vestire

Forms

vestire (first-person singular present vèsto, first-person singular past historic vestìi, past participle vestìto, auxiliary avére)^[1] The old past participle was vestuto.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin vestiō (“to clothe, dress”), a verb made in Latin from vestis (“garment, clothes”).^{[4][5][6][1][7]} The verb survives across the Romance languages: French vêtir, Occitan vestir, Catalan vestir, Spanish vestir, Portuguese vestir, Sardinian bestire and Romanian învești.^[5][8][2]

De Vaan traces the Latin noun to Proto-Italic *westi- (“clothes”) and Proto-Indo-European *wésti-, from the root Proto-Indo-European *wes- (“to clothe, wear”), which also has verbs in Hittite, Sanskrit, Greek and Germanic; he takes the noun to be an independent Latin formation.^[7] Nocentini names the English verb wear among the Germanic relatives.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

DEI dates the verb to the 13th century, in the poems of Jacopone da Todi, with the sense “to put clothes on someone”.^[2] DELI's first record of that sense is in Dante, who died in 1321, and the sense “to wear” is in the Inferno (1300–1313): e mangia e bee e dorme e veste panni (“and eats and drinks and sleeps and wears clothes”).^[4][9]

Semantic evolution

The reflexive vestirsi, to get dressed, is in Boccaccio (1348–1353), and Dante already uses the verb for putting on the habit of a particular state or office.^[4] Petrarch extended it to covering and adorning (1374), Vasari to cloaking a landscape (1550), and Antonino of Florence to providing someone with clothes (before 1459).^[4] The infinitive was used as a noun from the 14th century, as in Petrarch's Giovane donna in un vestire schietto (“A young woman in a simple dress”); Tommaseo noted that it was still used in the singular but no longer in the plural.^[4][10]

Later senses describe a tailor or shop that makes or sells clothes for its customers and a garment that fits the body well, both recorded by Tommaseo (1879), and the intransitive “to dress in a certain way” (1839).^[4] Today one can also vestire a clothing size, or wear a designer's clothes.^[6][11]

Timeline

• 13th century – Jacopone da Todi uses vestire.^[2]
• 1300–1313 – Dante uses it for wearing clothes.^[4]
• 1348–1353 – Boccaccio uses the reflexive vestirsi.^[4]
• 1374 – Petrarch uses it figuratively for covering and adorning.^[4]
• Before 1459 – Antonino of Florence uses it for providing clothes.^[4]
• 1550 – Vasari uses it for cloaking or mantling.^[4]
• 1805 – Vestizione is recorded.^[5][2]
• 1839 – The intransitive use “to dress” is recorded.^[4]
• 1879 – Tommaseo records the senses of a tailor's clients and of a garment that fits.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To dress someone, put clothes on them: Vesti tu il piccolo mentre preparo la colazione?^[6][11][12]
2. To provide with clothing: vestire gli ignudi (one of the corporal works of mercy).^[6][9][11]
3. Of a tailor or designer, to make clothes for someone, have them as a client: Quella sartoria veste mezza città.^[6][13][12]
4. To wear, have on; to wear the dress of a state or office: vestire la toga, vestire il saio.^[6][12][9]
5. To take a clothing size: Mia sorella veste la 42.^[6][11]
6. Of a garment, to fit: Questo cappotto ti veste a meraviglia.^[6][9][12]
7. To cover or line: vestire un fiasco di paglia.^[6][12][9]
8. (figurative, literary) To cloak, mantle or adorn; to give a form or quality to something: La neve vestiva di bianco i tetti.^[6][9]
9. (intransitive) To dress in a certain way: Il nonno vestiva con un gusto antiquato.^[6][12]
10. (reflexive, vestirsi) To get dressed: Si è vestito in fretta ed è uscito.^[12][4]

Noun

1. Clothing; way of dressing: spendere poco nel vestire.^[13][12]

Word family

• vestito
• vestimento
• vestizione
• vestibilità
• rivestire
• svestire
• disvestire
• travestire
• travestimento

Related words

• veste
• vestiario
• Latin vestis
• French vêtir

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 4039
3. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
5. ^ a b c d Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ a b c d e f Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
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 d e f g h Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
13. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse