Etymologically
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vendere

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈven.de.re/[1]

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

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