condire

Forms

condire (first-person singular present condìsco, first-person singular past historic condìi, past participle condìto, auxiliary avére)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin condiō (“to season; to embalm”).^[2][3][4][1] The GDLI calls it a learned word,^[5] while the LEI files the Italian verb among the inherited continuants of the Latin one.^[6]

The verb is found across the Romance languages except Romanian, according to the DEI.^[7] Its relatives include Occitan condir and Catalan condir, Old Spanish had cundir,^[3][8] Old French condir meant “to embalm (a corpse)” around 1200, and the Romansh of the Engadine has cundir “to season”.^[6] In Sardinian the word came to mean “to poison”.^[7][8]

The origin of Latin condiō is uncertain.^[2][9][7] De Vaan thinks it probably comes from condō (“to put away, store up”), remade on the model of some verb in -īre that cannot be identified.^[10] The OLD likewise treats it as a by-form of condō.^[11] Nocentini adds that its first sense was “to prepare, to make ready”, and compares the way cōnficiō (“to make, prepare”) took on senses tied to particular trades.^[3] Devoto found no reliable connection for it.^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record in the TLIO is in the Florentine translation of Brunetto Latini's Tesoro from the late 13th century, with the sense “to make a dish tastier by adding ingredients”.^[13] DELI dates this cooking sense to the 14th-century translation of Cassian.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian already used the verb figuratively: Cavalca, who died in 1342, has it for making something more pleasant or effective.^[2][4] The TLIO also records senses now lost: making a sacrifice holy, spreading ointment on a body before burial, enriching one's words to make a speech sharper, and celebrating someone's fame in verse.^[13] The LEI notes that the sense “to anoint the dead” is found in old translations and religious texts, as in the Latin of the embalmers.^[6] Boccaccio's Decameron has it as “to grease”, around 1370.^[6]

Tommaseo records the narrower everyday use of dressing food with oil alone (beans, anchovies, salad).^[14] The modern dictionaries add an ironic use, “to fill with” (a text full of mistakes), and a colloquial one, “to give someone a beating”, often as a threat.^[4][15][16] In Tuscany it has also meant “to make dirty”.^[17][16] A Tuscan sense “to infect with a venereal disease”, shared with Sassarese and Sardinian, is explained by the LEI, after Spitzer, Corominas and Wagner, as a borrowing from Spanish.^[6]

The noun condimento is older in Italian than the verb: Brunetto Latini, who died in 1294, already uses it.^[2] It continues Latin condīmentum.^[3]

Timeline

• Before 1294 – Brunetto Latini uses condimento.^[2]
• Late 13th century – condire appears in the Florentine translation of the Tesoro.^[13]
• 14th century – The translation of Cassian uses the verb for seasoning food.^[2]
• Before 1342 – Domenico Cavalca uses it figuratively, “to make more pleasant”.^[2]
• c. 1370 – Boccaccio's Decameron uses it for greasing a cauldron.^[6]
• 1505 – Pietro Bembo uses it in the modern sense of seasoning food.^[6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To season or dress food, making it tastier by adding oil, salt, sauces and other ingredients: condire gli spinaci con burro e parmigiano.^{[4][15][18][1]}
2. (figurative) To make more pleasant or interesting by additions, to embellish.^{[4][15][17][16]} Often ironic, “to fill with”: ha condito la relazione di sviste.^{[4][15][17][16]}
3. (colloquial, humorous) To beat someone, to leave in a bad state.^[4][15][17]
4. (Tuscany) To make dirty.^[17][16]

Word family

• condimento
• scondito
• condito
• conditura
• ricondire

Related words

• Latin condiō
• Latin condō

Usage notes

The verb takes -isc- in the present: condisco, condisci.^[1][15][18] The second argument is introduced by con or di.^[15][17]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e f g De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 3
6. ^ 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. 16, 1190
7. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1051
8. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier, p. 108
13. ^ a b c Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
14. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
15. ^ 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
16. ^ a b c d e Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
17. ^ a b c d e f Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
18. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse