appendere

Forms

appendere (first-person singular present appèndo, first-person singular past historic appési, past participle appéso, auxiliary avére)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin appendō (“to weigh out; to hang up”), formed with ad- (“to, towards”).^[2][3][1] DELI and Wiktionary give the base as pendō (“to weigh”);^[2][1][4] Nocentini instead derives the Late Latin verb, in the sense “to suspend”, from pendeō (“to hang”), with a change of conjugation.^[2][1][4] The Latin verb meant first “to weigh out” and then “to hang up”.^[5][6] De Vaan traces the simple verb to a Proto-Italic verb meaning “to hang” and then “to weigh”, and further to Proto-Indo-European *(s)pend- (“to spin”).^[7]

The sense “to fasten so as to hang” developed everywhere in Romance, and the word is found in all the Romance languages except Romanian.^[8] The same verb is French appendre, Occitan apender and Portuguese appender, and Old Spanish had apender.^[4][9] In Old French and Old Occitan its meaning moved further, to “add”, “belong to” and “be owed”.^[8][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is the Genoese part of Raimbaut de Vaqueiras's Contrasto, from about 1190.^[10] DELI's first dated sense, “to fasten something to a support”, is from Iacopone da Todi, before 1306: L'Amore sta appeso, la croce l'ha preso “Love hangs, the cross has taken him”.^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian used the verb for crucifying and for hanging a person, for fixing or affixing something, and figuratively for “to belong to”, “to weigh upon”, “to sustain” and “to weigh up”.^[10] DELI dates “to hang (a person)” to Matteo Villani, before 1363.^[2] Petrarch could still use it in the Latin sense of weighing on a steelyard.^[8] Tasso's i consigli appende e pesa “he weighs and ponders the counsels” and Ariosto's altre in dubbio appende “others he leaves in doubt” show the figurative uses of later literature.^[3][11] An old intransitive use, “to hang over, threaten”, comes from a translation of Cicero and renders Latin impendeō.^[6]

Things were also hung up as votive offerings, as in Foscolo.^[5] In modern sports language an athlete who appende i guantoni al chiodo “hangs the gloves on the nail” retires from competition, and appendere il cappello al chiodo means to settle down, especially by marrying.^[12][11][13] Compounds of the stem name things to hang clothes on: appendigonna (1963) and appendiabiti (1970).^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1190 – Raimbaut de Vaqueiras's Contrasto has the verb in Genoese.^[10]
• Before 1306 – Iacopone da Todi uses appendere “to hang up”.^[2][3]
• Before 1363 – Matteo Villani uses it for hanging a person.^[2]
• Mid-14th century – Appendice is taken from Latin.^[4]
• 1963 – Appendigonna “skirt hanger” is recorded.^[2]
• 1970 – Appendiabiti “coat hanger” appears in the Zingarelli dictionary.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To hang (something) on a support so that it hangs down; to attach, suspend: Appese la giacca dietro la porta.^{[3][12][14][11][13]}
2. (transitive, literary) To hang (a person); to execute by hanging.^[3][11][13]
3. (sport, figurative) appendere i guantoni (la bicicletta) al chiodo: of an athlete, to retire from competition.^[12][11][13]
4. (figurative, archaic) To weigh up, ponder.^[3][11][15]
5. (figurative, literary) To leave in suspense.^[3]
6. (reflexive, appendersi) To hang on, cling (to a support); appendersi al collo di qualcuno: to throw one's arms round someone's neck.^{[12][14][11][13]}

Word family

• appeso
• appendiabiti
• appendigonna
• appendino
• riappendere

Related words

• appendice
• pendere
• sospendere
• Latin appendō
• French appendre

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 Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ a b c d e f g De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
4. ^ a b c d Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
6. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 252
9. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ a b c Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
11. ^ a b c d e f g Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
12. ^ a b c d Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
13. ^ a b c d e Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
14. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
15. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli