siepe

Forms

siepe f (plural siepi)^[1] Old forms include Old Italian sepe, Old Italian sepre, Old Italian seve and Old Italian sieve, and Tuscan has scepe and sciepe.^[2] Tommaseo also gives an old siepa.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin saepēs (“hedge, fence”), also spelled with ⟨sēp-⟩.^[4][5][1][6] The same word is Old French soif, Occitan sep, Spanish sebe and Portuguese sebe;^[5][7] Gardenese has Ladin sief.^[5][7] Meyer-Lübke notes that the Italian and Gardenese forms need a different vowel from the others;^[7][8] Körting likewise starts from the spelling with ⟨sē-⟩.^[7][8]

The origin of the Latin word is uncertain.^[4][5][9] De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *saip-i- and finds it tempting to derive it from Proto-Indo-European *seh₂i- (“to tie”), though such a suffix in ⟨-p-⟩ is not known;^[10][1] Pokorny's comparison with Ancient Greek αἱμός (haimós, “thicket”) is phonetically unlikely.^[10][1] The adverb Latin saepe (“often”) comes from the same stem, through “packed close” to “often”, as Italian spesso comes from Latin spissus (“thick”).^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in B. Giamboni, before 1292: Come del campo sanza siepe son tolte e portate le cose (“as things are taken and carried off from a field without a hedge”).^[4][2] The sense is a barrier of plants or branches round a field, garden or orchard.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Dante already used siepe for a row of people or things that bars the way: in Inferno 33 he wishes the islands of Capraia and Gorgona would far siepe ad Arno in su la foce “make a hedge across the mouth of the Arno”.^[4][11] He also has the form sepe in a rhyme of Inferno 25.^[2]

Farmers distinguished the living hedge, siepe viva, from the dead one of brushwood, siepe morta.^[11][12] Treccani quotes Leopardi's questa siepe, which shuts out the view of the far horizon.^[13] In sport siepe is a hedge jump in horse racing, and i tremila siepi is the 3000 metres steeplechase in athletics.^[14][15][11]

Timeline

• Before 1292 – B. Giamboni uses siepe.^[4][14]
• Before 1321 – Dante uses far siepe for a barrier.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A hedge: a row of closely planted shrubs, used to fence or mark off land or to decorate gardens and avenues: una siepe di bosso intorno al prato.^[14][15][9]
2. A fence of dead wood, wire or other material: siepe morta or siepe artificiale.^[15][11]
3. (figurative) A close row of people or things forming a barrier: una siepe di agenti.^[14][15][16]
4. (sports) A hedge or similar obstacle in horse racing; in the plural, the steeplechase race in athletics (i tremila siepi).^[14][15][11]

Word family

• assiepare
• siepone
• siepetta
• siepaglia
• siepaia
• siepista

Related words

• spesso
• Latin saepēs
• Latin saepe

Usage notes

Far siepe means to form a barrier.^[14][15]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 18, 1076
3. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
4. ^ a b c d e f g Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
5. ^ a b c d Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ a b Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
9. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
10. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
12. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
13. ^ Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
14. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
15. ^ 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
16. ^ Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse