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sentimento

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Etymology and origin of the Italian word sentimento

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
before 1292, Bono Giamboni
Ultimate origin
Latin sentiō
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin sentio
French sentir
Italian sentire
Italian sentimento
From the same root
Latin dissentio ← sentio
Latin praesentio ← sentio
Latin sensilis ← sentio
Latin sensim ← sentio
Latin sensus ← sentio
French ressentir ← sentir
French sentiment ← sentir

Pronunciation

  • /sen.tiˈmen.to/[1]

Forms

sentimento m (plural sentimenti)[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Italian sentire + -mento, or taken from Medieval Latin sentimentum, itself formed from Latin sentiō (“to feel, perceive”) with the suffix -mentum.[2][3][4][5][6][1] DELI, Devoto–Oli and Treccani treat it as an Italian derivative of the verb, and DEI, GRADIT, Sabatini–Coletti and the GDLI as the Medieval Latin noun.[2][3][4][7][5][6][8] Tommaseo compared it with nouns such as patimento and godimento.[9]

DEI and the GDLI compare French sentiment, recorded from 1314.[7][8] DEI dates sentimentale to the 19th century, beside sentimental (1769), and takes sentimentalismo from sentimentalisme (1801).[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is in Bono Giamboni, before 1292, in the sense “perception”: “within the enclosure of the brain … the senses and feelings of the body are gathered” (si raccolgono i sensi e' sentimenti del corpo).[2][8] GRADIT dates the word to about 1300 in the old variant sentemento, which Jacopone da Todi also uses.[5][7]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian the word meant above all the faculty of sense and the senses themselves: Domenico Cavalca confesses his sins of the “cinque sentimenti”, sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch.[8][9] From the 14th century it also meant understanding or knowledge, and in the 16th century the meaning of a word.[7] The plural for a person's moral way of thinking and acting is recorded before 1484 in Feo Belcari.[2] The old feminine plural le sentimenta copied the Latin plural.[9][10]

The sense “any movement of the soul, emotion, passion”, the main one today, is first recorded in the Milanese press in 1801.[2] Older uses survive in phrases: perdere i sentimenti is to faint, and uscire di sentimento to lose one's mind or to be beside oneself.[10][4]

Timeline

  • Before 1292 – Bono Giamboni uses sentimento for “perception”.[2][8]
  • About 1300 – The variant sentemento is recorded.[5]
  • 1314 – French sentiment is recorded.[7][8]
  • 14th century – The word means “understanding, knowledge”.[7]
  • Before 1484 – Feo Belcari uses the plural for moral character.[2]
  • 16th century – The word is used for “meaning”.[7]
  • 1801 – The sense “emotion, feeling” appears in the Milanese press.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A feeling, a fairly lasting state of emotion, positive or negative: Provava per lui un sentimento di profonda gratitudine.[5][3][6]
  2. A sensation between the mental and the physical, caused by something perceived or thought: un sentimento di disagio.[5][3]
  3. Feeling, emotion, as opposed to reason: Per una volta ha seguito il sentimento e non la testa.[5][6][11]
  4. sensitivity, delicacy of feeling.[5][3]
  5. Warmth and intensity in doing something: Ha cantato la canzone con molto sentimento.[5][3][6]
  6. (chiefly plural) A person's way of thinking and acting, seen as a sign of his or her morals: una persona di nobili sentimenti.[5][3][10]
  7. Awareness of a moral, civil or spiritual value, a sense of: il sentimento della giustizia.[5][6][10]
  8. (literary) The faculty of sense; one of the senses.[10][4]
  9. (rare) Consciousness, awareness of oneself, as in perdere i sentimenti, to faint.[10][4]

Word family

  • sentimentale
  • sentimentalismo
  • sentimentalità

References

  1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 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
  4. ^ a b c d e Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
  5. ^ 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
  6. ^ a b c d e f Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3455
  8. ^ a b c d e f Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
  9. ^ a b c Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
  10. ^ a b c d e f Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  11. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
Cite this entry

“Sentimento.” Etymologically, 21 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/it/sentimento. Accessed 22 Oct. 2026.

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