affisso

Forms

affisso m (plural affissi)^[1]

Etymology

It is learned: it is borrowed from Latin affixus (“fastened on”), the past participle of affīgō (“to fasten on, to attach”), and it serves as the past participle of affiggere.^[2][3][4][5] The Latin verb is formed from ad- and fīgō (“to fix”).^[1] Latin also used affixum as a noun for doors, windows and other fittings.^[2]

The noun in the sense “public notice” is explained in two ways.^[2][6] The GDLI takes it as a calque of French affiche, a word that meant a clasp in the Middle Ages and a public notice from the 16th century.^[6] DELI considers it more likely that the Italian adjective was simply used as a noun, as in Tuscan legal phrases for an edict or a tariff that had been posted up.^[2]

The grammatical term was created by the humanists: Pierfrancesco Giambullari used it in 1551.^[2][7] From Italian it probably passed into French affixe (1584, of Hebrew grammar) and Spanish afijo (1813).^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The participle is recorded first, in a 13th-century Venetian prayer, of something firmly fastened, as to the Cross with nails.^[8] Dante uses it of people standing still: eravamo affissi, / pur come nave ch’alla piaggia arriva (“we stood fixed, like a ship that reaches the shore”).^[2][7][9]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian affisso was an adjective meaning firmly joined, fastened, motionless, and fixed with the gaze or the mind on something;^[8][7] Petrarch has a libero spirto, od a’ suoi membri affisso (“a spirit free, or bound to its limbs”).^[8][7] The sense “fixed, intent” is now literary and “motionless” obsolete.^[4][10]

The grammarians of the 16th century used affissi first for the unstressed pronouns joined to the end of a verb, as dammi for da’ a me.^[11] The word later became the general name for an element added at the beginning, middle or end of a word, of which prefisso, infisso and suffisso are the kinds.^[12][4]

From the late 16th century the participle was used of notices posted in public, and in 1664 Duez's dictionary records the noun affisso “public notice”.^[7][2] In 1855 Fanfani recorded affissi for doors, windows and everything fixed to the walls.^[2] In everyday Italian the poster or notice is now usually called manifesto or avviso, and the noun affisso is uncommon.^[10][5]

Timeline

• 13th century – The participle appears in a Venetian prayer.^[8]
• Before 1306 – Jacopone da Todi uses affisso “driven in, fastened”.^[7]
• c. 1319 – Dante uses essere affisso “to stand motionless”.^[7]
• Before 1374 – Petrarch uses it for “closely joined”.^[2]
• 1546 – Affissione, the posting of notices, appears in Tuscan laws.^[2]
• 1551 – Giambullari uses affisso as a grammatical term.^[2]
• 1584 – French affixe is recorded as a term of Hebrew grammar.^[7]
• 1590 – The participle is used of a notice posted in public.^[7]
• 1664 – Duez records the noun affisso “public notice”.^[2]
• 1855 – Fanfani records affissi for doors, windows and other fixtures.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A notice, poster or bill put up in a public place: Sul muro della stazione c’era un affisso con gli orari nuovi.^{[9][4][12][1]}
2. (uncommon, building) A fixture that closes a door or window opening, the same as infisso.^{[9][4][12][13]}
3. (linguistics) An affix, an element added to a word to change its meaning or function: a prefix, infix or suffix.^{[9][4][5][12][1]}

Word family

• affissione

Related words

• affiggere
• prefisso
• suffisso
• infisso
• Latin affīgō

Usage notes

Affisso is also the past participle of affiggere (un avviso affisso in bacheca), and in that use it agrees with its noun (affissa, affissi).^[10][12][13] An older and poetic variant of the adjective is affiso.^[14][4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
6. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 1, 214
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 1, 1237
8. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
9. ^ a b c d De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
10. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
11. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
12. ^ 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)
13. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
14. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana