castigare

Forms

castigare (first-person singular present castìgo, first-person singular past historic castigài, past participle castigàto, auxiliary avére)^[1] Tuscan and older Italian also have gastigare, with a voiced initial.^[2][3][4] Old Italian had casticare as well, with a hypercorrect ending.^[5][6]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin castīgō (“to correct, punish”), originally “to make pure”, from castus (“pure, chaste”).^{[7][8][9][10][1]} Some dictionaries analyse the Latin verb as a compound with agō (“to do, make”),^{[3][11][12][5]} and Wiktionary derives it from an unrecorded noun *castis (“purity”) with the suffix -igō, as in fatīgō and fūstīgō.^[1][13] The adjective is formed from the root of careō (“to lack”), perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *ḱes- (“to cut”).^[1]

The verb survives in all the Romance languages, partly in a semi-learned form: French châtier, Occitan castigar, Catalan castigar, Spanish castigar, Portuguese castigar, Friulian ciastâ and Romansh chastiar.^[8][6][14] The meaning changed in câștiga (“to earn, win”) in Romanian and in castigare (“to keep, guard”) in Sardinian.^[8][6][14] Church Latin used it for “to do penance, mortify the flesh” from before 406, and this use helped spread the verb, especially in Gallo-Romance, and took it into German as kasteien.^[6][15]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is the Venetian Proverbia que dicuntur of the last quarter of the 12th century, where the verb means “to inflict a penalty for a fault, to punish”.^[16] Early in the 13th century it appears in the Cremonese poets Uguccione da Lodi and Patecchio, and DELI gives Compagnetto da Prato in the same century.^[6][7]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian also used the verb for “to admonish, rebuke” and, reflexively, for “to mend one's ways”, and figuratively for mortifying or censuring.^[16] Boccaccio has it in the Decameron about 1370, and the Tuscan form gastigare was frequent: Dante's gastigato dates from 1304–1308.^[6][7] In the 16th century Castiglione extended it to correcting and polishing one's style, and the past participle castigato came to mean “corrected” of a book and, by about 1830, “chaste, modest”.^[7]

Ascetic language speaks of castigare la carne, mortifying the body with fasting and penance.^[9][2] The noun castigo, formed from the verb, appears before 1529 in Castiglione; earlier records of gastigo in the dictionaries are forgeries.^[7] Castigamatti was first the stick used to keep the inmates of asylums in check (1514), then a person able to bring the unruly to order (1827, Manzoni).^[7] Monti used the verb for working red-hot metal on the anvil, and in older Italian it could mean pruning or damaging a plant.^[11][10] A Tuscan proverb says chi un ne castiga, cento ne minaccia, “punish one and you threaten a hundred”.^[17] In everyday Italian it is now chiefly used of mild punishment, as of a child.^[9]

Timeline

• 1175–1200 – The Venetian Proverbia que dicuntur, the TLIO's first record.^[16]
• Early 13th century – Uguccione da Lodi and Patecchio use castigare.^[6][8]
• 1264 – Gastigatore “one who punishes” in the Fiore di filosafi.^[7]
• 1304–1308 – Dante uses gastigato.^[7]
• About 1370 – Boccaccio uses the verb in the Decameron.^[6]
• 1514 – Castigamatti, the stick used in asylums.^[7]
• Before 1529 – Castiglione uses castigare for correcting one's style, and the noun castigo.^[7]
• 1794 – Castigatezza “propriety, restraint” in Monti.^[7]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To punish in order to correct, now especially mildly: La maestra lo castigò per le bugie.^{[9][2][3][10][1]}
2. (transitive) castigare la carne: to mortify the body through penance and fasting.^[9][2][10]
3. (transitive, literary) To correct, amend language, style or customs.^{[9][2][3][11]}
4. (transitive) To expurgate a text, removing passages thought offensive to morals or religion.^[9][11]
5. (transitive, poetic) To forge a metal, working it hot.^[9][11][1]
6. (transitive, rare) To prune a plant, or to damage it.^[9][10][11]

Word family

• castigo
• castigato
• castigatezza
• castigatore
• castigamatti
• castigabile
• castigamento

Related words

• castigazione
• casto
• gastigare
• Latin castus
• French châtier

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e 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 Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
4. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti
5. ^ a b Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 254
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 12, 1254
7. ^ 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
8. ^ a b c d Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
9. ^ 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
10. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
11. ^ a b c d e f Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
12. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
13. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
14. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
15. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 799
16. ^ a b c Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
17. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET