vendita

Forms

vendita f (plural vendite)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin vĕndĭta, the neuter plural of venditus, the past participle of vendō (“to sell”).^[2][3][4] DELI says the abstract noun was made from the feminine of the participle or from its neuter plural, while Devoto–Oli, Treccani and Sabatini–Coletti treat it as a derivative of vendere.^[5][6][7][8] Compare French vente and Portuguese venda.^[9][3]

DELI explains the verb as vēnum (“sale”) with dō (“to give”), “to give for sale”.^[5] Nocentini takes the second part from the root Proto-Indo-European *dhē- (“to put”), and relates the noun for “sale” to words for “price” in Sanskrit and Greek.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

GRADIT dates the word to 1219.^[2] DELI's first records, in the legal sense of a contract of sale, are from the 14th century, in the statutes of the Calimala merchants of Florence, in Boccaccio and in Passavanti.^[5]

Semantic evolution

In the Decameron (1348–1353) the word already means the selling of goods, in a list of trades: “they talk of exchanges, of barters, of sales and other dealings” (Ragionano di cambi, di baratti, di vendite, e d'altri spacci).^[5][11] In the 16th century it could also mean the house that had been sold.^[4]

In the 19th century vendita became the name of a lodge of the Carbonari, the secret society, and of its members, recorded in 1814.^[4][2] A shop where goods are sold was called a vendita from the late 19th century, and in Tuscany the word means a wine shop.^[5][4] The legal term vendita giudiziale, a sale ordered by a court, is a calque of German gerichtlicher Verkauf from the Italian translation of the Austrian Civil Code of 1815.^[5] In football it is the transfer of a player to another club, recorded in 1970.^[5][2]

Timeline

• 1219 – first record of vendita.^[2]
• 14th century – the statutes of the Calimala merchants use it for a sale.^[5]
• 1348–1353 – Boccaccio uses vendite for sales of goods.^[5]
• 1814 – a vendita of the Carbonari is recorded.^[4]
• 1815 – vendita giudiziale appears in the translation of the Austrian Civil Code.^[5]
• 1879 – vendita is used for a shop.^[4]
• 1970 – the football sense appears in the Zingarelli dictionary.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. sale: selling or being sold: la vendita del vecchio frantoio.^[2][6][7]
2. (law) A contract that transfers the ownership of a thing or a right in return for a price.^[2][12][6]
3. (often plural) The quantity of goods sold, sales.^[2][8]
4. The selling of things that should not be sold, such as a public office.^[2]
5. A shop or outlet.^[2][8][1]
6. (sport) The transfer of a player from one club to another for a fee.^[2][1]
7. (history) A meeting place or cell of the Carbonari.^[2][8][1]

Word family

• prevendita
• postvendita
• retrovendita

Related words

• vendere
• venditore
• venale
• French vente

Usage notes

Mettere in vendita is “to put up for sale”, and in vendita “on sale”.^[12][13] Common compounds include vendita all'ingrosso (wholesale), al dettaglio (retail), all'asta (by auction) and per corrispondenza (mail order).^[6][8][12]

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 l De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
3. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
4. ^ a b c d e f Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 4009
5. ^ 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
6. ^ 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
7. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
8. ^ a b c d e Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
11. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
12. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
13. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli