votare

Forms

votare (first-person singular present vóto, first-person singular past historic votài, past participle votàto, auxiliary avére)^[1] The old form Old Italian botare is also recorded.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *vōtāre (“to offer in a vow, to consecrate”), a verb formed from Latin vōtum (“vow”), the past participle of voveō (“to vow, to promise”).^[4][5][6][2] Nocentini counts it among the Romance formations of Latin origin, and Sabatini–Coletti and Gabrielli call it an intensive of the Latin verb.^[4][2][7] The same verb is French vouer, Old Occitan vodar, Romansh vuder and Friulian vodâ;^[4][8] Wiktionary compares Spanish votar and Portuguese votar.^[1] The Old Italian spellings with initial v or b reflect the difficulty of writing the bilabial fricative into which the semivowel of Latin had turned.^[2]

The political sense “to cast a vote” is, according to Nocentini and Devoto–Oli, an 18th-century calque of French voter.^[4][3] DEI already finds it in Bembo in the 16th century, and notes that the French verb (1727) was itself borrowed from English vote (1552), a verb formed from the noun.^[9]

The Latin verb voveō goes back to Proto-Italic *wowejō and the causative Proto-Indo-European *h₁wogʷʰ-éye- (“to promise”), from the root *h₁wegʷʰ-; its cognates include Ancient Greek εὔχομαι (eúkhomai, “to pray, to vow”).^[10][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

GRADIT and Nocentini date the verb to the 14th century, in the religious sense “to offer as a vow, to consecrate”.^[5][4] Boccaccio writes a Diana votai etterna virginità, “to Diana I vowed eternal virginity”.^[6][11] Bonvesin da la Riva had already used the Milanese form in vodhan castità, “they vow chastity”.^[6]

Semantic evolution

From the vow to a god the verb widened to “dedicate entirely”, as in Tasso's Macon, s'io vinco, i' voto l'arme al Tempio (“Mahomet, if I win, I vow the arms to the temple”).^[6][11] The pronominal votarsi means to bind oneself by a vow, or to give oneself up to a cause, and non sapere a che santo votarsi is said of someone who does not know where to turn for help.^[12][7][13]

The sense “to give one's vote” is recorded in Tommaseo's dictionary in a report on Florentine elections,^[11] and the derivative votazione “ballot, vote” appears in 1802.^[4] Today the electoral senses are by far the most common: to take part in a vote, to put a measure to the vote, to pass it, and to vote for a candidate or party.^[5][2]

Timeline

• 14th century – Votare is recorded in the sense “to vow, to consecrate”.^[5][4]
• 16th century – DEI finds the sense “to vote” in Bembo.^[9]
• 1727 – French voter is recorded.^[9]
• 18th century – The electoral sense spreads as a calque of French.^[4][3]
• 1802 – Votazione is recorded.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive) To vote, to take part in a vote or election: Domenica tutta la famiglia è andata a votare. Votare per a party or candidate, votare a favore or contro.^[5][2][1]
2. (transitive) To put to the vote: Il consiglio comunale voterà il bilancio domani.^[5][3][12]
3. (transitive) To pass, approve by vote: La riforma è stata votata a larga maggioranza.^[5][3][1]
4. (transitive) To vote for, support with one's vote: Ha votato il candidato dei verdi.^[5][2]
5. (religion) To offer as a vow, to consecrate to a god or saint.^[5][3][13]
6. (figurative) To devote, dedicate entirely: Ha votato gli anni migliori all'insegnamento.^[5][3][7]
7. votarsi: to bind oneself by a vow; to devote oneself to something.^[13][12]

Word family

• votante
• votazione
• rivotare
• votatore

Related words

• voto
• devoto
• Latin voveo
• French vouer

Usage notes

Votare takes the auxiliary avere.^[1][12] GRADIT and Wiktionary also record a votare that is a colloquial and Tuscan form of vuotare “to empty”;^[5][1] GDLI explains it as a verb formed from vuoto “empty”, without the diphthong in unstressed syllables, and Meyer-Lübke places it under Latin *vocitus “empty”.^[6][8]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
3. ^ a b c d e f g Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ 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
6. ^ a b c d e Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
7. ^ a b c Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
8. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 4092
10. ^ 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 c Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
12. ^ a b c d Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
13. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli