settembre

Forms

settembre m (uncountable)^[1] Old forms include setembre, septembre, setembrio, settembrio and settembro.^[2][3] Setembrio is recorded in Friuli in the 13th century.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin September (“of the seventh month”), short for the phrase September mēnsis (“the September month”).^[5][6][7][1] The Latin adjective is derived from septem (“seven”), because it was the seventh month of the archaic Roman calendar, which began in March.^[5][8][9]

The same word is Old French setembre (modern French septembre), Occitan setembre, Catalan setembre, Spanish setiembre and Portuguese setembro.^[8] The forms in ⟨-rio⟩ and ⟨-ro⟩ go back to Late Latin septembrius, recorded in the 6th century and formed after the model of Iānuārius and Februārius.^[3] Meyer-Lübke lists outcomes of it in the old dialects of Venice, Vicenza and Trento and in Old Spanish.^[10] Under the influence of the month name novembre, some varieties have ⟨u⟩ in the first syllable, such as sutembre in the Engadine and sutembre in Languedoc.^[10][4] Romanian septemvrie was taken from Slavonic.^[10]

The ending of the Latin word is unclear.^[8][1] Nocentini derives it from *septem-sris, with the regular change of -sr- to -br- seen also in the Latin source of dicembre.^[8] Devoto suggested *sept(umom)ens-ri- (“belonging to the seventh month”).^[11] Wiktionary considers a haplology of an earlier *septe(m)-mēmbris, ultimately from the word for “month”.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in a Florentine bankers' account book of 1211, where the word names the ninth month of the civil year.^[5][2]

Semantic evolution

Dante names the months of the summer fevers, tra 'l luglio e 'l settembre, in the Inferno.^[3] GDLI describes September as the end of summer and the start of autumn, the month of the grape harvest and the seasonal moving of flocks.^[3] Tuscan proverbs recorded by Tommaseo include Trenta dì ha novembre, april, giugno e settembre and Settembre, la notte col dì contende, on the equinox.^[12]

Old Italian formed settembreccia, settembresca and settembria for “autumn”, all of the 14th century.^[4][10] The adjective settembrino “of September” is dated before 1608 by DELI and to the 18th century by Nocentini.^[5][8] In northern Italian dialects (Pavia, Genoa, Ticino) a derivative or the month name itself names the autumn crocus.^[10] Twentieth-century history added Settembre nero, the Palestinian group named after the events of September 1970.^[13][6]

Timeline

• 1211 – Settembre appears in a Florentine bankers' account book.^[5][2]
• 13th century – Setembrio is recorded in Friuli.^[4]
• 1300–1313 – Dante uses the word in the Inferno.^[3]
• 14th century – Settembreccia and settembria “autumn” are recorded.^[4]
• Before 1608 – Settembrino is recorded, in A. Grillo.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. September, the ninth month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars, of thirty days: Ci trasferiamo a Bologna a settembre.^[6][14][15]

Word family

• settembrino

Related words

• sette
• novembre
• dicembre
• ottobre
• Latin September
• Latin septem

Usage notes

The name keeps the old count: September was the seventh month of the archaic Roman calendar.^[15][13]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ a b c d e Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 18, 818
4. ^ a b c d e Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3469
5. ^ a b c d e f 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 De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
8. ^ a b c d e Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b c d e Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
11. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier, p. 403
12. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
13. ^ a b Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
14. ^ Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
15. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse