aggiogare

Forms

aggiogare (first-person singular present aggiógo or aggiògo, first-person singular past historic aggiogài, past participle aggiogàto, auxiliary avére)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin adiugāre (“to yoke together”), which DELI, Sabatini and Zingarelli call Late Latin.^{[2][3][4][5][6][1]} The Latin verb is formed on iugum (“yoke”) with ad-.^[4][2][7]

Its vowel was remade after giogo: Treccani says so, and the Italian Wiktionary explains the spelling the same way.^[8][9] Tommaseo notes that the ⟨o⟩ is close because the Latin has /u/.^[10] REW lists the Italian verb under the outcomes of the Latin noun, beside Romanian jug, French joug and Spanish yugo.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Filippo Ceffi's Florentine translation of Ovid's Heroides (1320–1330), with the sense “to put animals under the yoke”: aggiogasti li tori (“you yoked the bulls”).^[12][13][2]

Semantic evolution

The verb kept its farming sense of yoking oxen to a plough or cart;^[13] Verga, Deledda and Papini use it for oxen, an ass and cows.^[13] Poets extended it to other animals, as Carducci's aggiogar tigri e linci.^[13][8]

The figurative sense “to subjugate” is dated by DELI to 1797.^[4] Tommaseo records a military use of 1611 for ranking soldiers side by side.^[10]

Timeline

• 1320–1330 – Filippo Ceffi uses the verb.^[12][2]
• 1611 – A military treatise uses it for ranking soldiers side by side.^[10]
• 1797 – The sense “to subjugate” is recorded.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. To yoke, put under the yoke: aggiogare le vacche al carro.^[3][7][14]
2. (figurative) To subjugate, bring under one's power.^[3][7][5]
3. To couple, pair.^[3][15]

Word family

• aggiogamento
• aggiogatore
• aggiogabile
• riaggiogare

Related words

• giogo
• soggiogare
• Latin iugum

Usage notes

The present is aggiógo, with a close o, also aggiògo.^[6][1][10]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
3. ^ a b c d De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
4. ^ a b c d Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
5. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
6. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
7. ^ 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
8. ^ a b Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
9. ^ Wikizionario (Italian Wiktionary), it.wiktionary.org
10. ^ a b c d Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
11. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
12. ^ a b Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
13. ^ a b c d Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
14. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
15. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli