vieto

Forms

vieto (feminine vieta, masculine plural vieti, feminine plural viete)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *vetum, built on the nominative of Latin vetus (“old”).^[2][3][4][1] DELI calls it a rare continuation of the nominative form: the accusative stem lives on in veterano, and the diminutive in vecchio.^[2] Late Latin had also made a new nominative Late Latin veteris, recorded in Oribasius.^[5]

The same word gave Old French viez, while Romansh veider and Friulian vieri continue the accusative.^[3][6] Meyer-Lübke adds Bergamasque eder, and northern words for fallow land such as vegro.^[6]

The Latin adjective was once a noun meaning “year”, as the comparison with Ancient Greek ἔτος (étos, “year”) and Hittite witt- (“year”) shows.^[3] Turned into an adjective it meant “of last year, past its season”, the same shift as in Lithuanian vẽtušas (“old”) and Old Church Slavonic ветъхъ (vetŭxŭ, “old, decrepit”).^[3][7] It goes back to Proto-Italic *wetos (“year”) and Proto-Indo-European *wétos (“year”).^[1][7] Nocentini suggests that the sense “stale, gone off” of food may owe something to Latin vietus (“shrivelled”), the source of vizzo.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Dante's Inferno (1300–1313), where Mount Ida, once rich in water and leaves, is now “deserted like an old, worn-out thing” (or è diserta come cosa vieta).^[2][8] DELI glosses the sense as “no longer valid or attractive”, with a disparaging shade.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian, and still in Tuscany, the word took a disparaging sense of food: “rancid, gone off”.^[2] The Crescenzi translation already uses it of old lard, sugna vieta.^[9][10] Tommaseo distinguished it from rancido: food can be vieto through age before it turns sour, and vieto is said of other things than food.^[9] The noun vieto, a stale taste, appears in phrases like sapere di vieto, which Bibbiena already used of old things that please less than new ones.^[8] The derivative vietume is recorded in 1618 in Buonarroti.^[5]

In modern Italian the main sense is the figurative one: ideas, customs and rhetoric that are worn out and out of date.^[11][12][4] The sense “old” is literary, and a sense “withered, sickly-looking” of a person or a face is uncommon.^[12][11][13]

Timeline

• 1300–1313 – Dante uses vieta in the Inferno.^[2]
• 14th century – The Crescenzi translation uses the word for rancid fat.^[5][9]
• 1618 – Vietume is recorded in Buonarroti.^[5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (derogatory) Of ideas, customs or values: antiquated, outdated, with no interest left: Il discorso era pieno di vieti luoghi comuni.^{[11][12][4][14]}
2. (literary) Old.^[12][14][1]
3. (uncommon) Of a person or face: withered, sickly-looking.^[11][12][13]
4. (Tuscan) Of food: stale, rancid.^{[11][15][14][1]}

Noun

1. (Tuscan) The stale, rancid taste or smell of old food, as in sapere di vieto.^[11][12][13]

Word family

• vietume
• vietamente

Related words

• vecchio
• veterano
• vetusto
• vetere
• Latin vetus

Usage notes

Vieto is also the first person singular present of vietare “to forbid”, a separate word.^[16] The adverb vietamente is uncommon.^[14]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ a b c d e Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
5. ^ a b c d Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 4050
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
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. ^ 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, 859
9. ^ a b c Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
10. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 1054
11. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
12. ^ a b c d e f Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
13. ^ a b c Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
14. ^ a b c d Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
15. ^ Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
16. ^ Wikizionario (Italian Wiktionary), it.wiktionary.org