cerare

Forms

cerare (first-person singular present cèro, first-person singular past historic cerài, past participle ceràto, auxiliary avére)^[1]

Etymology

It is a learned word: it is borrowed from Latin cērāre (“to coat with wax”), from cēra (“wax”).^{[2][3][4][5][6]} Wiktionary calls it inherited.^[1] The participle cerato was in use centuries before the verb.^[2][7]

The Latin noun is probably a loanword from an unknown language, or borrowed directly from Ancient Greek κηρός (kērós, “wax”).^[8] The Greek word has a Doric form κᾱρός (kārós), and if the Baltic words for “honeycomb” such as Lithuanian korỹs are related, the source may have been a substrate form ⟨*kār-⟩.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is Gherardini's Supplement to the Italian dictionaries (1853), with the sense “to coat or impregnate with wax”.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

Tommaseo marked the verb as obsolete and noted that it had no examples but must have had some use, since its participle exists, and that it is found in Columella.^[7] The GDLI also calls it rare and cites only Tommaseo.^[9] Treccani notes that it is used almost only in the participle cerato, and the modern dictionaries mark it as uncommon, with the usual verb being incerare.^{[10][5][6][4]}

Timeline

• 1853 – Gherardini's Supplement records cerare.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive, rare) To wax: to coat, impregnate or polish something with wax, the same as incerare.^{[4][5][6][11][1]}

Word family

• cerato
• ceratore
• ceratura

Related words

• cera
• incerare
• cerotto

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ 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
6. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
7. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
8. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
10. ^ Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
11. ^ Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli