Etymologically
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sindaco

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈsin.da.ko/[1]

Forms

sindaco m (plural sindaci, feminine sindaca)[1] The old form is sindico.[2][3][4] GDLI records regional forms such as sìnnico, sìnteco and scéndeco.[5]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin syndicus (“representative of a community”), from Ancient Greek σύνδικος (súndikos, “advocate, public defender”), a compound of σύν (sún, “with, together”) and δίκη (díkē, “justice”).[6][7][8][9][1] Devoto glossed it as “one associated in the administration of justice”.[9][10] In Greek and Roman antiquity the word named the legal representative of a community.[11][12]

The /a/ of the unstressed second syllable for Latin /i/ is a regular change in words stressed on the third-last syllable, as in cronaca and tonaca.[6][9][7][13] The Latin word also gave French syndic and Spanish síndico, and Sardinian sindigu.[7][14]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Florentine documents of 1278–1279, for “one who acts in the name and interest of another”.[6] The sense “representative of the commune” follows in the statutes of Montagutolo (1280–1297).[6][15]

Semantic evolution

In medieval Italy a sindaco could be the representative of a commune in lawsuits, an official who audited the accounts of consuls or of the podestà, a collector of taxes, the head of a rural community or of a guild, or the administrator of a monastery.[2][10] The statutes of the Calimala guild (1332–1337) use it for an auditor, and Florence had an office of Sindaci that reviewed the state's accounts.[6][4] The verb sindacare “to examine an official's conduct” is recorded from 1292–1324.[6]

The modern sense, head of a municipality, comes from the Kingdom of Sardinia and the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies; after unification the sindaci replaced the gonfalonieri of Tuscany and the podestà of Lombardy.[6] Since a law of 1993 the mayor has been elected directly by the citizens.[8][2] The commercial code of 1882 introduced sindaci as the auditors of a company.[6] The modern sindacato “trade union” (1900), sindacale (1905) and sindacalismo (1905) are calques of French syndicat, syndical and syndicalisme.[6][7] English uses sindaco for an Italian mayor from 1902.[15]

Timeline

  • 1278–1279 – Florentine documents have the first record.[6]
  • 1280–1297 – The statutes of Montagutolo use it for the representative of the commune.[6]
  • Before 1292 – Bono Giamboni uses sindacato for an audit of an official's conduct.[6]
  • 1332–1337 – The statutes of the Calimala guild use it for an auditor.[6]
  • 1849 – A political dictionary explains sindaco as the head of the commune in the southern and Sardinian kingdoms.[6]
  • 1882 – The commercial code names the auditors of joint-stock companies sindaci.[6]
  • 1902 – English sindaco is recorded.[15]
  • 1993 – A new law makes the mayor directly elected.[8]

Meanings

Noun

  1. mayor, the head of a municipal administration, now elected directly by the citizens: Il sindaco ha inaugurato la nuova biblioteca.[8][2][13][1]
  2. (law, economics) A statutory auditor, a member of the board that supervises the management of a company.[8][2][13][1]
  3. (history) In antiquity and the Middle Ages, the legal representative of a community; also other medieval officials, such as an auditor of accounts.[8][2][13]

Word family

  • sindacare
  • sindacato
  • sindacale
  • sindacabile
  • sindachessa
  • prosindaco
  • Latin syndicus
  • French syndic

Usage notes

The feminine is sindaca; the masculine is also used for a woman, and sindachessa is jocular.[2][13][3]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
  3. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  4. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
  5. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
  7. ^ a b c d Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  8. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  9. ^ a b c Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
  10. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
  11. ^ Wikizionario (Italian Wiktionary), it.wiktionary.org
  12. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  13. ^ a b c d e Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  14. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  15. ^ a b c Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it