venire

Forms

venire (first-person singular present vèngo, first-person singular past historic vénni or vènni, past participle venùto, first-person singular future verrò, auxiliary èssere)^[1] Old and poetic forms include vegno “I come”, vène “he comes”, the subjunctive vegna and the participle vegnente.^[2][3][4] The future is verrò and the past historic venni.^[1][5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin veniō (“to come; to arrive; to happen”).^[6][7][8][1] The verb is panromance: French venir, Occitan venir, Catalan vindre, Spanish venir, Portuguese vir, Sardinian bènnere, Romansh gnir, Romanian veni and Dalmatian vener.^[7][9]

Latin ⟨veniō⟩ continues Proto-Italic *gʷenjō and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *gʷem- (“to step, come”).^[10][1] The root is widespread: Ancient Greek βαίνω (baínō, “I go”), Sanskrit गच्छति (gácchati, “goes”), Gothic 𐌵𐌹𐌼𐌰𐌽 (qiman, “to come”) and German kommen continue it, and Lithuanian gìmti (“to be born”) has the sense “come into the world”.^[7][10][11] De Vaan explains the ⟨n⟩ of Latin as the regular outcome of a zero-grade *gʷm̥-je/o-, which then spread to the rest of the verb.^[10] Devoto notes that the root first meant a single movement, without any sense of approaching or leaving, so that the contrast between “go” and “come” is not original.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

Nocentini and Devoto–Oli date the verb to the 11th or 12th century, Sabatini–Coletti to the 11th.^[7][4][12] GRADIT's first record, from 1219, has the sense “arrive”.^[8] DELI's first dated sense, “go to where the person spoken to is”, comes from Dante (1300–1313), who comments on his own words: Dico che lo vidi venire, “I say that I saw him come”.^[6]

Semantic evolution

In the 13th century the verb already meant “derive, have its origin”, in Brunetto Latini (before 1294); Dante applied it to words, arguing that nobile does not come from cognoscere but from non vile.^[6] Other senses followed: “be born” in Dante, “take root” of plants around 1350, “happen, occur” in the 14th century, “turn out, succeed” in Cellini and “cost” in Sassetti (1577).^[6]

Italian, like Romansh and in part Spanish and Portuguese, uses venire with a past participle to form the passive (la porta viene chiusa).^[7][9][13] DELI dates this use to before 1484 (Pulci) and points to traces of it already in Late Latin;^[6] DEI sees its starting point in Latin phrases such as venire in odium “come to be hated”.^[13] With a gerund the verb describes an action in progress, from Boccaccio (1348–1353).^[6] The phrase venire di with an infinitive, for the recent past, was common in the 18th and 19th centuries and attacked by purists as a copy of French venir de.^[6][13] The expression mi vien da ridere “I feel like laughing” may go back to a Greek turn of phrase.^[6]

The infinitive is also a noun, il venire, mainly in andare e venire “coming and going” (1891).^[6][8] A vulgar slang sense, “have an orgasm”, is recorded in 1931 by Panzini.^[13][12]

Timeline

• 11th–12th century – The first records of venire.^[7][4]
• 1219 – Venire in the sense “arrive”.^[8]
• Before 1294 – The sense “derive, originate” in Brunetto Latini.^[6]
• 1300–1313 – Venuta “arrival” and the verb in Dante.^[6]
• 1348–1353 – Boccaccio uses venire with a gerund.^[6]
• Before 1484 – Pulci uses venire with a past participle as a passive.^[6]
• 1577 – The sense “cost”.^[6]
• 1891 – The noun il venire in Petrocchi's dictionary.^[6][8]
• 1931 – The slang sense “have an orgasm” in Panzini.^[13]

Meanings

Verb

1. To come, move towards the place where the speaker or the person addressed is: Vieni con noi al mare?^[8][4][3]
2. To arrive; of time or events, to come round: Il mese che viene parto per Napoli.^[8][12]
3. To come from, originate (with da): Questa parola viene dal greco.^[8][6]
4. To happen, occur; of illnesses or feelings, to come on: Mi è venuto il raffreddore.^[12][1]
5. To be born; of plants, to grow, come up.^[12][6][1]
6. To turn out, come out, succeed: La torta non è venuta bene.^[12][1]
7. (colloquial) To cost: Le pesche vengono tre euro al chilo.^[12][1]
8. With a past participle, an auxiliary of the passive voice: La lettera viene spedita domani.^[7][1]
9. (vulgar) To have an orgasm.^[12][1]

Noun

1. Coming, movement towards a place, mainly in andare e venire, coming and going.^[8]

Word family

• venuta
• venuto
• benvenuto
• svenire
• svenimento
• svenevole
• rinvenire
• sopravvenire

Related words

• avvenire
• contravvenire
• convenire
• provenire
• divenire
• Latin veniō
• French venir

Usage notes

Many set phrases use the verb: venire a capo “get to the bottom of”, venire al dunque “come to the point”, venire alla luce “be born, come to light” and venire meno “fail; faint”.^[8][14] The auxiliary is essere.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
3. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
4. ^ 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
5. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
7. ^ a b c d e f g Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
9. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ a b Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier, p. 466
12. ^ a b c d e f g h Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
13. ^ a b c d e Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 4011
14. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli