sentinella

Forms

sentinella f (plural sentinelle)^[1] Old forms include scintinella and sintinella.^[2]

Etymology

Most sources connect it with sentire “to hear, perceive”, but the formation is not clear.^[3][4][5][1] Following Alessio, DELI and Nocentini take it as a diminutive from Italian sentina + -ella of Old Italian sentina (“alertness”), found in the 13th-century verse ⟨Tesoro⟩.^[3][6] That word would be a deverbal noun of Late Latin sentināre (“to avoid a danger cleverly”), known from glosses and formed on sentīnus, the name of the power through which a newborn child first feels; behind it stands sentiō (“to feel, perceive”).^[3][6] Alessio saw the older sense “listening” in a Calabrian phrase from Molochio meaning “to have the hearing of a wolf”, and traced the noun to a phrase meaning “to be listening”.^[3][6]

Prati objected that the word is recorded only from the 16th century, when the soldier on watch was still called scolta or ascolta.^[3] He derived it straight from the verb, and placed that phrase beside dialect phrases ending in ⟨-inella⟩.^[3][7] Devoto and Devoto–Oli start from a supposed verb *sentinellare, iterative of the Latin gloss word.^[8][9] The GDLI allows a diminutive of the Old Italian noun with the affective tone of children's speech.^[2] Older proposals, a derivative of sentina “bilge” for a ship's watch, or of Old French sente (“path”), were rejected by Körting and by Gaston Paris, who noted that the Italian word is the older.^[10]

The word passed into French sentinelle, first spelled ⟨centinelle⟩ in 1540, and into Spanish centinela;^{[11][12][6][13]} English sentinel came from French in the 1570s.^{[11][12][6][13]}

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in A. Firenzuola (1518–1525), for an armed soldier keeping watch to protect people or military property.^[3][11]

Semantic evolution

The word soon named the service as well as the soldier: far la sentinella is in L. Alamanni and stare in sentinella in Grassi.^[7][4] Figuratively it is anyone set to watch over a person or thing, or keeping still and alert.^[4][5][14] Recent use extends it to groups that defend values they hold essential, le sentinelle della legalità.^[9]

French borrowed the word in the 16th century and passed it on to English, first for a soldier stationed as a guard (1570s) and soon for the watch he kept (1580s).^[11][13]

Timeline

• 1518–1525 – A. Firenzuola uses sentinella.^[3]
• 1540 – French centinelle is recorded.^[11]
• 1546 – French sentinelle is recorded.^[12]
• 1570s – English sentinel “soldier on guard” is recorded.^[13]
• 1580s – English sentinel is used for the watch itself.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. A sentry: an armed soldier on a turn of guard duty: il cambio della sentinella.^[4][9][1]
2. Sentry duty: essere di sentinella, montare di sentinella.^[4][9][15]
3. (figurative) A person set to watch over someone or something; such watching.^[4][9]
4. (in the plural) Groups that see themselves as defenders of values or causes.^[9]

Word family

• sentinellare

Related words

• sentire
• scolta
• vedetta
• French sentinelle
• English sentinel

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, 667
3. ^ 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
4. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ a b Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
6. ^ a b c d e Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 910
8. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
9. ^ a b c d e f Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
10. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
11. ^ a b c d e Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
12. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3456
13. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
14. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
15. ^ Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli