Etymologically
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sette

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Pronunciation

Forms

sette (invariable)[1][2] Old forms include sete and set, and Old Tuscan had a plural setti.[3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin septem (“seven”).[5][6][2][1] The cluster ⟨pt⟩ became ⟨tt⟩ and the final ⟨m⟩ was lost.[5] The numeral is found throughout Romance: French sept, Occitan set, Catalan set, Spanish siete, Portuguese sete, Sardinian sette, Romanian șapte and Vegliote sapto.[6][7]

Like the other basic numerals, “septem” is inherited from Proto-Indo-European *septḿ̥.[6][8][1] Its relatives include Ancient Greek ἑπτά (heptá), Sanskrit सप्त (saptá), Lithuanian septynì, Old Church Slavonic седмь (sedmĭ), Old Irish secht, Gothic 𐍃𐌹𐌱𐌿𐌽 (sibun) and English seven.[8][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Novellino, a Florentine collection of tales of the late 13th century.[5][2] The Lombard poet Patecchio has the form set in his verses on the seven days of mourning.[3]

Semantic evolution

Seven was a sacred number in Christian and earlier symbolism, and many fixed groups are named by it: the seven sacraments, the seven deadly sins, the seven hills of Rome, the seven wonders of the world.[9][10][11] Phrases such as chiudere a sette chiavi “to lock away securely” and sudare sette camicie “to toil hard” use it for a large amount.[10][11]

As a noun sette is a school mark meaning “good”, and familiarly an L-shaped tear in cloth, shaped like the figure 7; that sense came from Lombardy and the Veneto and is in Zingarelli in 1922, while a sette was already a scar on the face in Bartolomeo Corsini, before 1673.[5][11] Settebello, the seven of coins that scores a point in the card game scopa, is recorded in 1885, and was the nickname of a seven-car luxury electric train of 1952.[5] In Polari, the slang of 19th-century England, setter meant “seven” and “seven pence”.[12]

Timeline

  • Late 13th century – The Novellino uses sette.[5]
  • Before 1292 – Bono Giamboni uses settimo “seventh”.[5]
  • Before 1673 – Bartolomeo Corsini uses sette for a scar on the face.[5]
  • 1751 – Settecento is used for the 18th century.[5]
  • Mid-19th century – Polari setter “seven” is recorded in England.[12]
  • 1885 – Sette bello is recorded in the card game.[5]
  • 1922 – Zingarelli records sette for a tear in cloth.[5]

Meanings

Numeral

  1. seven: Il mio fratellino ha sette anni.[2][10][13][1]
  2. After a noun, seventh: binario sette.[2][13]

Noun

  1. The number seven and the figure 7.[2][13][11]
  2. The seventh day of the month; seven o'clock, in the feminine plural le sette.[2][11]
  3. A school mark of seven out of ten, a good result: Ho preso sette nel compito di storia.[2][13][11]
  4. A playing card worth seven.[2][11]
  5. (colloquial) An L-shaped tear in cloth.[5][11][14]
  6. (sports) A water polo team, of seven players.[11][3]

Word family

  • settimo
  • settecento
  • settemila
  • settebello
  • settimino
  • settuplo
  • settenario
  • settennio
  • settenne
  • settecentesco
  • settecentista

Usage notes

Sette is also the plural of setta “sect”.[14] In football slang the sette is the top corner of the goal, where the crossbar meets the post.[14]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  3. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
  4. ^ Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
  6. ^ a b c d Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  8. ^ 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
  9. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
  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 d e f g h i Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
  12. ^ a b Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
  13. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  14. ^ a b c Wikizionario (Italian Wiktionary), it.wiktionary.org