Authorities and forms

Thirteenth on this list is il visto, and the word is older and plainer than the document it now names. It is simply the past participle of vedere, to see, so il visto is « the seen » — and Italian still uses it that way on paper of every other kind: a visto pencilled beside a figure means that somebody has checked it, and visto, si stampi is the old formula releasing a text for printing. « Visa » in English is the same participle, taken from Latin rather than built at home: visa is the neuter plural of the past participle of videre, things that have been seen, and it reached the passport from the wording for papers that had been examined. The point worth keeping is what neither form says. Neither one promises entry, permission or welcome; both record an inspection and nothing more. Il visto vale per tre mesi therefore states how long that inspection stands good, and a traveller carrying one can still be turned back at the border by an official who looks again.