stentare

Forms

stentare (first-person singular present stènto or sténto, first-person singular past historic stentài, past participle stentàto, auxiliary avére)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin extentāre, which DELI glosses “to try, test” and takes as a compound of ex- and temptō (“to touch, try”), the source of tentare.^[2][3][4] Nocentini glosses the Latin verb “to stretch hard”, and the OLD derives the classical verb, “to stretch, exert oneself to the full”, from extendō.^[5][6] DEI rejects that Latin verb, which in its sense “to enlarge” gave a Versilian verb for “to scatter”, and derives the word directly from the Latin verb for “to try”, with an intensive ⟨s-⟩, like Dalmatian stentur (“to work”).^[7][8][9] Diez's Vulgar Latin *abstentāre, from the supine of abstineō (“to abstain”), was rejected by Meyer-Lübke because the Latin verb is not recorded.^[8][9][1]

The same word is Romansh stenter (“to have trouble doing something; to be in need”), Friulian stentâ, Lombard stentà and Piedmontese stenté.^[8][1] The Latin verb goes back to a participle Proto-Italic *t(e)mp-to- (“touched”).^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is Boccaccio, in 1348–1353, for leading a hard and wretched life: in the Decameron an angry man thinks of having two lovers imprisoned, to make them in prigione stentare (“suffer in prison”).^[2][3][11] DEI and Zingarelli put the verb in the 13th century, and Dante already has the pronominal form for suffering: E a tal modo il socero si stenta (“and in the same way the father-in-law suffers”).^[7][12][13]

Semantic evolution

In the 14th century the verb also meant to be short of something and to delay, in Matteo Villani and Sacchetti.^[7][14] The noun stento “hardship, want” is recorded before 1348 in Giovanni Villani, and a stento “with difficulty” before 1363 in Matteo Villani.^[2] The sense “to have difficulty doing something”, which is the main one today, is recorded from Berni, before 1535.^[2][7]

Stentato was used about 1350 of plants that grow with difficulty, and later of work done laboriously.^[2] Stenterello, the mask of the Florentine theatre, was created by Luigi Del Buono at the end of the 18th century and named after stento “stunted”.^[2] French borrowed the verb as stenter (1578), which did not last.^[15]

Timeline

• Before 1348 – Giovanni Villani uses the noun stento.^[2]
• 1348–1353 – Boccaccio uses stentare for living in hardship.^[2][3]
• c. 1350 – The Italian translation of Crescenzi uses stentato of plants.^[2]
• Before 1363 – Matteo Villani uses a stento.^[2]
• Before 1535 – Francesco Berni uses the verb for struggling to do something.^[2]
• 1578 – French stenter is recorded.^[15]
• 1808 – Stenterello is recorded.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive) To struggle or have difficulty doing something, with a and an infinitive: Il vecchio stentava ad alzarsi dalla sedia.^{[3][16][13][1]}
2. (intransitive) To have trouble in a field, especially a school subject, with in.^[16][13]
3. (intransitive, absolute) To live in hardship, scraping by among privations.^{[3][16][4][1]}
4. (transitive) In stentare la vita and stentare il pane: to live a life of hardship, to earn one's bread with great effort.^[3][12][13]
5. (obsolete, pronominal) stentarsi: to suffer.^[12][13]

Word family

• stento
• stentato
• stenterello
• stentamento
• stentacchiare

Related words

• tentare
• Latin temptō

Usage notes

Stento a crederlo means “I find it hard to believe”, and non stento a crederlo “I can well believe it”.^[12][13]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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 d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
4. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
5. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3629
8. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ a b Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
12. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
13. ^ 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)
14. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 950
15. ^ a b Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
16. ^ 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