seppellire

Forms

seppellire (first-person singular present seppellìsco, first-person singular past historic seppellìi, past participle sepólto or seppellìto, auxiliary avére)^[1] Old and rare forms include Old Italian sepellire, Old Italian sopellire, Old Italian soppellire and Old Italian sipellire.^[2][1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin sepeliō (“to bury”), through sepellīre or *sepullīre.^[3][4][1][5] The same word is Old French sevelir (French ensevelir), Occitan sebellir and Catalan sebollir, and Old Spanish had sebellir.^[4][6]

The doubled consonants arose in Italian.^[7][8] Sabatini–Coletti explains the /pp/ by the secondary stress before it.^[7] Devoto thought the stress moved to the second syllable and the word crossed with pelle, doubling the /ll/, and the prefix was doubled as if it were the Latin prefix sē-.^[7][8] Latin also had the past participle Latin sepultus and Latin sepultūra (“burial”), which gave sepolto and sepoltura.^[3][4]

De Vaan reconstructs the Latin verb as an old formation from Proto-Indo-European *sep- “to honour”, related to Ancient Greek ἕπω (hépō, “to take care of”) and to a Vedic verb meaning “to honour, worship”.^[9] Nocentini takes the Vedic word to show the first sense: the Latin verb narrowed from honouring the dead to the funeral rites, and Devoto notes that it covered both burial and cremation.^[4][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the form sepellir in the declaration of Paxia, before 1182, with the sense of laying a body in the tomb.^[3][5]

Semantic evolution

Boccaccio used the verb in 1353 for putting something underground, especially to hide it.^[3] The figurative sense “forget, say no more about” is recorded from 1620–1639 in B. Fioretti, and the reflexive seppellirsi “to shut oneself away” before 1646 in Michelangelo Buonarroti the Younger.^[3]

The past participle is usually sepolto, from Latin sepultus, and less often seppellito.^[10][11][12] Morto e sepolto, of a person or thing forgotten by everyone, is recorded in Tommaseo (1869).^[3] In familiar speech ci seppellirà tutti says jokingly that someone will outlive everyone else, and seppellire l'ascia di guerra is to bury the hatchet.^[5][10][7]

Timeline

• Before 1182 – Sepellir appears in the declaration of Paxia.^[3]
• Before 1292 – Sepulto is used by Bono Giamboni.^[3]
• 1353 – Boccaccio uses the verb for burying something to hide it.^[3]
• 1620–1639 – B. Fioretti uses it for forgetting something.^[3]
• Before 1646 – The reflexive seppellirsi “to shut oneself away” is recorded.^[3]
• 1869 – Tommaseo records morto e sepolto.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To bury a dead person or animal in a grave or tomb: Lo seppellirono nel piccolo cimitero del paese.^[5][10][7]
2. By extension, to hold someone's funeral.^[5]
3. (colloquial, humorous) To outlive someone: Con la salute che ha, ci seppellirà tutti.^[5][10][7]
4. To put something under the ground, especially to hide it: seppellire i gioielli in cantina.^[5][10][12]
5. To cover something completely, as earth or snow does: La frana ha sepolto la strada.^[7][13]
6. (figurative) To conceal something or put it out of mind; reflexive seppellirsi, to shut oneself away.^[5][3][12]

Word family

• seppellimento
• seppellitore
• disseppellire
• disseppellimento
• riseppellire

Related words

• sepolto
• sepoltura
• Latin sepeliō
• French ensevelir

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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 Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 c d e f g Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
8. ^ a b c Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ a b c d e Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
11. ^ Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
12. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
13. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli