vendere

Forms

vendere (first-person singular present véndo, first-person singular past historic vendétti or (traditional) vendètti or vendéi, past participle vendùto, auxiliary avére)^[1] Old and dialect forms include vennere and vindere;^[2] Buccio di Ranallo writes “Mea richeze vennenno” (I sold my riches).^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin vēndō (“to sell”), which goes back to the phrase vēnum dō (“to give for sale”).^[3][4][1] The Latin verb has continuations in every Romance language, from which DÉRom reconstructs a Proto-Romance verb:^[5] French vendre, Occitan vendre, Catalan vendre, Spanish vender, Portuguese vender, Sardinian bendere, Romanian vinde and Dalmatian vandro.^[6][7]

vēnum (“sale”) is found only in this kind of phrase, never in the nominative.^[6][1] It comes from Proto-Italic *wesnos, from Proto-Indo-European *wes- (“to sell, buy”), with cognates in Ancient Greek ὦνος (ônos, “price”) and Sanskrit वस्न (vasna, “price”).^[6][1] The sources differ on the second part: Wiktionary and DELI take it as dō (“to give”), while Nocentini derives the second element from the root *dʰeh₁- (“to put”).^[1][3][6] Devoto explains the form by syncope of the first unstressed syllable.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

GRADIT's date is 1279, from Pisan records quoted by Monaci;^[4][3] DELI also cites the Fiore of the late 13th or early 14th century, in the sense “to sell”.^[4][3] DEI dates the verb to the 11th century.^[9]

Semantic evolution

By the early 14th century the verb was used for things not properly for sale: Dante has “to give for gain” in the Convivio (1304–1308) and “to betray, especially for money” before 1321;^[3] Giovanni Villani uses it for trading.^[3] Varchi's translation of Seneca (1554) defines selling as transferring to another the right and ownership one has over a thing.^[3][10]

Petrocchi's dictionary of 1891 records vendere for “to prostitute” and for passing off a tale as true, and Zingarelli's of 1970 the football sense, the transfer of a player to another club.^[3] Idioms include vendere fumo, to sell smoke, that is, to boast of what does not exist, and averne da vendere, to have plenty of something.^[11][12][3]

Timeline

• 1279 – Vendere appears in Pisan records.^[4][3]
• 1304–1308 – Dante uses it for giving something for gain.^[3]
• Before 1321 – Dante uses it for “to betray”.^[3]
• Before 1348 – Giovanni Villani uses it for “to trade”.^[3]
• 1554 – Varchi defines selling in his translation of Seneca.^[3]
• 1891 – Petrocchi records the senses “to prostitute” and “to pass off”.^[3]
• 1970 – Zingarelli records the football sense.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To sell, to transfer ownership of something in return for money: Abbiamo venduto la vecchia macchina a un vicino.^{[4][11][13][1]}
2. To put up for sale, vendesi, “for sale” in notices: Mio zio vuole vendere il terreno.^[4][12]
3. To deal in (a kind of goods) as a trade: Il suo negozio vende scarpe.^[4][13][14]
4. (sport) To transfer a player to another club for a fee.^[4][3]
5. (derogatory) To give up for gain what should not be sold; to betray: vendere un segreto, vendere i compagni.^[4][13]
6. (colloquial) To pass off (a story), make someone believe: Questa storia non me la vendi.^[4][15]
7. (reflexive) vendersi: to sell oneself, let oneself be bribed; to prostitute oneself.^[3][4]

Word family

• vendita
• venditore
• venditrice
• venduto
• vendibile
• rivendere
• rivendita
• rivenditore
• rivendugliolo
• svendere
• svendita

Related words

• venale
• Latin vēndō

Usage notes

The past historic is vendetti or vendei.^[11][13][1] Set phrases include vendere cara la pelle (to fight to the last) and vendere la pelle dell'orso prima di averlo ammazzato (to count one's chickens before they hatch).^[4][11][12]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 21, 726
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ Buchi, Éva; Schweickard, Wolfgang, eds. (2008–), Dictionnaire Étymologique Roman (DÉRom), Nancy: ATILF, http://www.atilf.fr/DERom
6. ^ a b c d Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
9. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 4008
10. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
11. ^ 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
12. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
13. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
14. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
15. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana