attrarre

Forms

attrarre (first-person singular present attràggo, first-person singular past historic attràssi, past participle attràtto, first-person singular imperfect attraévo, auxiliary avére)^[1] Old forms include attraere, attraggere and attraire.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin attrahō (“to draw towards”), formed from ad- (“towards”) and trahō (“to pull, draw”), and shaped after trarre.^{[4][5][6][1][7]} The derivatives attrattivo and attrazione came later, by learned borrowing from Late Latin.^[4][5]

The Latin verb continues in all of Romance except Romanian: Old French atraire, Old Occitan atraire, Catalan atreure, Spanish atraer and Portuguese atrahir.^[8][5][9] The Latin senses “to draw to oneself” and “to bring to a goal, entice” both survive, the second only in the west.^[10] Medieval Latin attractus “paralysed” lies behind the Old Italian sense “to contract, cripple”.^[10] Italian attrezzo is a loan from the Gallo-Romance offspring of the same verb.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The LEI's first record is in Pier della Vigna (before 1249), with the sense “to draw to oneself with irresistible force”.^[10] The TLIO's first attestation is the 13th-century Neapolitan Regimen Sanitatis.^[11] DELI has attrarre from the Crescenzi translation (about 1350) and the figurative “to entice, flatter” from Bartolomeo da San Concordio (before 1347).^[4]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian used the verb for drawing up moisture and for pulling with force; the past participle attratto also meant “contracted, crippled”, as in Boccaccio.^[8][12] From Galileo on it named the pull of amber, magnets and celestial bodies, and attrazione became the physical force of attraction.^[13][4]

The figurative “to charm, appeal to” grew beside it, and attraente “attractive” is recorded in 1721 (Muratori).^[4] Attrazione in the sense “show, attraction” is a calque on English attraction, recorded in Italian in 1881 and in the dictionaries from 1908.^[4]

Timeline

• Before 1249 – Pier della Vigna uses atrare “to draw to oneself”.^[10]
• Before 1347 – Bartolomeo da San Concordio uses the verb for “to entice”.^[4]
• About 1350 – The Crescenzi translation uses attrarre “to draw strongly”.^[4]
• Before 1530 – Sannazaro uses the form attraere.^[4]
• 1721 – Attraente is recorded in Muratori.^[4]
• 1908 – Attrazione “show, attraction” enters Panzini's dictionary.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. To draw to oneself, attract: Il magnete attrae la limatura di ferro.^[6][14][15]
2. (figurative) To draw attention, interest or sympathy to oneself: Quel cartellone attrae lo sguardo dei passanti.^[6][14][16]
3. To lure into a place by deceit: attrarre in una trappola.^[6][14][17]
4. To entice, tempt: Il negozio attrae i clienti con offerte speciali.^[6][14]
5. To appeal to; to fascinate, attract physically: Quel lavoro non mi attrae per niente.^[6][15][17]
6. To draw people, bring a crowd: La sagra attrae ogni anno migliaia di visitatori.^[6][14]
7. (reciprocal, attrarsi) To attract each other: le cariche opposte si attraggono.^[14][15][16]

Word family

• attraente
• attraenza
• attraimento
• riattrarre

Related words

• attrattiva
• attrattivo
• attrazione
• trarre
• attrezzo
• Latin attrahō

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975)
3. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d e f g De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier, p. 48
8. ^ a b Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ 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, 2111
11. ^ Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
12. ^ Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
13. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
14. ^ a b c d e f Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
15. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
16. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
17. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana