camminare

Forms

camminare (first-person singular present cammìno, first-person singular past historic camminài, past participle camminàto, auxiliary avére)^[1] Old Italian also wrote caminare with a single ⟨m⟩, the form of most northern and southern texts.^[2][3] The dialect forms include Genoese caminà, Piedmontese caminè and Old Sicilian caminari.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin camināre (“to walk, travel”), a verb recorded in Venantius Fortunatus in the 6th century,^[3] which Wiktionary gives as *cammīnāre.^[1] DELI, GRADIT, the TLIO and Devoto treat the Italian verb as a derivative of cammino “way, road”, with the verb ending -are.^[4][5][2][6] The noun is Late Latin camminus (“road”), recorded from the 7th century, a word of Gaulish origin.^[7][8][9] The LEI reconstructs Gaulish *cammĭno- from Welsh and Breton words for “step”, and Nocentini traces it to Proto-Celtic *cengmen- (“way, path”), beside Old Irish cingid (“to step, walk”).^[7][8]

The verb lives on in every Romance language except Romanian: Old French cheminer, Old Occitan caminar, Catalan caminar, Spanish caminar, Portuguese caminhar, Friulian ciaminâ and Dalmatian kaminúr.^[3][1] The ⟨mm⟩ of the Tuscan word is not found in the southern forms;^[1][9] Wiktionary notes that Sicilian caminu never doubled its consonant.^[1][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is the Florentine Fiori di filosafi of 1271–1275, where the verb means “to move from one place to another, to travel”.^[2][10] DELI dates the transitive sense “to travel along (a road)” to Guittone d'Arezzo, before 1294, and the sense “to go on foot” to the Novellino at the end of the 13th century.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian used the verb for any journey and for the apparent course of the sun, and figuratively for living, behaving in a certain way and making progress towards a goal.^[2] Dante has it for conduct (1304–1308), and Old Italian also used the infinitive as a noun, il camminare, for a journey or a way of walking.^[4][2][11] The meaning “to go on foot” became the central one, as in Boccaccio's Decameron and the poems of Boiardo and Ariosto.^[12][11]

In modern Italian the verb is also used of vehicles and machines that move or work, and of plans or business that go forward.^[5][13][14] The imperative cammina! urges someone to hurry or to go away, and in fairy tales cammina cammina marks a long journey.^[5][14] Other set phrases are camminare sulle uova, to tread or act very cautiously, and camminare con le proprie gambe, to manage on one's own.^[15][16] German fencing borrowed the verb as kaminieren in 1835, for evading the opponent's blade.^[10]

Timeline

• 6th century – Venantius Fortunatus uses Late Latin camināre.^[3]
• 1271–1275 – The Fiori di filosafi has the first Italian record.^[2]
• Before 1294 – Guittone d'Arezzo uses it transitively, “to travel along”.^[4]
• Late 13th century – The Novellino uses it for going on foot.^[4]
• 1304–1308 – Dante uses it for a way of behaving.^[4]
• 1310 – Zucchero Bencivenni has the infinitive as a noun.^[2]
• 1835 – German fencing borrows it as kaminieren.^[10]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive) To walk, to go on foot: Ogni sera camminiamo per un'ora lungo il fiume.^[5][15][13]
2. (intransitive) Of a small child, to be able to walk: Sua figlia ha cominciato a camminare a un anno.^[5][15][17]
3. (intransitive, colloquial) To hurry up; in the imperative also used to send someone away or to express disbelief.^[5][15][14]
4. (intransitive) Of a vehicle, to move or go fast; of a mechanism, to work: La vecchia sveglia non cammina più.^[5][13][16]
5. (intransitive, figurative) To make progress, to develop: Il progetto finalmente cammina.^[5][13][14]
6. (transitive, literary) To travel along, to traverse.^[5][13][16]

Noun

1. (dated) Walking; a person's gait.^[1][11]

Word family

• camminata
• camminatore
• camminamento
• incamminarsi
• camminabile

Related words

• cammino
• French cheminer
• Spanish caminar

Usage notes

The phrase camminare sulle uova (literally “to walk on eggs”) means to proceed with great caution, and sembrare un morto che cammina is said of someone who looks very ill.^[16][17] Zingarelli distinguishes camminare, the general word, from incedere, walking with solemnity, and arrancare, walking with great effort.^[16]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ a b c d e Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 10, 186
4. ^ a b c d e f 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 d e f g h i De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
6. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 10, 220
8. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
9. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 703
10. ^ a b c Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
11. ^ a b c Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
12. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
13. ^ a b c d e Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
14. ^ a b c d Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
15. ^ 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
16. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
17. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli