adescare

Forms

adescare (first-person singular present adésco, first-person singular past historic adescài, past participle adescàto, auxiliary avére)^[1] Old Italian also has aescare, with forms such as aesca, aescato and aescava.^[2][3] Dialect forms include Neapolitan abbescare, Cosentino adiscare and Sicilian adescari.^[3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin adēscāre (“to feed, to fatten”), a learned word in Italian.^[4][5][3][6] The Late Latin verb, recorded in Caelius Aurelianus perhaps in the 5th century, was formed from ēsca (“food; bait”) with the prefix ad-.^[3][4][1] Wiktionary instead calls the Italian verb inherited.^[1]

The LEI separates this learned verb from the inherited type, the Old Italian aescare, which matches Old French aeschier (“to bait”) and Old Catalan aescar (13th century, Llull). The Old Occitan adescar (before 1173) is learned, like the Italian word.^[3][7] DEI compares the Occitan reflexive azescar (“to feed oneself”) and Campidanese iscai (“to give to eat”).^[8][7]

Latin ēsca is from a form *ed-sca, from edō (“to eat”).^[4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in the poems of Inghilfredi of Lucca, of the second half of the 13th century, where the old form aescare is used of putting bait on the hook (aescar l'amo).^[2][3] DELI dates the sense “to bait a hook” to the early 14th century, in the Storia dei santi Barlaam e Giosafatte, and the sense “to lure with flattery and promises” to Dante, before 1321.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The figurative sense came early: Dante's Pier della Vigna answers Sì col dolce dir m'adeschi, / ch'i' non posso tacere (“you so entice me with sweet words that I cannot keep silent”, Inferno 13.55).^[9][10] In Boccaccio and Sacchetti the verb is used of luring people with gifts and favours.^[10][11] The Old Italian senses also include taking the bait and using something as bait.^[2]

The literal hunting and fishing sense, “to draw fish or game with bait”, is dated in the LEI from 1536.^[3] In the 20th century the verb took a legal sense: luring someone for paid sex, recorded in the Battaglia dictionary in 1961;^[3][4] adescamento in this sense is recorded from 1947 (Pratolini).^[3][4] Technical senses followed: priming a pump or a hydraulic system, and striking an electric arc.^[12][9]

Timeline

• Second half of the 13th century – Inghilfredi of Lucca uses aescar l'amo, “to bait the hook”.^[2][3]
• Early 14th century – aescamento “enticement” appears in the Storia dei santi Barlaam e Giosafatte.^[4]
• Before 1321 – Dante uses adescare for luring with sweet words.^[4][10]
• 1536 – The literal sense “to lure fish or game with bait” is recorded.^[3]
• Before 1673 – adescamento is recorded in this form (Orazio Rucellai Ricasoli).^[4]
• 1947 – adescamento is used of soliciting for prostitution (Pratolini).^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. To lure or attract fish, birds or other animals with bait.^[12][6][13]: Ho adescato le trote con dei vermi.^[12][13]
2. (figurative) To entice or seduce someone with flattery or false promises.^[12][6][14]
3. To approach someone in order to offer or obtain sex for money; to solicit, a crime in Italian law.^[12][14][15]
4. (botany) Of a plant, to attract the insects or animals that pollinate it.^[12][1]
5. (technology) To prime a pump or hydraulic system by filling it with liquid before use.^[12][13][9]
6. (electricity) To strike an electric arc.^[12][9]
7. (archaic) To put bait on a hook.^[12][14][9]

Word family

• adescamento
• adescatore
• adescatrice
• adescabile
• riadescare

Related words

• esca
• Latin ēsca

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 1, 646
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
5. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 61
9. ^ a b c d e Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
10. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 1, 168
11. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
12. ^ a b c d e f g h i De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
13. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
14. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
15. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana