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seminare

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Etymology and origin of the Italian word seminare

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
c. 1205 Veronese document More words from the 13th century
Inherited from
Latin semino
Ultimate origin
Latin sēmen
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin sēmen
English semen
Latin sēminō
French semer
Italian seminare
Romanian semăna
Spanish sembrar
From the same root
Latin sēmentis ← sēmen
Latin sēminālis ← sēmen
Latin sēminārium ← sēmen
Latin sēminārius ← sēmen
Latin dissēminō ← sēminō
Romanian seamăn ← semăna

Pronunciation

  • /se.miˈna.re/[1]

Forms

seminare (first-person singular present sémino, first-person singular past historic seminài, past participle seminàto, auxiliary avére)[1] Old forms include semenare, semmenare, siminare, somenare and somenère.[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin sēmināre (“to sow”), a verb formed from sēmen (“seed”).[3][4][5][6][1] The verb survives in all the Romance languages: French semer, Occitan semenar, Catalan sembrar, Spanish sembrar, Portuguese semear and Sardinian seminare.[4][7] The Latin noun for “seed” goes back to Proto-Indo-European *séh₁mn̥ (“seed”).[1]

The oldest Italian form is Old Italian semenare; the form with ⟨i⟩ is recorded from about 1350.[3][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is semenare in a Veronese document of about 1205, published by Stussi, in the sense “to scatter seed”.[3][5]

Semantic evolution

Figurative uses came early: Dante uses the verb for spreading or stirring up something (before 1321), and the Italian versions of the Gospels speak of the man who sowed good seed in his field.[3][2] Leonardo da Vinci has it for scattering things here and there (before 1519).[3] In sport it came to mean leaving opponents far behind (1965, Bonsanti), and then to shake off pursuers.[3][5]

Several proverbs use it: chi non semina non raccoglie (whoever does no work gains nothing) and chi semina vento raccoglie tempesta (who does harm should expect worse).[8][9]

Timeline

  • About 1205 – Semenare appears in a Veronese document.[3]
  • Before 1321 – Dante uses it for spreading or stirring up something.[3]
  • About 1350 – The Italian Crescenzi has the form seminare.[3]
  • Before 1519 – Leonardo uses it for scattering things about.[3]
  • 1965 – A. Bonsanti uses it in sport for outpacing rivals.[3]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To sow: to put seed in the ground to grow; also without an object: In ottobre il nonno semina le fave.[5][8][9]
  2. To sow a field with a crop: seminare un campo a orzo.[5][8]
  3. To leave things scattered here and there: Mio figlio semina le scarpe in tutta la casa.[5][8][10]
  4. (literary) To scatter, to spread far and wide.[5][8]
  5. To stir up, to cause: seminare zizzania, seminare sospetti.[5][8][9]
  6. (sport, colloquial) To leave rivals far behind in a race.[5][10]
  7. (colloquial) To shake off pursuers: Il rapinatore ha seminato gli agenti nel traffico.[5][11]

Word family

  • semina
  • seminato
  • seminatore
  • seminatrice
  • seminagione
  • seminativo
  • seminio
  • inseminare
  • riseminare
  • seminabile
  • seminatura
  • seme
  • seminatoio
  • semente
  • disseminare
  • Latin sēminō

Usage notes

Seminare nella sabbia or sulla sabbia means to work in vain.[5][10][9] The present stresses the stem: io sémino.[8][10]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 18, 576
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
  4. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  6. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier, p. 400
  7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  8. ^ 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
  9. ^ a b c d Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
  10. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  11. ^ Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Seminare.” Etymologically, 14 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/it/seminare. Accessed 14 Nov. 2026.

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