aiutare

Forms

aiutare (first-person singular present aiùto, first-person singular past historic aiutài, past participle aiutàto, auxiliary avére)^[1] Old forms include adiutare, agiutare, aitare and atare.^[2][1][3] Aitare and atare survive in poetry.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin adiūtō (“to help”), an intensive of adiuvō (“to help”), which is formed from ad- and iuvō (“to help, please”), the source of giovare.^[5][6][7][8] DEI notes that Bede already called the verb an intensive.^[9] The verb is pan-Romance: French aider, Occitan ajudar, Catalan ajudar, Spanish ayudar, Portuguese ajudar, Sardinian azudare and Romanian ajuta.^[6][10]

The LEI sorts its Romance outcomes into two series.^[11] One comes from the forms stressed on the ending, where ⟨-iu-⟩ was reduced, as in Old French aidier and the old Italian ⟨aitare⟩ and ⟨atare⟩; the other keeps the ⟨u⟩, as in Romanian, Spanish, Portuguese and standard Italian.^[11] Meyer-Lübke and Sabatini–Coletti take the old Italian ⟨aitare⟩ from Old French or Occitan.^[10][12] The LEI calls the phonetic shape of the standard verb learned or half-learned, probably spread by the language of the Church and the law courts;^[11] Wiktionary adds that ⟨aggiutare⟩ would be the regular Tuscan outcome and that the modern form may reflect central or southern speech, where /j/ is regular.^[1]

De Vaan derives the Latin root from Proto-Italic *ijow- and Proto-Indo-European *h₁i-h₁euH- (“to help”), related to Sanskrit अवति (ávati, “helps, protects”).^[13]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in the Proverbia que dicuntur, a Venetian poem of the last quarter of the 12th century, and its first sense is “to come to the help of someone in difficulty, danger or need”.^[3] DELI's first date is before 1292, in Bono Giamboni.^[5] GDLI quotes Giamboni: “aiutò la povertade” (it relieved poverty).^[14]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian already used the verb for legal assistance in court, military support, financial help and the help of God or a saint, and in oaths such as se Dio m'aiuta “so help me God”.^[3] The reflexive aiutarsi “to do one's best, manage” is in Dante (1293–1294).^[5] In the Inferno Dante asks Virgil “aiutami da lei, famoso saggio” (help me against her, famous sage), with the old sense “to defend”.^[7][15]

The noun aiuto is recorded before 1249 in Pier della Vigna, and as a cry for help, aiuto!, in Boccaccio (1348–1353); aiutante “assistant” dates from 1671, and aiutante di campo “aide-de-camp” from 1797.^[5] In the south of Italy the verb also means to lift a load onto someone's head or shoulders.^[9] The proverb aiutati che Dio t'aiuta means “God helps those who help themselves”.^[8][4]

Timeline

• Last quarter of the 12th century – The Proverbia que dicuntur have the verb.^[3]
• Before 1249 – Pier della Vigna uses the noun aiuto.^[5]
• Before 1292 – Bono Giamboni uses aiutare “to help”.^[5]
• 1293–1294 – Dante uses reflexive aiutarsi “to strive”.^[5]
• 1348–1353 – Boccaccio has the cry aiuto!.^[5]
• 1797 – Aiutante di campo “aide-de-camp” is recorded.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To help, assist someone who is in difficulty or cannot manage alone; with a and the infinitive, to help someone do something: Mi aiuti a spostare il tavolo?^[7][8][12]
2. To make something easier, to favour: Una passeggiata aiuta a dormire.^[7][8][12]
3. (archaic) To defend, protect.^[7][8][4]
4. (aiutarsi) To do one's best, to manage, also with the means used: Si aiutava con un bastone.^[8][12][4]
5. (aiutarsi, reciprocal) To help one another.^[8][12][15]

Word family

• aiuto
• aiutante
• aiutatore
• aiutevole
• aitare
• aitante
• aita

Related words

• giovare
• coadiuvare
• Latin iuvo

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
3. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
4. ^ a b c d Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
5. ^ 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
6. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c d e De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
8. ^ 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
9. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 103
10. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
11. ^ a b c Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 1, 715
12. ^ a b c d e Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
13. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
14. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 1, 277
15. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli