commuovere

Forms

commuovere (first-person singular present commuòvo, first-person singular past historic commòssi, past participle commòsso, auxiliary avére)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin commoveō (“to set in motion, shake; to disturb, move to pity”), formed from com- and moveō (“to move”), with a change of conjugation after muovere.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} DEI calls it an adaptation of the Latin verb reshaped on the simple verb, and Sabatini–Coletti calls the form without the diphthong, commovere, a Latinising form, though one found in many dialects.^[7][8] The derived noun commozione came in by the learned route.^[2][3]

The Latin verb survives as Old French commovoir and Portuguese comover; with the change to the ⟨-ere⟩ conjugation that Italian also shows, it is Catalan commoure, Occitan commoure and Romansh commover.^[9][3][10] The modern Spanish conmover is a learned form, and French has only the noun French commotion.^[3] The simple verb goes back to Proto-Indo-European *m(y)ewh₁-.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in the Old Venetian Proverbia que dicuntur, of the last quarter of the 12th century, and the LEI has Venetian comovre in the Panfilo of about 1250.^[11][9] The oldest senses are physical, to shake, stir or set in violent motion, beside to disturb and to move to pity.^[11] In Tuscan, Guittone d'Arezzo (before 1294) asks that no lament should move the ladies: ni cordogliosa altrui lamentagione / vi commova.^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian used the verb widely: to stir a liquid, to remove or dislodge, to incite a people to revolt, to start a battle (commuovere battaglia), to give rise to something.^[11][9] Dante writes L'altra dubitazion che ti commove (“the other doubt that troubles you”), and Giovanni Villani tells of preaching that moved more than ten thousand gentlemen to go to Rome.^[12][6]

Over time the emotional sense, to touch the feelings, became the main one, while “to shake”, “to stir up” and “to incite” survived only in literary use, as in Foscolo and Leopardi.^[4][13][5] The participles became words of their own: commovente “moving” is recorded in the 13th century, commosso “moved” in Dante.^[2][3]

Timeline

• 1175–1200 – The Old Venetian Proverbia que dicuntur has the first record.^[11]
• c. 1250 – Venetian comovre appears in the Panfilo.^[9]
• Before 1294 – Guittone d'Arezzo uses it for moving the feelings.^[2]
• Before 1321 – Dante uses commosso “deeply moved”.^[2]
• Before 1364 – Zanobi da Strata uses commozione.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To move or touch emotionally, rousing pity, tenderness, sorrow or joy: La lettera della nonna ci ha commossi tutti.^{[4][13][14][1]}
2. Used without an object: to be moving: un film che commuove.^[4][8]
3. (literary) To trouble or disturb the mind.^[4][5]
4. (literary) To shake or set in violent motion.^[4][14][1]
5. (literary) To rouse or provoke a feeling or reaction.^[4][5]
6. (archaic) To persuade or induce; to incite to revolt.^[4][14][5]
7. commuoversi: to be moved, to be touched: Si commuove sempre ai matrimoni.^[13][14][5]

Word family

• commosso
• commovente
• commozione
• commovibile

Related words

• muovere
• Latin commoveō

Usage notes

The verb is conjugated like muovere.^[13][14] The diphthong uo, regular only under stress, tends to spread to unstressed syllables too, so commuovere has prevailed over commovere, which is now literary or popular.^[8][5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ a b c d e Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c d e f g Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
6. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 3, 377
7. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1033
8. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
9. ^ a b c d Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 16, 63
10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
11. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
12. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
13. ^ a b c d 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 Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli