Etymologically
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agire

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Pronunciation

  • /aˈd͡ʒi.re/[1]

Forms

agire (first-person singular present agìsco, first-person singular past historic agìi, past participle agìto, auxiliary avére)[1] Dialect forms include Piedmontese agì, Ligurian agî, Neapolitan agì and Sicilian aggiri;[2] Old Italian also used the Latin infinitive agere.[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French agir (1450), from Latin agō (“to drive; to do”).[3][4][5][1] Devoto–Oli names Middle French as the route and Devoto the French of the 16th century, the date DEI gives for the French verb.[6][7][8] The LEI, which DELI cites, treats it instead as a learned continuation of the Latin verb with a change of conjugation: Latin “agere”, at first “to drive (cattle)”, then “to perform an action”, was replaced by Latin faciō (“to do, make”) in all the Romance languages and survives only as a learned word, in Italian “agere” and “agire” and in French agir, Occitan agir, Portuguese agir and Spanish agir (“to sue”).[2][3] The TLIO, which has the word in Cecco d'Ascoli's “Acerba” (before 1327), also takes it from Latin.[9]

Latin “agō” continues Proto-Indo-European *h₂eǵ- (“to drive, lead”), the root also of Ancient Greek ἄγω (ágō, “I lead”) and Sanskrit अजति (ájati, “drives”).[10][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is Cecco d'Ascoli's Acerba (before 1327), with the sense “to do, to act”, and Devoto–Oli and Zingarelli also date the word before 1327.[9][6][11] Other dictionaries date it much later: Nocentini to 1527, GRADIT to before 1639 (Campanella), and DELI to Vittorio Siri in 1647, for “to do, proceed”.[4][5][3]

Semantic evolution

In the 17th century the verb spread through scientific prose: Redi has modo d'agire “way of acting” (from 1670), Galileo writes that nature often acts in ways we cannot imagine, and Lorenzo Magalotti (before 1712) uses it for muscles, machines and medicines that work.[2][12][3] The legal sense “to take legal action” is recorded in 1790, and in 1858 Viani noted that agire in giudizio was common among lawyers.[3] Tommaseo complained that the moderns used agire too much where operare or fare would do.[12]

The impersonal si agisce di “it is a matter of” is a Gallicism, and abreagire adapts German abreagieren, coined by Freud; in psychoanalysis agire also translates “acting out”.[2][5][11]

Timeline

  • Before 1327 – Cecco d'Ascoli uses agire in the Acerba.[9]
  • 1450 – French agir is recorded.[3]
  • 1647 – Vittorio Siri uses it for “to do, proceed”.[3]
  • 1670 – Francesco Redi uses modo d'agire.[2]
  • Before 1712 – Lorenzo Magalotti uses it for organs and medicines that work.[3][2]
  • 1790 – The legal sense is recorded.[3]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To act, to do something, to take action: Basta parlare, adesso bisogna agire.[5][6][13]
  2. To behave: In quella occasione ha agito da vero amico.[5][11][6]
  3. Of a substance, organ or device, to take effect, to work (often with su): Questo antidolorifico agisce in pochi minuti.[5][6][13]
  4. (psychoanalysis) To act out repressed thoughts or fantasies.[5][11]
  5. (law) To take legal action, to sue (with contro): agire in giudizio.[5][6][11]
  6. (theatre, uncommon) Of a company of actors, to perform, to be active.[5][6][13]

Noun

  1. l'agire, a way of behaving, conduct.[14]

Word family

  • agibile
  • agibilità
  • interagire
  • retroagire
  • abreagire

References

  1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 1, 1286
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
  4. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  5. ^ 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
  6. ^ 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
  7. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
  8. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 89
  9. ^ a b c Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
  10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  11. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  12. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
  13. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  14. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana