stesso Italian · revision 37590

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=inherited|attested=late 13th century, Novellino|origins=la iste, la ipse}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * /ˈstes.so/^(Wiktionary)

+ * Milan: /ˈstɛs.so/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''stesso''' (feminine stessa, masculine plural stessi, feminine plural stesse)^(Wiktionary)

+ The older and literary form is ''istesso''.^(Devoto–Oli 2026)^(Treccani 2011)^(Gabrielli 2020) Old and dialect forms include ''stéssi'', ''stisso'' and ''stissu''.^(GDLI|20, 165)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[inh|roa-oit|istesso]], with the loss of the first vowel, [[inh|la-vul|*istum ipsum|t=this very one]].^(DELI 1999)^(Nocentini 2010)^(GRADIT 2003)^(Sabatini–Coletti 2026)^(Wiktionary) The Latin phrase is the accusative of [[m|la|iste|t=that (near you)]] and [[m|la|ipse|t=himself, itself]], literally “this same”.^(DELI 1999)^(Devoto–Oli 2026)^(Treccani 2011) Devoto starts from the nominative ⟨iste ipse⟩ crossed with the accusative,^(Devoto 1968|426) and Battaglia notes that the singular ⟨stessi⟩ was remade on the ending of the third-person pronoun.^(GDLI|20, 165)

+

+ The Latin pronouns survive separately too: [[m|la|ipse]] gave [[esso]], [[sc|issu]], [[oc|eis]], [[es|ese]] and [[pt|esse]], and [[m|la|iste]] gave Old Italian [[m|roa-oit|esto]], [[ro|ist]] and [[m|es|este]].^(REW 1935)^(Körting 1907) In Romanian, Italian, Occitan and Spanish the old use of ⟨ipse⟩ as a pronoun of identity was kept.^(REW 1935)

+

+ Latin ⟨iste⟩ goes back to [[itc-pro|*es-to-]], with the pronoun [[ine-pro|*só]] as its second part.^(de Vaan 2008)^(Wiktionary) Latin ⟨ipse⟩ was at first a compound of the pronoun [[m|la|is|t=he]] with a particle ⟨-pse⟩, still inflected inside the word in early forms such as ⟨eapse⟩ and ⟨eumpse⟩; later only the ending changed.^(de Vaan 2008)^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ DELI's first record is in the ''Novellino'', at the end of the 13th century, in the emphatic sense “himself, in person”.^(DELI 1999)^(Nocentini 2010) Brunetto Latini's ''Rettorica'' has ''la ragione stessa'' “reason itself”, and Dante's ''Inferno'' ''Lo pianto stesso lì pianger non lascia'' (“weeping itself does not let them weep there”).^(GDLI|20, 165)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ In Old Italian the word mostly reinforced a noun or pronoun, as in Dante's ''me stesso'' and Boccaccio's ''quel dì stesso'' “that very day”.^(Tommaseo–Bellini 1861) DELI dates the sense of identity, “the same”, to Annibal Caro (before 1566), and it is now the main sense.^(DELI 1999)^(GRADIT 2003)

+

+ The form without ⟨i-⟩ won out in the written language;^(Devoto–Oli 2026)^(Treccani 2011)^(Sabatini–Coletti 2026) ''istesso'' remains old, literary or Tuscan.^(Devoto–Oli 2026)^(Treccani 2011)^(Sabatini–Coletti 2026) With the personal pronouns it forms the reflexive and emphatic series ''me stesso'', ''te stesso'', ''sé stesso'', ''noi stessi''.^(Wiktionary)^(GRADIT 2003) Used as a pronoun, ''lo stesso'' means “the same thing”, and many set phrases are built on it, such as ''al tempo stesso'' “at the same time”, ''sulla stessa barca'' “in the same boat” and ''fine a sé stesso'' “an end in itself”.^(GRADIT 2003)^(Devoto–Oli 2026)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * Late 13th century – The ''Novellino'' uses ''stesso'' for “himself, in person”.^(DELI 1999)

+ * 1300–1313 – Dante writes ''lo pianto stesso''.^(GDLI|20, 165)

+ * Before 1566 – Annibal Caro uses it in the sense “the same”.^(DELI 1999)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Adjective===

+ # [[m|en|same]], identical, the one and not another: ''abitiamo nello stesso quartiere da vent'anni''.^(GRADIT 2003)^(Devoto–Oli 2026)^(Sabatini–Coletti 2026)

+ # Equal, alike in amount or kind: ''i due fratelli portano la stessa taglia''.^(GRADIT 2003)^(Devoto–Oli 2026)^(Sabatini–Coletti 2026)

+ # After a personal pronoun, [[m|en|-self]], as a reinforcement: ''l'ha fatto lui stesso''.^(GRADIT 2003)^(Sabatini–Coletti 2026)^(Treccani 2011)

+ # [[m|en|very]], in person: ''è venuto il sindaco stesso''.^(GRADIT 2003)^(Zingarelli 2010)

+ # [[m|en|even]]: ''i suoi stessi rivali lo stimano''.^(GRADIT 2003)^(Treccani 2011)

+ # After an adverb of time, this very: ''partirò oggi stesso''.^(GRADIT 2003)^(Zingarelli 2010)

+ # Referring back to something just named, the said: ''si apre la scatola e si toglie il coperchio della scatola stessa''.^(GRADIT 2003)^(Treccani 2011)

+

+ ===Pronoun===

+ # The same person or thing: ''ha ordinato lo stesso''.^(Wiktionary)^(GRADIT 2003)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[istesso]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[esso]]

+ * [[medesimo]]

+ * [[la|ipse]]

+ * [[la|iste]]

+

+ ==Usage notes==

+ ''Sé stesso'' is also written ''se stesso'', without the accent.^(Wiktionary)^(Sabatini–Coletti 2026) With ''medesimo'' it can form the emphatic ''gli stessi medesimi errori'', and colloquial Italian has the superlative ''stessissimo''.^(Devoto–Oli 2026)^(Sabatini–Coletti 2026)

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}