Etymologically
Log in

cercare

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 21 October 2026 at 18:46. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • /t͡ʃerˈka.re/[1]

Forms

cercare (first-person singular present cérco, first-person singular past historic cercài, past participle cercàto, auxiliary avére)[1] Old forms include ciercare and a past participle cérco.[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin circāre (“to go around”), from Latin circā (“around”).[4][5][1] Nocentini derives it from circum (“round about”), the old accusative of circus (“circle”).[6][7] The verb is panromance: Old French cerchier (modern French chercher, by assimilation of the first consonant to the second), Occitan cercar, Catalan cercar, Spanish cercar and Portuguese cercar, which mean “to surround”, Sardinian chilcare and Romanian cerca, “to try”.[6][8][9] DÉRom reconstructs the common ancestor as Vulgar Latin */ˈkɪrk-a-/ (“to go round”).[10]

The change from “to go round” to “to look for” is generally put down to hunting, where a dog is made to circle ever wider to pick up the trail;[4][11][12] Migliorini, quoted by DELI, cites an inscription of the 2nd or 3rd century in which a messenger says “circavi totam regionem pedestrem et canibus prendi leporem” (I went round the whole region on foot and caught a hare with dogs).[4][11][12] The LEI follows this view.[11] The Latin noun is probably a loan from Ancient Greek κρίκος (kríkos, “ring”).[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is in Giacomo da Lentini, before 1250: “l'avenente / eo vo cercando, ed ho noie e pene” (I go seeking the lovely one and have troubles and pains), in the sense “to try to find”.[4][2] The TLIO's first record is the Venetian Proverbia que dicuntur.[13]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian kept the older sense “to go through a place, to travel around, to explore”, recorded from the end of the 13th century to Tasso, and a sense “to surround” in Brunetto Latini.[11][9][13] The sense “to strive to obtain” is in Dino Compagni in 1310–1312.[4] Mendicant friars went alla cerca, begging for alms, a sense of cerca found in Salimbene's Medieval Latin and in Italian before 1563.[4]

Modern Italian adds cercare di + infinitive, “to try to”, and many set phrases: cercare il pelo nell'uovo (to split hairs), cercare un ago in un pagliaio (to look for a needle in a haystack) and the proverb chi cerca trova (seek and you shall find).[3][14][15] Cercare Maria per Ravenna or per Roma means to look for trouble or for what cannot be found.[16][17]

Timeline

  • Before 1250 – Giacomo da Lentini uses cercare.[4][5]
  • 1310–1312 – Dino Compagni uses it for “to strive to obtain”.[4]
  • Before 1321 – Dante uses the noun cerca.[4]
  • 14th century – Cercatore is recorded.[6]
  • 15th century – Ricerca is recorded.[6]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To look for, to search for: cerco gli occhiali da un'ora.[5][14][1]
  2. To search a place, to look through: ho cercato in tutti i cassetti.[5][15]
  3. To try to find out: cercare la causa del guasto.[5][14]
  4. To try to get, to seek: cercare lavoro, cercare casa.[5][18][16]
  5. To ask for someone: ti ha cercato tuo fratello.[5][3]
  6. To ask for trouble: cercare guai, se l'è cercata, he asked for it.[5][3]
  7. cercare di + infinitive: to try: cerca di riposarti.[18][3][1]
  8. (literary) To go through, to explore a region.[18][3]

Word family

  • cerca
  • cercatore
  • ricercare
  • ricerca
  • ricercatore
  • ricercato
  • cercapersone

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 2, 988
  3. ^ a b c d e f Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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 De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  6. ^ a b c d Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  7. ^ 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
  8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  9. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 863
  10. ^ Buchi, Éva; Schweickard, Wolfgang, eds. (2008–), Dictionnaire Étymologique Roman (DÉRom), Nancy: ATILF, http://www.atilf.fr/DERom
  11. ^ a b c d Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 14, 505
  12. ^ a b Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier, p. 89
  13. ^ a b Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
  14. ^ 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
  15. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
  16. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
  17. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
  18. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse