vendemmiare

Forms

vendemmiare (first-person singular present vendémmio, first-person singular past historic vendemmiài, past participle vendemmiàto, auxiliary avére)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin vindēmiāre (“to gather grapes”), a verb formed in Latin from vindēmia (“grape harvest”), the source of the noun vendemmia.^[2][3][4][1] Tommaseo cites the Latin verb from Pliny and Columella.^[5] Devoto saw the Italian form, with its double ⟨mm⟩, as the Latin verb reshaped on that noun.^[6]

The same verb is French vendanger, Old Occitan vendemiar, Spanish vendimiar, Portuguese vindimar and Logudorese binnennare.^[7] DEI counts it among the words common to all the Romance languages, while the agent noun vindēmiātor lives on only in Italy and the western Romance area.^[8]

The Latin noun is a compound of vīnum (“wine; grapes”) and dēmō (“to take away”).^[1][3] DELI traces it to an older *vīnodēmia, “the taking of the wine”, and Nocentini derives the verb from emō (“to take; to buy”) with the prefix dē-.^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is a Florentine document of 1286–1290, in an entry of 1288, with the sense “to harvest the grapes”.^[9] DELI dates the transitive use to the 14th century (the Bible translation, Dante, the Italian Crescenzi) and the intransitive “to do the grape harvest” to Dante's Inferno (1300–1313), where the peasant sees fireflies in the valley “perhaps where he gathers grapes and ploughs” (forse colà dov' è vendemmia e ara).^[2][10]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian had many forms of the verb, among them vendegnare, vendemiare, vendimiare and vennegnare.^[9][10] Already before 1375 it was used of a vineyard stripped of its grapes, and figuratively of plundering on a large scale, of punishing or humbling someone, of gaining spiritual profit, and of possessing a woman.^[9] Crescenzi's agricultural treatise, in its Italian version, warns that some vendemmiano before the grapes are ripe and so make thin wine that does not keep.^[10]

Annibal Caro used it about 1535 for “to despoil, carry everything off”, and in the 16th century it also meant “to gather honey”.^[2][8][11] The sense “to make large profits” appears in a collection of Tuscan proverbs in 1853.^[2] Today the figurative use, often joking, is “to collect in great numbers”, said of votes, successes or honours.^[4][12][13]

Timeline

• 1288 – The verb appears in a Florentine document.^[9]
• 1300–1313 – Dante uses it intransitively in the Inferno.^[2]
• 14th century – The Bible translation and the Italian Crescenzi use it transitively, “to harvest grapes”.^[2]
• About 1350 – The Italian Crescenzi has vendemmiatore, the grape picker.^[2]
• About 1535 – Annibal Caro uses it for “to despoil”.^[2]
• 1723 – Anton Maria Salvini uses vendemmiabile, “ready to be harvested”.^[2]
• 1853 – A collection of Tuscan proverbs records the sense “to make large profits”.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To harvest grapes that have ripened; to pick a vigna clean: Quest'anno vendemmiamo le uve rosse per prime.^{[4][12][13][1]}
2. (transitive, figurative, often humorous) To reap something in great quantity: vendemmiare voti, successi.^[4][12][13]
3. (transitive, figurative, uncommon) To plunder, to carry everything away.^[4][13][14]
4. (intransitive, auxiliary avere) To do the vendemmia, to harvest the grapes: In collina si vendemmia a metà settembre.^{[4][12][13][1]}
5. (intransitive, figurative) To make large profits: In quel mercato c'era da vendemmiare.^[4][12][13]

Word family

• vendemmiabile
• vendemmiata
• vendemmiatrice

Related words

• vendemmia
• vendemmiatore
• vino
• Latin vindemia
• French vendanger

Usage notes

A Tuscan proverb, il vecchio pianta la vigna, e il giovine la vendemmia (the old man plants the vineyard and the young one harvests it), says that those who come later gather what others sowed.^[15][14]

References

1. ^ a b c d e 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 De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
6. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier, p. 466
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 4008
9. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
10. ^ 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. 21, 726
11. ^ Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
12. ^ a b c d e Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
13. ^ a b c d e f Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
14. ^ a b Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
15. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana