vestimento

Forms

vestimento m (plural vestimenti or vestimenta)^[1] The plural is vestimenti, or in literary and archaic use the feminine le vestimenta.^[2][3][4] Old forms include vestemento.^[5]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin vestīmentum (“clothing, garment”), a learned word in the view of Zingarelli and the GDLI.^[3][5][6][7] Wiktionary treats it instead as inherited, and the Latin word does live on in popular form in other Romance languages: Romanian veșmânt, French vêtement, Occitan vestiment, Catalan vestimenta, Spanish vestimenta, Portuguese vestimenta and Sardinian bestimenta.^[1][8]

The Latin noun is formed from vestiō (“to clothe”) with the suffix -mentum.^[9][1][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Zingarelli dates the word to 1266, and DELI's first record is in Dante, 1304–1308, in the sense “garment, clothing”.^[3][10][7] Northern poets of the 13th century already have the plural vestimente: Patecchio writes L'om qe s'axalta tropo per bele vestimente (“The man who prides himself too much on fine clothes”).^[5]

Semantic evolution

In the Vita nuova Dante sees a young man vestito di bianchissime vestimenta (“dressed in the whitest garments”), with the old feminine plural.^[5] The word also meant the act of dressing and the clothing of a novice.^[7][3]

In 1861 Tommaseo found it less common than veste and vestito but still alive, used for the whole of a person's visible dress rather than a single garment.^[11] Manzoni wrote era folgore l'aspetto, / era neve il vestimento (“his face was lightning, his garment snow”).^[7][12] Today the word is literary, and in some regions still used.^[13][2]

Timeline

• 1266 – Zingarelli's date of first record.^[3]
• 1304–1308 – Dante uses vestimento.^[10][7]
• 1861 – Tommaseo finds the word less common than veste and vestito.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. (literary) A garment; clothing in general: Portava un vestimento di seta rossa.^{[7][2][13][3][4]}
2. (archaic) The act of dressing.^{[7][2][13][3][4]}
3. (archaic) Vestizione, the clothing of a new member of a religious order.^[7][3]

Word family

• vestimentario

Related words

• vestire
• veste
• vestito
• French vêtement

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
4. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
5. ^ a b c d Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 21, 818
6. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c d e f g h De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
11. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
12. ^ Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
13. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse