semenza

Forms

semenza f (plural semenze)^[1] Old Italian forms include somença, semença, semensa, simenza and somenza.^[2] GRADIT dates the old variant Old Italian semencia to about 1250.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin sementia, originally a neuter plural, from Latin sēmentis (“sowing; seed”), which is from sēmen (“seed”).^[4][1][5] Nocentini and Zingarelli give it as a Vulgar Latin *sementĭa.^[6][7] Devoto saw in the Late Latin word the abstract noun of serō (“to sow”).^[8]

The same word is Romanian sămânță, French semence, Old Occitan semensa and Sardinian sementa.^[9][10][11] Italian also kept the older Latin noun itself as semente.^[3][6]

The Latin noun may be a reshaping of an earlier *sēmentum, built on Proto-Indo-European *séh₁mn̥, the source of the word for “seed”.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the form somença in a Veronese document of about 1205, and the form semenza appears in Latini before 1294, with the sense “seed for sowing”.^[12] The TLIO's first record is in the Venetian Proverbia que dicuntur.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian the word meant the seed sown or to be sown, taken collectively, and also the cereals grown for food, seeds used in cooking or medicine, and in figurative use whatever is the cause or origin of something.^[2] It also meant semen, and by metonymy a son and then a line of descent.^[2] Dante used it for “origin” before 1321.^[12] The lines of Inferno XXVI are the best-known example: Considerate la vostra semenza: / fatti non foste a viver come bruti (“Consider your origin: you were not made to live like beasts”).^[7][13]

In Florence the word was used for salted pumpkin seeds eaten as a pastime, and street sellers cried La gran semenza!^[14] DELI dates this sense to Fanfani (1863).^[12] The trades gave it two more senses: a small shoemaker's nail, recorded in Viani before 1936, and very small pearls.^[12][3]

Timeline

• c. 1205 – Somença appears in a Veronese document.^[12]
• c. 1250 – GRADIT's date for the old variant semencia.^[3]
• Before 1294 – Latini uses semenza “seed for sowing”.^[12]
• Before 1321 – Dante uses semenza for “origin”.^[12]
• 14th century – Semenzaio “seedbed” and semenzire “to run to seed” appear in the translation of Crescenzi.^[11][15]
• 1863 – Fanfani records semenza for salted pumpkin seeds.^[12]
• Before 1936 – Viani uses semenza for small shoemakers' nails.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. The stock of seed of one kind kept for sowing a field; semente.^[3][5][13]
2. (regional, Tuscany; usually plural) Salted, roasted pumpkin seeds.^[3][5][7]
3. (literary, figurative) Origin, nature: Considerate la vostra semenza (Dante).^[3][5][7]
4. (literary, figurative) lineage, descent.^[3][5][16]
5. (figurative) A first cause or source: una semenza di rancori.^[3][17]
6. A small square-shanked, flat-headed tack used by shoemakers.^[3][5][16]
7. Very small pearls, taken collectively; seed pearls.^[3][5][1]

Word family

• semenzaio
• semenzale
• insemenzare
• semenziero
• semenzina
• semenzire

Related words

• seme
• semente
• sementa
• French semence
• Latin sementis

Usage notes

Semenza dell'amianto is the quarrymen's name for the tiny green crystals of demantoid garnet found in asbestos deposits.^[16]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ 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
4. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975)
5. ^ a b c d e f g Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
8. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
11. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3448
12. ^ a b c d e f g h i Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
13. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
14. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
15. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 907
16. ^ a b c Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
17. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli