arrivare

Forms

arrivare (first-person singular present arrìvo, first-person singular past historic arrivài, past participle arrivàto, auxiliary èssere or (transitive) avére)^[1] Old Italian also wrote it arivare, and northern texts have arivar.^[2][3] Southern Italy and Lucca have arripare, “to bring to shore”.^[4][1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *arripāre (“to come to the shore”), formed from ad (“to”) and Latin rīpa (“riverbank”) with a verb ending.^[5][6][7][8] The LEI considers it probably a Late Latin form, attested as Medieval Latin adripare in 822.^[8][1] It is shared with French arriver, Occitan arribar and Catalan arribar “to arrive”, and Spanish arribar and Portuguese arribar “to put into port”.^[6][9]

The ⟨v⟩ for Latin ⟨p⟩ is a northern feature: Devoto takes the word for the Venetian form of a seafaring term, and DEI thinks that a northern origin is enough to explain it, so that a borrowing of Old French arriver (11th century) need not be assumed.^[10][4] Meyer-Lübke instead took the Italian verb from French, a view Körting doubted, and Wiktionary allows for Gallo-Italic or French influence.^[9][11][1] The inherited southern ⟨arripare⟩ keeps the Latin consonant.^[4]

The Latin noun comes from Proto-Italic *reipā, from Proto-Indo-European *h₁réyp-eh₂ (“steep slope”), related to Ancient Greek ἐρείπω (ereípō, “to throw down”).^[12][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is the Venetian Proverbia que dicuntur, of the last quarter of the 12th century.^[2] The first sense was “to reach the shore, land”, as in Stefano Protonotaro's arrivare in porto in the 13th century, and the verb could also mean “to bring to shore”.^[8][2] Commenting on Dante's Inferno 17, where Geryon “arrivò la testa e 'l busto” but kept his tail off the bank, Francesco da Buti explained the verb as “placed on the bank”.^[13]

Semantic evolution

The sense widened from the shore to any destination: Dante compares the pilgrims to a ship that reaches the beach, “pur come nave ch'alla piaggia arriva”.^[3] DELI dates the general sense “to arrive” to about 1300 in the Laude of Urbino, and the transitive “to reach” to 1495–1536.^[5] In Old Italian it also meant “to happen to someone” and “to succeed or fail” (arrivare bene, arrivare male).^[2]

In the 20th century arrivare came to mean “to make it in life”, and arrivato a person who has done so (1920, Panzini).^[5] Arrivista copies French arriviste, coined in 1893.^[5] Colloquially arrivarci means “to understand”.^[14]

Timeline

• 822 – Medieval Latin adripare is recorded.^[8]
• Last quarter of the 12th century – The Venetian Proverbia que dicuntur use the verb.^[2]
• 13th century – Stefano Protonotaro writes arrivare in porto “to land”.^[8]
• c. 1300 – The Laude of Urbino use it for “to arrive”.^[5]
• 1566 – Arrivo “arrival” is recorded.^[5]
• 1893 – French arriviste is coined.^[5]
• 1905 – Arrivismo appears in Panzini's dictionary.^[5]
• 1922–1923 – Panzini uses the verb for “to make it in life”.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To arrive, reach a place: Siamo arrivati a Napoli all’alba.^[7][15][16]
2. To come, turn up; of events and seasons, to come round: Finalmente è arrivato il caldo.^[7][15][16]
3. Of letters and parcels, to be delivered.^[7][15]
4. (sports) To finish (in a given place): arrivare secondo.^[7][1]
5. To reach a level or amount, extend as far as: la gonna le arriva al ginocchio.^[7][14]
6. To reach (an object) with the hand: non arrivo allo scaffale.^[16][14]
7. With a and an infinitive, to manage to; to go so far as to: è arrivato a minacciarci.^[7][14]
8. To succeed, make it in life.^[16][5]
9. (colloquial) Arrivarci, to understand.^[14]
10. (literary, transitive) To reach (a person).^[1][5]

Word family

• arrivo
• arrivato
• arrivismo
• arrivista

Related words

• riva
• Latin ripa
• French arriver

Usage notes

The verb takes essere as its auxiliary; the literary transitive use takes avere.^[1][17]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
4. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 303
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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 f g De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
8. ^ a b c d e Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 3, 1387
9. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier, p. 42
11. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
12. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
13. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
14. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
15. ^ 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
16. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
17. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana