calere

Forms

calere (impersonal, third-person singular present càle, third-person singular past historic càlse, past participle calùto, third-person singular future carrà or calerà, auxiliary avére)^[1] The verb is defective: only third person singular forms are in use, cale, caleva (calea), calse, calerà, the subjunctives caglia and calesse, the conditional calerebbe or carrebbe, the gerund calendo and the participle caluto.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin caleō (“to be warm”), which also meant “to be roused, anxious”, from which the sense “to concern, matter” developed.^{[5][6][7][1][8]} The Latin verb is related to calidus (“hot”).^[5][9] Like the Italian, Old French chaloir and Occitan caler were used mostly in the negative: ne chaut, ne cal “it does not matter”.^[6][10] From there Old French chaut and Occitan cal came to mean “it is necessary”, and there is Catalan calre.^[10] French nonchalant and chaland (“customer”) come from the same verb.^[10][11]

caleō is a stative verb, Proto-Italic *kalēō, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱelh₁- (“to be hot”).^[9][1] De Vaan compares Lithuanian šiltas (“warm”), Latvian silts and Welsh clyd.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is the Genoese lady's part in Raimbaut de Vaqueiras's bilingual Contrasto, about 1190.^[12] DELI dates the sense “to matter, concern” to Uguccione da Lodi at the start of the 13th century.^[5]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian also kept the Latin sense “to be hot”: the LEI cites Inghilfredi and Dante, and the TLIO has a figurative “to burn” of love.^[13][12] But the impersonal “to matter” prevailed, mostly with a negation (non me ne cale, it is nothing to me), and the infinitive became a noun in il non calere, neglect.^[12][6] Boccaccio has non ve ne caglia and più che ad alcuno altro ne calea.^[4]

The verb was already rare in writing by Tommaseo's time.^[4] Leopardi still wrote non ti cal d'allegria, and today it survives in literary language in mettere or tenere in non cale, to neglect.^[2][8][14]

Timeline

• c. 1190 – Raimbaut de Vaqueiras's Contrasto has the first record.^[12]
• Early 13th century – Uguccione da Lodi uses the verb for “to matter”.^[5]
• Before 1321 – Dante uses calere for “to be hot”.^[13]
• 1349–1353 – Boccaccio uses non ve ne caglia in the Decameron.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. (impersonal, literary, archaic) To matter, to concern, mostly with a negation: di questo non mi cale.^{[7][2][14][1]}

Word family

• noncalenza

Related words

• caldo
• calore
• Latin caleō
• French chaloir

Usage notes

The phrase mettere or tenere in non cale (to neglect, to pay no heed to) is still used in literary language.^[8][2][3] The verb takes the auxiliary essere in Sabatini–Coletti, avere in Wiktionary.^[15][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
4. ^ a b c d Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
5. ^ a b c d 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 De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
8. ^ a b c Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
9. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
11. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
12. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
13. ^ a b Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 9, 1320
14. ^ a b Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
15. ^ Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse