Etymology and origin of the Italian word sito
Italian has three words sito, all learned borrowings of Latin situs: “place”, “bad smell” and “situated”.[1][2]
sito1 place, site
From the same root · sito1
Pronunciation
- /ˈsi.to/[3]
Forms
sito m (plural siti)[3]
Etymology
The place is borrowed from Latin situs (“position, site”), a learned borrowing.[1][4][2][3] The Latin noun comes from the past participle of sinō (“to put down; to leave, let”).[1][4][2] Nocentini sees an older meaning “put in a place, settle” behind the verb, compared with Sanskrit क्षेति (kṣéti, “lives, dwells”) and Ancient Greek κτίζω (ktízō, “to found, colonize”).[4] De Vaan derives sinō from Proto-Indo-European *tḱei- (“to build”), with a shift from “let someone dwell” to “put in place”, but the root is disputed.[5] The same Latin noun gave French site and Spanish sitio.[4]
Earliest recorded meaning
DELI's first record is Dante (before 1321), with the sense “place, locality”;[1][6] Zingarelli dates the word to 1282.[1][6] In the Inferno Dante describes how lo sito di ciascuna valle slopes, one bank rising and the other falling.[7][8]
Semantic evolution
In Old Italian the noun meant the position of a place, a building or a town, often with an eye to its defence, as when Villani says Fiesole seemed strong per sito, by its position.[7] Boccaccio uses it for the layout of a room.[2][9] Old variants include sido, sitio and sitto.[7]
The old sense “position, situation” is now obsolete and “place” is literary or technical (un sito archeologico).[8][6][10] Ballistics has linea di sito and angolo di sito, for the line from the gun to the target and its angle with the horizon.[8][11][6] Biology uses it for the point of a protein, an enzyme or a gene where a process takes place, and, from the 1990s it is above all a website.[2][8][6] French site is recorded from 1530.[12]
Timeline
- 1282 – First record according to Zingarelli.[6]
- Before 1321 – Dante uses sito “place”.[1]
- 1530 – French site (sit) is recorded.[12]
Meanings
Noun
- (obsolete) Position, location; layout, appearance.[2][8][10]
- Place, site, locality: Hanno trovato un sito ideale per il campeggio.[2][8][11]
- (Internet) A website: Le informazioni sono sul sito del comune.[2][8][11]
- (biology) The point of a protein, an enzyme or a gene where an important process takes place: sito attivo.[2][8][10]
- (ballistics) In linea di sito, the line from the gun to the target, and angolo di sito, the angle it makes with the horizon.[8][11][6]
sito2 bad smell
From the same root · sito2
Pronunciation
- /ˈsi.to/[3]
Forms
sito m (plural siti)[3]
Etymology
The smell is borrowed from Latin situs (“mould, decay”), a learned borrowing; the Latin meant properly “neglect, the state of something left abandoned”.[1][4][11][3] DELI and Nocentini take it as the same Latin word as the noun “position”.[1][4] De Vaan instead treats this sense as a separate word and links it with Latin sitis (“thirst”), from a reconstructed Proto-Indo-European *dʰgʷʰi-tu- (“destruction, perishing”).[5][3] Meyer-Lübke records an old form Old Italian seto (“stench”).[13]
Earliest recorded meaning
DELI's first record is Domenico Cavalca (before 1342); GRADIT dates it before 1320.[1][2] Cavalca writes of a place where little water is found, d'un fortissimo sito come di bitume, “with a very strong smell, like bitumen”.[14]
Semantic evolution
The word is Tuscan and literary.[4][11][10] It could name any smell, even a pleasant one, as in Soderini's il buon sito of fragrant plants, but it is mostly a stale or bad one.[9][14] Pirandello writes of the sito di stalla, the smell of the stable, rising from a crowd of peasants.[14]
Timeline
Meanings
Noun
Word family
- sitaccio
sito3 situated
From the same root · sito3
Pronunciation
- /ˈsi.to/[3]
Forms
sito (feminine sita, masculine plural siti, feminine plural site)[3]
Etymology
The adjective is borrowed from Latin situs (“placed, situated”), the past participle of sinō (“to put; to let”), a learned borrowing.[1][4][2][3] Spanish has the same word, sito.[4]
Earliest recorded meaning
DELI's first record is Domenico Cavalca (before 1342); Zingarelli dates it 1334.[1][6] Cavalca says that the virtuous mind è sita in alto, is placed on high, and so is always serene.[9]
Semantic evolution
Tommaseo noted in 1861 that the word was not in general use but was still alive among lawyers.[9] It remains the word of bureaucratic and notarial language for the location of a building or a piece of land.[8][11][15]
Timeline
Meanings
Adjective
Related words
- situare
- situazione
- Latin situs
- Latin sinō
- French site
Usage notes
DEI also lists a learned prefix sito-, from Ancient Greek σῖτος (sîtos, “grain, food”), found in medical terms such as sitofobia and sitomania.[16][17]
References
- ^ 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
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
- ^ 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
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
- ^ 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. 19, 105
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
- ^ a b c d Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
- ^ a b c d e Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
- ^ a b Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
- ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
- ^ 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. 19, 106
- ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
- ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3511
- ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
Related etymologies
Cite this entry
“Sito.” Etymologically, 22 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/it/sito. Accessed 22 Oct. 2026.
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