caricare

Forms

caricare (first-person singular present càrico, first-person singular past historic caricài, past participle caricàto, auxiliary avére)^[1] Old forms include Old Italian carcare, Old Italian caregare and Old Italian cargare.^[2][3] Carcare survives as an archaic and poetic form.^[4][5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin carricō (“to load”), derived from Latin carrus (“wagon”).^[6][5][1][7] DELI and GRADIT give the Latin verb as a spoken *caricō.^[8][9] The LEI records the Latin verb in the Vitae Patrum of Salonius (about 550) and in the glosses, and DEI from the Lex Salica on.^[10][11] It was old enough to replace classical Latin onerō (“to load”).^[8][11]

The same verb gave French charger, Occitan cargar, Catalan carregar, Spanish cargar and Portuguese carregar.^[6][7] DEI calls it panromance except Romanian, where only a prefixed compound survives, according to the LEI.^[11][10] Southern Italy has forms with /rr/, such as Sicilian carricari.^[11][1] The adjective carico is the participle shortened without its suffix, and the noun of the same form, like carica, is formed from the verb.^[8]

The Latin noun is of Gaulish origin, recorded from the 1st century BC for the war wagons of the Gauls.^[12][13] Wiktionary traces it to Gaulish *karros, from Proto-Celtic *karros (“wagon”) and Proto-Indo-European *ḱers- (“to run”), and makes it a doublet of Latin currus.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in the Gemma of Guido Faba, written in Bologna in 1239–48.^[2] The first sense is to put goods on a vehicle or a pack animal, or to load the vehicle or animal with them.^[2][8]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian also used the verb for “weigh down” (carcare in Guittone, before 1294) and for charging an enemy in battle.^[8][2] In 1463 it is used of setting a mechanism in working order, before 1537 Biringuccio uses it of loading a firearm, and in 1612 A. Neri of deepening a colour.^[8]

The sense “exaggerate” is recorded in 1573.^[8] Migliorini, quoted by DELI, tells how in the school of Annibale Carracci people made “ritrattini carichi” (“loaded little portraits”), and the sense “exaggerate a person's features” gave caricatura, frequent from 1646.^[8] German borrowed it as karikieren (1825).^[14] Modern Italian uses the verb for charging a battery, loading film or software and uploading files, and figuratively for firing up a team.^[9][1]

Timeline

• 1188 – Medieval Latin caricatura “loading” is recorded at Venice.^[8]
• 1239–1248 – Guido Faba's Gemma has the first record of the verb.^[2]
• Before 1294 – Guittone uses carcare “weigh down”.^[8]
• Late 13th century – The Novellino uses caricare “load”.^[8]
• 1463 – Giacomo da Piacenza uses it of setting a device in working order.^[8]
• Before 1537 – V. Biringuccio uses it of loading a firearm.^[8]
• 1573 – The sense “exaggerate” appears.^[8]
• 1825 – German karikieren is recorded.^[14]

Meanings

Verb

1. To load: to put goods or luggage on a vehicle or pack animal, or to fill a vehicle with them: caricare le casse sul furgone.^[9][15][1]
2. (colloquial) Of a vehicle or driver, to take on or pick up passengers.^[9][1]
3. To weigh down with too much; to overload: caricare lo stomaco.^[9]
4. (figurative) To heap someone with work, gifts or insults.^[9][15]
5. To exaggerate; to intensify a colour or overplay a character.^[9][1]
6. To make a device ready to work: to wind a clock, charge a battery, load a camera or a firearm.^[9][1]
7. (figurative) To fire up, give someone energy: il discorso ha caricato i giocatori.^[9][1]
8. To charge, attack the enemy.^[8][1]
9. (computing) To load a program, or upload a file.^[1]

Word family

• carica
• carico
• caricamento
• caricatore
• caricatura
• caricaturale
• caricaturista
• scaricare
• ricaricare
• sovraccarico
• discarica
• retrocarica

Related words

• carro
• discaricare
• French charger
• Latin carrus

Usage notes

Common phrases include caricare le tinte “to lay it on thick”.^[9]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
4. ^ Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
6. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
9. ^ 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
10. ^ a b Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 12, 510
11. ^ a b c d Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 767
12. ^ Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 12, 644
13. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
14. ^ a b Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
15. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse