cingere

Forms

cingere (first-person singular present cìngo, first-person singular past historic cìnsi, past participle cìnto, auxiliary avére)^[1] An archaic and poetic form is cignere.^[2][3][4][5] Old northern forms include Old Italian cengere and Old Italian cenzere, and Old Sicilian has cingiri and chingiri.^[6]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin cingere (“to gird, surround”).^[7][8][9][1] The verb is found across the Romance languages: French ceindre, Occitan cenher, Catalan cenyir, Spanish ceñir, Portuguese cingir, Sardinian kingere, Friulian cénzi and Romanian încinge.^[8][6][10]

The origin of Latin cingō is uncertain.^[11][1] It may be related to an Umbrian word for officials described as “girded”, which would point to Proto-Italic *keng-.^[11][1] Nocentini and DELI compare words for binding in other languages and count the verb among the old technical words of Indo-European; the comparisons are Sanskrit कञ्च् (kañc, “to bind”) and Lithuanian kinkýti (“to harness”).^[8][7][1] De Vaan finds that the Lithuanian verb fits in meaning but needs a root *kin-k- that cannot be Proto-Indo-European, and that the Sanskrit words are late and irregular.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Bonagiunta Orbicciani of Lucca, before 1257, in the sense “to surround, encircle”.^[7][12]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian used it both for surrounding something and for tying something around the body, and also for “to measure around”, “to contain”, “to fortify a town with walls” and “to besiege”.^[12] The sense of putting something around the body, especially the head or waist, is dated by DELI to Dino Compagni, 1310–1312.^[7] Dante writes of il primo cerchio che l'abisso cigne (“the first circle that girds the abyss”).^[4]

Several old phrases grew from girding on arms: cingere la spada, to arm oneself, and cingere la spada a qualcuno, to dub someone a knight, as in Tasso.^[13][4] Cingere la corona is to become king, cingere d'assedio to besiege, and cingersi d'alloro to win glory.^[2][9][13] Zingarelli records an obsolete sense “to strike with the sword”, from Ariosto.^[13]

Related verbs and nouns are recorded from the 13th century: discinto (13th century), accingere and recingere (early 14th), succingere and scingere (14th), recinto (16th) and recintare (1938).^[8]

Timeline

• Before 1257 – Bonagiunta Orbicciani uses cingere for “to surround”.^[7][12]
• 1310–1312 – Dino Compagni uses it for tying something around the body.^[7]
• Early 14th century – accingere and recingere are recorded.^[8]
• 16th century – The noun recinto appears.^[8]
• 1938 – recintare is first recorded.^[8]

Meanings

Verb

1. To gird, put or tie something around the body, the head or the waist: cingere i fianchi con una fascia.^[9][2][14]
2. To crown or adorn, especially the head: cingere le tempie d'alloro.^[9][3][4]
3. Of a thing: to go round, encircle: una catenina le cingeva la caviglia.^[9][2][4]
4. To surround, enclose: i bastioni cingono il borgo;^[9][2][13] cingere d'assedio, to besiege.^[9][2][13]
5. To embrace, hold with the arms: lo cinse alla vita.^[9][2]
6. (reflexive) To put something around oneself: cingersi di una sciarpa;^[2][3][14] cingersi d'alloro, to win glory.^[2][3][14]

Word family

• accingere
• discingere
• discinto
• recingere
• recinto
• recintare
• scingere
• succingere
• succinto
• cintura
• ricingere

Related words

• cinghia
• cingolo
• cinta
• Latin cingō

Usage notes

Cingere la spada means to arm oneself, cingere la corona to become king, and cingere le armi to take up arms.^[2][14][15]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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. ^ a b c d e Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
5. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 944
6. ^ a b Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 14, 314
7. ^ 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
8. ^ a b c d e f g Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
9. ^ 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
10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
11. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
12. ^ a b c Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
13. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
14. ^ a b c d Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
15. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli