sovvenire

Forms

sovvenire (first-person singular present sovvèngo, first-person singular past historic sovvénni or sovvènni, past participle sovvenùto, first-person singular future sovverrò, auxiliary avére or (in the literary meaning "to come to mind") èssere)^[1] Old forms include Old Italian sovenire, Old Italian suvvenire, Old Italian sovegnire and Old Italian sobenire.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin subvenīre (“to come to help; to come to mind”), formed from sub- (“under”) and veniō (“to come”).^[5][6][7][1] Nocentini notes that the Latin verb gave two lines of meaning: transitive “to help” and, with a reflexive pronoun, intransitive “to come back to mind”.^[6]

The same verb is French se souvenir “to remember” and Old Occitan sovenir, and in the sense of remembering also old Catalan sovenirse.^[6][8][9] French subvenir and Spanish subvenir “to support” are learned words taken from the Latin verb.^[10]

The noun meaning “memory” is the infinitive used as a noun, but the dictionaries disagree about how much it owes to French souvenir.^{[6][11][4][7]} Nocentini and Devoto–Oli take it from the French noun,^[6][11] Treccani sees a native nominalisation shaped by the French word,^[4] GRADIT derives it from the Italian verb,^[7] and DEI suggests that the sense “remembrance” may come from Occitan.^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in Guido Faba's Parlamenti, written in Bologna about 1243, where the verb means arriving and stepping in at the right moment.^[3] DELI dates sovenire “to help, succour” to the end of the 13th century in the Novellino and sovvenire to Bono Giamboni before 1292, who also has the sense “to come back to mind”.^[5]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian the verb covered several kinds of help: coming to someone's aid with money or food, providing for needs (sovvenire ai bisogni), and curing an illness or wound.^[3] Impersonal sovvenire a qualcuno di qualcosa meant that a thought or memory came into someone's mind.^[3] Dante's se vuo' ch'i' ti sovvegna (“if you want me to help you”) and Petrarch's non ti soven di quella ultima sera? (“do you not remember that last evening?”) show both senses.^[7]

The noun sovvenire “memory” appears before 1574 in Bartolomeo Del Bene.^[5][13] Manzoni's ode Il cinque maggio has e dei dì che furono / l'assalse il sovvenir! (“and the memory of the days that were assailed him”), the line every dictionary quotes for it.^[7][11][14] Today both verb and noun are literary.^[7][15] The sense of financial help lives on in the related sovvenzione “subsidy”, from Late Latin, and its derivative sovvenzionare (1862).^[6]

Timeline

• c. 1243 – First record in Guido Faba's Parlamenti (Bolognese).^[3]
• Before 1250 – Zingarelli's date for the verb.^[14]
• Before 1292 – Bono Giamboni has sovvenire “to help” and “to come to mind”.^[5]
• Late 13th century – Sovenire “to help” in the Novellino.^[5]
• 14th century – Sovvenzione “help” is taken from Late Latin.^[6]
• Before 1574 – Bartolomeo Del Bene uses the noun sovvenire “memory”.^[5]
• 1812 – Sovventore “one who helps” is recorded.^[6]
• 1862 – Sovvenzionare “to subsidise” is recorded.^[6]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive, literary) To help, succour someone in need, danger or financial trouble: sovvenire un parente in difficoltà.^[7][11][14]
2. (intransitive, with avere) To come to the aid of; to provide for someone's needs: sovvenire alle necessità dei profughi.^{[7][11][4][1]}
3. (intransitive, with essere, literary) To come to mind, to come back to the memory, also impersonally with di: non mi sovviene il suo nome.^{[7][11][16][1]}
4. (pronominal, sovvenirsi, literary) To remember (with di).^[11][14][16]

Noun

1. (literary, rare) The infinitive used as a masculine noun, only in the singular: memory, remembrance.^{[7][11][14][4]}

Word family

• sovvenzione
• sovvenzionare
• sovventore
• risovvenire
• sovvenimento
• sovvenenza
• sovvenitore
• sovvenibile
• sovvenevole

Related words

• venire
• souvenir
• Latin subveniō

Usage notes

The verb takes avere in the senses of helping and essere in the sense “to come to mind”.^[14][1] Il sovvenire “memory” is the nominalised infinitive, a rare poetic noun.^[14][4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
3. ^ a b c d e Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
4. ^ a b c d e f Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
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 d e f g h i Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975)
10. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
11. ^ a b c d e f g h Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
12. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3572
13. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
14. ^ a b c d e f g Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
15. ^ Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
16. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana