cessare

Forms

cessare (first-person singular present cèsso, first-person singular past historic cessài, past participle cessàto, auxiliary (intransitive in the absolute meaning "to stop, to cease") èssere or (other meanings) avére)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin cessāre (“to delay, be idle, leave off”), the frequentative of cēdō (“to go away, withdraw”).^[2][3][4][1] DELI notes that the other words of this family reached Italian by a learned route, except perhaps this verb; the LEI counts it among the inherited words, beside the French verb.^[2][5] The verb belongs to Italian and western Romance: it is missing in Sardinian and Romanian and rare in southern Italy, which uses the borrowing cedere instead.^[6]

The same verb is French cesser, Occitan cessar, Catalan cessar, Spanish cesar with the dissimilated cejar (“to back away”), and Portuguese cessar.^[3][7] The primary Latin sense “to stay behind” survives in the Old French sense “to draw back”.^[5]

The Latin base verb goes back to Proto-Italic *kesd-e/o- (“to go away, avoid”) and a PIE *ḱiesdʰ- (“to drive away; go away”).^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO’s first record is in the 13th-century poet Ugo di Perso, from Cremona.^[9] DELI’s earliest dated use is “to stop doing something”, before 1276 in Guinizelli; the transitive “to put an end to” follows before 1292, and “to come to an end” before 1306 in Iacopone.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian kept senses close to the Latin “stay behind”: “to delay, put off, remove, avoid, prevent” from Dante’s Convivio (1304–07) to the 15th century, and “to keep away (an evil)” from the 14th century to Alfieri.^[5] Formulas such as Dio cessi “God forbid” come from this use.^[9][10] The senses “to lessen” and “to hide” are found only in Italo-Romance.^[5] The LEI explains cesso “latrine” as a back-formation from the verb, with no need to start from Latin recessus.^[5]

Dante uses the verb of things that end: fin che ’l tremar cessò and quasi tutta cessa / mia visione.^[11][12] In modern Italian the old senses “to delay” and “to withdraw” are archaic, and cessare means “to end” or “to stop doing”;^[4][13][14] cessare il fuoco and the command cessate il fuoco are set phrases.^[4][13][14]

Timeline

• 13th century – Ugo di Perso uses cessare.^[9]
• Before 1276 – Guinizelli uses it for “to stop doing”.^[2][4]
• Before 1292 – Giamboni uses it transitively, “to put an end to”.^[2]
• 1304–1307 – Dante’s Convivio uses it for “to put off, remove”.^[5]
• Before 1306 – Iacopone uses it for “to come to an end”.^[2]
• 1781 – Alfieri still uses “to keep away (an evil)”.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive, auxiliary essere) To come to an end, cease: Verso sera il temporale è cessato.^{[4][13][10][1]}
2. (intransitive, auxiliary avere) To stop doing something, with di and an infinitive: Non ha cessato di lamentarsi.^[4][13][14]
3. (intransitive, commerce) Of a business, to close down.^[10][15][1]
4. (intransitive, archaic) To delay, hesitate.^[4][13][14]
5. (intransitive, archaic) To withdraw, flee; to give up.^[4][10]
6. (transitive) To stop, suspend, put an end to: cessare il fuoco, cessare le ostilità.^[4][13][14]
7. (transitive, archaic) To keep away, avert: cessi il cielo, heaven forbid.^[4][13][16]

Word family

• cessato
• cessante
• cessamento
• cessanza

Related words

• cessazione
• cessione
• incessante
• cedere
• cesso
• Latin cessō
• French cesser

Usage notes

Cessare di vivere is a euphemism for “to die”.^[17][1] The auxiliary is essere in the sense “to come to an end” and avere in the sense “to stop doing”; with weather verbs both are used: ha or è cessato di piovere.^[10][17][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c d e f g Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 13, 1251
6. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 878
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ a b c Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
10. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
11. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
12. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
13. ^ a b c d e f g Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
14. ^ a b c d e Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
15. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
16. ^ Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
17. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse