sommergere

Forms

sommergere (first-person singular present sommèrgo, first-person singular past historic sommèrsi, past participle sommèrso, auxiliary avére)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin submergere (“to sink, plunge under”), formed from sub- (“under”) and mergō (“to plunge, immerse”), with the past participle submersus behind sommerso.^[2][3][4][1] Nocentini notes that French submerger and Spanish sumergir are learned borrowings; inherited outcomes are found in the north, such as Friulian somerzi (“to submerge; to oppress”).^[3][5][6]

De Vaan traces mergō to Proto-Italic *mezge/o- and Proto-Indo-European *mesg- (“to sink, wash”), with Lithuanian mazgóti (“to wash”) among its cognates.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is in Jacopone da Todi, who died in 1306, in the figurative sense “to extinguish, make forgotten”;^[2][6][8] DEI and Prati cite Dante.^[2][6][8] Dante also has the participle sommerso “wholly covered by water”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The literal senses are recorded slightly later: “to sink, send to the bottom” before 1347 in Bartolomeo da San Concordio, and “to cover entirely”, said of flooding water, around 1350 in the Italian Crescenzi.^[2] DEI also has 14th-century uses for “to overwhelm, surpass” and an intransitive “to dive”.^[6] Leonardo da Vinci uses the verb in his writings on the movement of water.^[9]

Sommergibile meant “that can be submerged” from 1745; as a noun for a warship that can sail on the surface or under water it is recorded from 1906 and follows French submersible (1904) and English submersible (1900).^[2] Its sailor, the sommergibilista, is recorded in 1937.^[2]

Timeline

• Before 1306 – Jacopone da Todi uses sommergere “to extinguish, make forgotten”.^[2]
• Before 1321 – Dante uses sommerso “covered by the water”.^[2]
• Before 1347 – Bartolomeo da San Concordio uses it for “to sink”.^[2]
• c. 1350 – The Italian Crescenzi uses it for water covering the land.^[2]
• 1745 – The adjective sommergibile is recorded.^[2]
• 1906 – Sommergibile is recorded as the name of a submarine.^[2]
• 1937 – Sommergibilista is recorded.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) Of water, to flood or cover a place entirely: La piena ha sommerso la strada.^[4][10][11]
2. (transitive) To sink a boat or anything floating, to send to the bottom.^[4][10][12]
3. (transitive, figurative) To surround or cover completely, to engulf: La città era sommersa dalla neve.^[4][10]
4. (transitive, figurative) To make disappear or forgotten.^[4][10][11]
5. (transitive, figurative) To overwhelm, to swamp: essere sommerso dal lavoro.^[4][13][11]

Word family

• sommergibile
• sommergibilista
• sommerso
• sommersione
• risommergere
• sommergimento
• sommergitore
• sommergitura

Related words

• immergere
• emergere
• mergo
• Latin submergo

Usage notes

The past is sommersi and the past participle sommerso.^[13][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
6. ^ a b c d Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3541
7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ a b Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 928
9. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
10. ^ a b c d 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 Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
12. ^ Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
13. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse