chiavare

chiavare¹ to nail

Etymology tree of chiavare¹

inherited borrowed derived

Latin clāvus

Catalan clau

French clou

Italian chiodo

Spanish clavo

Latin clāvō

Italian chiavare

From the same root · chiavare¹

Latin angusticlāvius ← clāvus

Latin lāticlāvius ← clāvus

Pronunciation

• /kjaˈva.re/^[1]

Forms

chiavare (first-person singular present chiàvo, first-person singular past historic chiavài, past participle chiavàto, auxiliary avére)^[1]

Etymology

The verb meaning “to nail” is inherited from Late Latin clāvō (“to nail”), formed on Latin clāvus (“nail”).^{[2][3][4][5][1][6]} The Late Latin verb also survives in Friulian ciavâ, Old Occitan clavar, Catalan clavar and Spanish clavar, and in another form in Old French clover, whose modern successor is French clouer.^[7][1]

clāvus goes back through Proto-Italic *klāwos to Proto-Indo-European *kleh₂u- (“to close”), the root of clāvis (“key”) and claudō (“to close”) as well.^[8][1]

The vulgar sense “to have sex with” is usually taken as a metaphor from the sense of nailing.^[9] Pellegrini derived that sense from clāvis instead, and a dictionary of erotic vocabulary sees two images merged, the key put into the lock and the nail driven in.^[7] The LEI allows that chiave interfered.^[7] The Italian Wiktionary takes this sense from the noun for “key” alone.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in anonymous 13th-century poems from Urbino, with the senses “to fasten with nails” and “to pierce with nails”.^[11] Veronese lauds of about 1250 already have clavare, and Dante uses the verb for the Crucifixion: né pria né poi ch'el si chiavasse al legno “neither before nor after he was nailed to the wood”.^[7][12]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian also used the verb for shoeing a horse and, by extension, for stabbing with a knife.^[11] Dante gave it a figurative turn in the Purgatorio: an opinion will be chiavata in mezzo de la testa “nailed into the middle of your head”, fixed in the mind.^[12][13] Ariosto, who died in 1533, still wrote of quei che lo chiavaro in croce “those who nailed him to the cross”.^[7][3]

The sexual sense is first recorded in Burchiello, who died in 1449.^[14] It is common in central and southern Italy, and northern dialects have the form ciavà.^[6] The literal senses are now archaic, while the vulgar senses, including “to cheat”, are current.^[3][4][1]

Timeline

• About 1250 – Veronese lauds have clavare.^[7]
• 1200s – Anonymous poems from Urbino use the verb.^[11]
• 1317 – GRADIT's date for the word.^[3]
• Before 1321 – Dante uses chiavare for nailing to the cross and for fixing an idea in the mind.^[14][12]
• Before 1449 – Burchiello uses it in the sexual sense.^[14]
• Before 1533 – Ariosto writes quei che lo chiavaro in croce.^[7]

Meanings

Verb

1. (archaic) To nail; to pierce with nails.^[3][4][5][1]
2. (archaic, figurative) To fix firmly, especially in the mind.^[3][5][1]
3. (vulgar) To have sex with someone, or, used intransitively, to have sex.^{[3][4][13][1]}
4. (vulgar, figurative) To cheat, to con.^[3][4][5][1]

Word family

• chiavata
• chiavagione
• schiavare
• dischiavare

chiavare² to lock

Etymology tree of chiavare²

inherited borrowed derived

Latin clāvis

Catalan clau

French clé

Italian chiave

Italian chiavare

Romanian cheie

Spanish llave

From the same root · chiavare²

English conclave ← clāvis

Latin clāvicula ← clāvis

Latin clāviger ← clāvis

Latin conclāve ← clāvis

Pronunciation

• /kjaˈva.re/^[1]

Forms

chiavare (first-person singular present chiàvo, first-person singular past historic chiavài, past participle chiavàto, auxiliary avére)^[1]

Etymology

The verb meaning “to lock” is formed from Italian chiave (“key”) + -are.^{[3][9][13][11][1]} The LEI posits a Late Latin *clāvāre formed on Latin clāvis (“key”), since the verb is also found in Old Occitan clavar and in medieval Sardinian clabare.^[15] GRADIT compares a Medieval Latin verb of the same form.^[3]

clāvis has the same root as claudō (“to close”) and clāvus (“nail”).^[14][2][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is a Pisan statute of 1304, with the sense “to lock with a key”.^[11][15] Dante's Count Ugolino hears the door of the tower being locked: e io senti' chiavar l'uscio di sotto / a l'orribile torre “and I heard the door below the horrible tower being locked”.^[5][13][16]

Semantic evolution

Some readers of Dante took chiavar in Ugolino's lines as “to nail up”, a reading Tommaseo found more fitting for the prisoner's sense of doom.^[16] The verb was used in Tuscany, in Pavia and in Verona in the 14th century, and by Straparola (1553) and Bandello (1554), and it lives on in many northern dialects, as in ciavà.^[15] Figuratively it meant “to imprison”.^[3][9][5] Modern dictionaries mark it as archaic or regional.^[3][4][17]

Timeline

• 1304 – A Pisan statute uses chiavare “to lock”.^[11][15]
• About 1313 – Dante writes chiavar l'uscio.^[15][3]
• 1342 – Pavese chiavar is recorded.^[15]
• 1553–1554 – Straparola and Bandello still use the verb.^[15]

Meanings

Verb

1. (obsolete) To lock with a key; by extension, to bar.^{[3][5][13][1]}
2. (obsolete, figurative) To imprison.^[3][9][5]

Word family

• chiavatura
• inchiavare