cadere

Forms

cadere (first-person singular present càdo, first-person singular past historic càddi, past participle cadùto, first-person singular future cadrò, auxiliary èssere)^[1] Old and literary forms from a stem cagg- include the present Old Italian caggio, the subjunctive Old Italian caggia and the gerund Old Italian caggendo.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *cadēre, a Vulgar Latin form of classical Latin cadĕre (“to fall”) that moved the verb into the conjugation in ⟨-ēre⟩.^[5][6][7][1] The LEI finds that change already in Late Latin; the classical stress survives only in relic areas: Catalan caure, Old Occitan caire and above all the dialects of southern Italy.^[4] The DÉRom reconstructs both inflections for Proto-Romance and judges the type with the classical stress, found in Istriot, in islands of northern and central Italian dialects, in the South, in Occitan, Gascon and Catalan, to be the older one.^[8]

The verb is panromance: French choir, now obsolete and replaced by tomber, Occitan cazer, Spanish caer, Portuguese cair and Romanian cădea.^[6][9] Meyer-Lübke notes that it is rare in Lombard, Venetian and Rhaeto-Romance.^[9] A first person singular in ⟨-eo⟩, as in sedeō, gave the palatal stem of the old forms caggio and caggia, with an analogical infinitive caggere.^[4]

The Latin verb has few certain cognates: de Vaan reconstructs a Proto-Italic *kad-e/o- and, with a question mark, a PIE Proto-Indo-European *ḱh₂d- “to fall”, comparing Sanskrit शशाद (śaśāda, “has fallen”).^[10] Nocentini explains the lack of comparisons by the frequent renewal of verbs for “fall”: French replaced the verb, and Italian has cascare beside it.^[6] DELI calls the root unclear.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is the Ritmo di Sant'Alessio, a poem from the Marche of the second half of the 12th century.^[11] DELI dates the physical sense “to move downward by gravity, without support” to Cielo d'Alcamo (1231–1250).^[5]

Semantic evolution

Figurative senses came early: “to decline, come down in the world” is in Bonagiunta before 1257, and “to fall into, find oneself in (a situation)” in Brunetto Latini before 1294.^[5][7] Dante writes of two figures who “cadder nel mezzo del bogliente stagno” (they fell into the middle of the boiling pond).^[12] The TLIO also records it for a star or constellation that sets, and for a surface close to vertical.^[11]

Tommaseo distinguished the generic cadere, which only says that something comes down, from cascare, which points to the place from which or onto which it comes and often implies a heavier fall.^[13] The verb gathered a large phraseology, for which DELI refers to Tommaseo and the GDLI.^[5] The past participle caduto took the sense “killed in battle” with Vincenzo Monti in 1810, and caduta the political sense “fall of a power” with Daniello Bartoli before 1685.^[5]

Timeline

• 12th century (second half) – The Ritmo di Sant'Alessio has the first record.^[11]
• 1231–1250 – Cielo d'Alcamo uses cadere of falling by gravity.^[5]
• Before 1257 – Bonagiunta uses the sense “to decline”.^[5][7]
• 1288 – The noun caduta is recorded (as chaduta).^[5]
• 1525 – Cadenza is recorded as a musical term.^[5]
• 1550 – Giorgio Vasari uses caditoia for an opening in a fortification.^[5]
• 1810 – Vincenzo Monti uses caduto for a soldier killed in battle.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To fall, drop from above by its own weight: Il bicchiere è caduto dal tavolo e si è rotto.^[7][2][14]
2. Of a person, to fall down, to lose one's balance: Sono caduta correndo sul ghiaccio.^[7][3][15]
3. Of rain, snow or lightning, to come down: Stanotte è caduta molta neve sui monti.^[7][2][15]
4. To come off naturally, of leaves, hair or teeth: Al nonno sono caduti quasi tutti i capelli.^[7][14]
5. To collapse, (figurative) of a government or a power, to be overthrown: Il ministero è caduto dopo appena sei mesi.^[7][14][3]
6. (figurative) To die in battle or in the line of duty: Il monumento ricorda i soldati caduti in guerra.^[7][14][15]
7. (figurative) To fall into a state or a fault, as in cadere in errore, cadere in tentazione, cadere in contraddizione.^[7][3]
8. To hang down, of a curtain, hair or a garment: La gonna cade bene sui fianchi.^[14][3][16]
9. (figurative) To drop, to cease, of prices, a hope or a telephone line: La linea è caduta proprio sul più bello.^[14]
10. Of night or darkness, to fall; of the sun or the moon, to set.^[14][11]

Word family

• caduta
• caduto
• cadente
• cadenza
• cadenzare
• caditoia
• ricadere
• ricaduta
• decadere
• cadimento
• cadevole

Related words

• cascare
• Latin cadō

Usage notes

Set phrases include cadere dalle nuvole (to be taken completely by surprise), cadere dalla padella nella brace (to go from bad to worse) and cadere in piedi (to come out of a difficulty unharmed).^[3][15] The verb takes essere as its auxiliary.^[1][14]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b c d e f Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
4. ^ a b c Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 9, 408
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
6. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
8. ^ Buchi, Éva; Schweickard, Wolfgang, eds. (2008–), Dictionnaire Étymologique Roman (DÉRom), Nancy: ATILF, http://www.atilf.fr/DERom
9. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
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 Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
12. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 2
13. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
14. ^ a b c d e f g h Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
15. ^ a b c d Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
16. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli