^[6][16][12]
2. (colloquial) The stone or pip of a fruit.^[6][15][14]
3. Seed as a whole, for sowing, same as semente: spargere il seme nei solchi.^[6][16][12]
4. semen, sperm.^[6][16][12]
5. (figurative) The origin or first cause of something: il seme del sospetto.^[6][16][12]
6. (literary) Ancestors; lineage, descent.^[6][12][15]
7. (card games) A suit.^[6][12][15]
8. (in the plural) A small soup pasta shaped like seeds.^[15][14]

Word family

• semaio

Related words

• sementa
• semente
• semenza
• semina
• seminare
• seminale
• seminario
• Latin semen

Usage notes

Semi oleosi are oilseeds, the source of olio di semi.^[16][15] Se n'è perso il seme says that something no longer exists or is no longer made.^[15][14]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3447
3. ^ a b 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 Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
5. ^ a b c d Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ a b Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
12. ^ a b c d e f g h Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
13. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti
14. ^ a b c d Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
15. ^ a b c d e f g Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
16. ^ 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