stendere

Forms

stendere (first-person singular present stèndo, first-person singular past historic stési, past participle stéso, auxiliary avére)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin extendō (“to stretch out, extend”), in its popular form; estendere is the learned doublet.^[2][3][1] The Latin verb is formed from ex- and tendō (“to stretch”).^[4][5][6]

The same word is French étendre, Occitan estendre, Catalan estendre, Spanish extender, Sardinian istendere, Romansh stender and Friulian stindi.^[3][7] The verb for “to stretch” goes back to Proto-Indo-European *ten-d(h)- (“to stretch”).^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Novellino, at the end of the 13th century, with the sense “to stretch out, extend”.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Dante (1293–94) uses the reflexive stendersi for something extending in space.^[2] A Sienese shoemakers' statute of 1329–1335 has stendare “to hang out to air”, the sense in which washing is still hung out.^[2][4] Spreading something thin, as dough or paint, is recorded from Francesco Lana in 1670, and putting something into writing from the early 18th century; from this come stesura “draft” and the old stesa.^[2][9]

Colloquial Italian uses the verb for knocking someone down with a blow, for killing, and for exhausting someone.^[4][1] Stendere un velo pietoso is to draw a veil over something unpleasant.^[4][10]

Timeline

• Late 13th century – The Novellino uses stendere “to stretch out”.^[2]
• 1293–1294 – Dante uses stendersi “to extend”.^[2]
• 1329–1335 – Stendare “to hang out” appears in a Sienese statute.^[2]
• 1670 – Francesco Lana uses it for spreading.^[2]
• 1716–1730 – The Prose fiorentine use it for writing down.^[2]
• 1965 – Stendibiancheria, a clothes airer, is recorded.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To stretch out a part of the body: stendere le dita.^[4][10][1]
2. To hang out washing to dry.^[4][1]
3. To spread out or unfold something folded: stendere il plaid.^[4][10]
4. To roll out dough; to spread a layer evenly: stendere lo smalto.^[4][1]
5. To lay someone down flat.^[4]
6. (colloquial) To floor someone with a blow; figuratively, to leave someone speechless.^[4][1]
7. (colloquial) To kill; to exhaust.^[4]
8. To draw up in writing: stendere una relazione.^[4][1]
9. To stretch a rope or wire tight.^[4]

Word family

• steso
• stesa
• stesura
• stenditoio
• stendibiancheria
• stendino
• stendipanni
• stendimento
• ristendere

Related words

• estendere
• tendere
• distendere
• Latin extendō

Usage notes

GRADIT lists a separate literary stendere “to slacken”, from tendere with the prefix s-, recorded from the 14th century, as in Poliziano's lacci e reti stendere “to slacken snares and nets”.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
6. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 950
10. ^ a b c Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier