sentire

Forms

sentire (first-person singular present sènto, first-person singular past historic sentìi, past participle sentìto, auxiliary avére)^[1] Old Italian also has sentére.^[2] With a change of conjugation, the verb is Piedmontese sènte and Emilian sénter.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin sentiō (“to perceive, feel; to think”).^[3][4][5][1] The word is panromance: French sentir, Occitan sentir, Catalan sentir, Spanish sentir, Portuguese sentir, Sardinian sentire, Dalmatian senter and Romanian simți.^[4][6]

The Latin verb continues Proto-Italic *sentiō, from Proto-Indo-European *sent- (“to notice, feel”).^[1][7] De Vaan connects it above all with Baltic and Slavic words for thinking, such as Lithuanian sintėti (“to think”), and doubts that it is the same root as the one meaning “to go” in Old Irish sét (“road”) and Germanic words for a road.^[7] Nocentini instead joins them, comparing Old High German sin (“sense, direction”) (the source of senno) and the Old Irish word, and supposes an original meaning “to head for”, from which came “to pay attention, to think”.^[4] Devoto also links it with German Sinn and sinnen.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is in the Ritmo cassinese, at the end of the 12th century, in the sense “to perceive the outside world through the senses”.^[3][5] GDLI quotes its line “Homo ki fame unqua non sente” (a man who never feels hunger).^[9]

Semantic evolution

Physical feeling, “to feel a sensation in the body”, is recorded before 1306 in Iacopone, and “to be able to appreciate, to understand” and the reflexive sentirsi (to feel oneself, to feel well or ill) before 1321 in Dante.^[3] The intransitive sentire di, “to smell or taste of”, is in the Italian version of Pietro de' Crescenzi's treatise, around 1350.^[3] Old Italian also used it for “to judge, to think”, following Latin literary tradition, and Giovanni Villani for “to consent”.^[2] The infinitive became a noun, il sentire, “feeling, sensibility”, before 1306 in Iacopone.^[3][10]

“To hear” is already in Dante and is now one of the main senses.^[2][5] In speech the imperative senti!, senta! draws the listener's attention, and senti, senti! expresses surprise or irony.^[5] Latin derivatives of the verb reached Italian by the learned route, among them sentenza and sentimento;^[3][4] sentimentale came back through the English sentimental of Laurence Sterne's Sentimental Journey (1768).^[3][4]

Timeline

• End of the 12th century – The Ritmo cassinese has sente, “feels”.^[3][10]
• Before 1306 – Iacopone uses it for bodily sensation, and sentire as a noun.^[3]
• Before 1321 – Dante uses the reflexive sentirsi and the sense “to appreciate, understand”.^[3]
• About 1350 – Sentire di, “to smell or taste of”, in the Italian Crescenzi.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To feel, to perceive a sensation of the body: sento un dolore al ginocchio, sentire freddo.^[5][11][1]
2. To hear: ho sentito un rumore in cantina.^[5][1]
3. To listen to: stasera andiamo a sentire un’orchestra di Vienna.^[5]
4. To smell or taste, to recognize by the senses: senti che profumo di pane!^[5][1]
5. (colloquial) In the imperative, to draw attention: senti, mi presti la penna?^[5]
6. (intransitive) sentire di, to smell or taste of.^[3]
7. sentirsi, to feel (in a certain state): mi sento stanchissimo.^[3][5]

Noun

1. (literary) Feeling, moral sensibility.^[5][3]

Word family

• sentito
• sentitamente
• sentore
• risentire
• risentimento

Related words

• sensazione
• senso
• sentenza
• sentimento
• sentinella
• sentimentale
• senziente
• senno
• Latin sentio

Usage notes

Common phrases are farsi sentire (to make oneself heard; to keep in touch), non sentire ragioni (to refuse to listen) and non si sente volare una mosca (you could hear a pin drop).^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3456
3. ^ 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
4. ^ a b c d e 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. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier, p. 401
9. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 18, 668
10. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
11. ^ Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier