abbattere

Forms

abbattere (first-person singular present abbàtto, first-person singular past historic abbattéi, past participle abbattùto, auxiliary avére)^[1] Old forms include Old Italian abatere in the north and Old Sicilian abbactere.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin abbattere (“to beat down”), recorded from the 6th century, as ⟨abattere⟩ in the Salic Law.^[4][5][3][1] Nocentini, Devoto–Oli and Devoto treat it as a Vulgar Latin formation with the prefix ad- on battuō (“to beat, pound”), which already appears as ⟨battere⟩ in Fronto.^{[6][7][8][5][9]}

The verb is found throughout Romance: French abattre, Occitan abatre, Catalan abatre, Spanish abatir, Portuguese abater and Romanian abate (“to divert, turn aside”).^[6][3][10]

The Latin verb for “to beat” is rare in literary texts and its origin is unknown; it may be a loan from Gaulish or Germanic.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the Ritmo lucchese of 1213.^[2][6] DELI's first sense, “to throw down”, is in the late 13th-century translation of the Tesoro: Strana fellonia è di spingere un uomo nell'acqua per tramelo fuori, o di abbatterlo per rilevarlo (“it is a strange wickedness to push a man into the water to pull him out, or to knock him down to raise him up”).^[4][9]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian used the verb for knocking down people, walls and trees, and also for beating someone.^[9][3] The sense “to weaken” is in Francesco da Barberino before 1348, the reflexive “to lose heart” in Ottonelli (1612–1620) and “to let oneself fall to the ground” in Chiabrera before 1638.^[4] The old reflexive abbattersi in meant to come across someone by chance, as in a line of Boccaccio: s’abbatté in alcuni li quali mercatanti parevano, ed erano masnadieri (“he ran into some men who looked like merchants and were bandits”).^[11]

The derivatives followed: abbattimento is in Bono Giamboni before 1292, and in the sense “dejection” from 1685; the participle abbattuto “discouraged” is from the early 14th century.^[4] The nautical abbattuta, the turning of a ship by wind, waves or helm, is from 1797, and abbattifieno, a hatch for dropping hay, copies French abat-foin.^[4] In central and southern dialects the verb means to knock down nuts with a pole.^[3] Recent senses are the slashing of costs and, in cooking, rapid chilling of food.^[12][7][13]

Timeline

• 1213 – The Ritmo lucchese uses the verb.^[2][6]
• Late 13th century – The Tesoro translation uses it for “to throw down”.^[4]
• Before 1292 – Bono Giamboni uses abbattimento.^[4]
• Before 1348 – Francesco da Barberino uses it for “to weaken”.^[4]
• 1612–1620 – Ottonelli uses the reflexive for “to lose heart”.^[4]
• 1797 – The nautical abbattuta is recorded.^[4]
• 1835 – Abbattifieno is recorded.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. To knock down, bring down, fell: abbattere una quercia.^[12][7][14]
2. To shoot down an aircraft; in boxing, to floor an opponent.^[12][7][14]
3. To demolish a building or wall.^[12][7][15]
4. (figurative) To overthrow a regime; to refute an argument.^[12][15][14]
5. To reduce sharply: abbattere le spese; to beat a record.^[12][7]
6. To kill, especially an animal; to slaughter.^[12][7][15]
7. (figurative) To weaken or depress: la febbre lo ha abbattuto.^[12][7][14]
8. (nautical) To turn a ship about;^[14][16] abbattere in carena, to heel a ship over for cleaning or repair.^[14][16]
9. (cooking) To chill food rapidly.^[7][13]
10. (pronominal, abbattersi) To fall heavily; to strike, of storms and misfortunes; figuratively, to lose heart.^[14][16][15]

Word family

• abbattimento
• abbattuto
• abbattuta
• abbattitore
• abbattitrice
• abbattifieno
• abbattibile
• riabbattere

Related words

• battere

Usage notes

Abbattere is conjugated like battere.^[7][15] Battisti and Alessio record a southern noun abbàttero, “match”, originally the steel against which the flint was struck.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ a b c d e Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 1, 62
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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 Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 4
6. ^ a b c d Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
8. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
9. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
11. ^ Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
12. ^ a b c d e f g h De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
13. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
14. ^ a b c d e f g Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
15. ^ a b c d e Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
16. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana