sempre

Forms

sempre (invariable)^[1] Old forms are sempro and sempri.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin semper (“always”).^[4][5][6][1] The word is Old French sempre, Occitan sempre, Catalan sempre, Spanish siempre and Portuguese sempre, but it did not survive in Romanian, and in French it was later replaced by French toujours.^[5][2][7] In Old French and Old Occitan it meant “at once”.^[7][8]

The Latin word is a compound of sem- (“one”), the root of semel (“once”), and a suffix -per, so that it meant “once for all”.^[4][5][1] The root is Proto-Indo-European *sem- (“one”), also in Ancient Greek εἷς (heîs, “one”) and Sanskrit सकृत् (sakṛ́t, “once”).^[4][1][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is in Guido Faba, before 1243, in the sense “without interruption, without end”.^[4] Nocentini and Devoto–Oli date the word to the 13th century, GRADIT to the end of that century.^[5][10][6]

Semantic evolution

The sense “every time” is in Boccaccio in 1353, and Tommaseo–Bellini records “still, yet” (abita sempre lì) in 1873.^[4] Old Italian strengthened it as sempre mai or mai sempre, as in Petrarch's “per far sempre mai verdi i miei desiri” (to keep my desires ever green).^[11][3] Leopardi's “Sempre caro mi fu quest'ermo colle” (this lonely hill was always dear to me) is the opening of L'infinito.^[12][13]

The conjunction sempre che “provided that” is in Giovan Maria Cecchi before 1587.^[4] Compounds name plants: sempreviva (around 1350) and semprevivo (1476), after Latin sempervivum, and sempreverde “evergreen” (1561 written separately).^[4][5] As a musical direction, “throughout”, sempre passed into English in 1801 and German in 1802.^[14]

Timeline

• Before 1243 – Guido Faba uses sempre.^[4]
• Around 1350 – Sempreviva in the Italian translation of Crescenzi.^[4]
• 1353 – Boccaccio uses it for “every time”.^[4]
• 1476 – Semprevivo in Cristoforo Landino.^[4]
• 1561 – Sempre verde in Alessandro Citolini.^[4]
• Before 1587 – Sempre che “provided that” in Cecchi.^[4]
• 1801 – English borrows sempre as a musical term.^[14]
• 1873 – The sense “still” is recorded.^[4]

Meanings

Adverb

1. always, at all times, without end: è sempre andata così, ti penserò sempre.^[6][10][11]
2. Every time, regularly: il sabato pranziamo sempre dai nonni.^[6][12]
3. In exclamations of annoyance: sempre le stesse scuse!^[6][15]
4. With a comparative, more and more: sempre più caldo, sempre meno.^[6][12][13]
5. still: lavori sempre in banca?^[6][10][1]
6. (music) Throughout, all along: sempre piano.^[14][1]

Word family

• sempreverde
• semprevivo

Related words

• semplice
• sempiterno
• mai
• Latin semper
• Spanish siempre

Usage notes

Common phrases are per sempre (for ever), da sempre (always, since time immemorial), di sempre (the usual), una volta per sempre (once and for all) and sempre tuo (ever yours) at the end of a letter.^[11][13][15]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3451
3. ^ a b Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 908
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 e Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d e f g De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ a b 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. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier, p. 400
10. ^ a b c Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
11. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
12. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
13. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
14. ^ a b c Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
15. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli