Etymologically
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condurre

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Pronunciation

  • /konˈdur.re/[1]

Forms

condurre (first-person singular present condùco, first-person singular past historic condùssi, past participle condótto, first-person singular imperfect conducévo, auxiliary avére)[1] The older infinitive is conducere, now archaic; the present conduco and the past participle condotto keep the Latin stem.[2][3][1][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin condūcō (“to bring together; to hire, rent”), formed from con- (“with, together”) and dūcō (“to lead”).[5][6][7][1] The infinitive is a contraction of the older conducere, which Devoto explains through a northern lenited ⟨*condu(g)ere⟩ that was then treated like fare, trarre and corre; the present stem kept the Latin form.[4][1] The learned derivatives conducibile, conduttore and conduzione came from Latin conductor and conductiō and their kin.[5][6]

The same verb is French conduire, Occitan conduire, Catalan conduir, Spanish conducir, Portuguese conduzir, Friulian condùsi and Engadine condür.[6][8][9] The LEI notes that it did not survive in Romanian or Sardinian.[9] The Latin sense “to hire, take on lease” lives on in the old senses of condotta “lease; district”, in medico condotto “municipal doctor” and in condottiero, the captain of hired troops.[8][9]

The Latin verb goes back to Proto-Italic ⟨*douk-e-⟩ and the Proto-Indo-European present *dewk- (“to draw, pull”), continued in Gothic 𐍄𐌹𐌿𐌷𐌰𐌽 (tiuhan, “to draw”) and Middle Welsh dygaf (“I bring”).[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is the Ritmo di Sant'Alessio from the Marche, of the second half of the 12th century, which DELI dates to the beginning of the 13th; there the verb means “to accompany, guide a person”.[11][5]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian condurre already covered moving people, animals, vehicles and goods from place to place, leading someone into a condition, governing a city, commanding an army and managing a business.[11] The Latin senses “to hire” and “to rent” were also alive: Tuscan and other documents of the 14th and 15th centuries use the verb for taking a house or land on lease and for engaging soldiers, doctors and workers.[9][12] Dante writes Amor condusse noi ad una morte “love led us to one death”.[13][14]

The sense “to run, administer” is recorded in the 14th-century Italian Livy.[5] Physics took the verb for transmitting heat and electricity, and conduttore in the electrical sense follows English conductor, a term fixed by Desaguliers in 1739.[5][7] In sport, from 1950, condurre means to be in the lead,[5] and later it came to mean presenting a television or radio programme.[15][7]

Timeline

  • Late 12th or early 13th century – The Ritmo di Sant'Alessio uses the verb for “to guide a person”.[11][5]
  • 1282 – Condotto “pipe, channel” is recorded in Restoro d'Arezzo.[5]
  • Before 1348 – Giovanni Villani has condottiero, the captain of a mercenary company.[5]
  • 14th century – The verb is used for “to manage, administer” in the Italian translation of Livy.[5]
  • 1739 – Desaguliers fixes English conductor as an electrical term, the model of Italian conduttore.[5]
  • 1950 – Condurre is recorded in sport for “to be in the lead”.[5]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To lead, take, accompany someone somewhere: Ogni mattina conduce la figlia all'asilo.[7][2][3]
  2. (figurative) To bring someone into a state or condition: condurre qualcuno alla rovina.[7][3][12]
  3. To drive a vehicle or steer a boat.[7][2][1]
  4. To carry on, conduct an activity: condurre una trattativa, un'indagine.[7][3][1]
  5. To manage, run; to present a television or radio programme.[7][3][15]
  6. To command: condurre le truppe.[7][12]
  7. To lead a life of a certain kind: Conduceva una vita ritirata in campagna.[7][1]
  8. (sport) To be in the lead: La squadra di casa conduce per due a uno.[7][3][1]
  9. (physics) To conduct heat or electricity.[7][3][1]
  10. To carry water or gas through pipes or channels.[7][2][3]
  11. (mathematics) To draw a line: condurre una retta parallela.[7][3][1]
  12. (intransitive) Of a road, to lead somewhere.[12][1]

Word family

  • condotta
  • condotto
  • condottiero
  • conducente
  • conduttore
  • conduttura
  • conduzione
  • conducibilità
  • ricondurre

Usage notes

Common fixed phrases are condurre a termine, to bring to completion, and condurre in porto, to bring an undertaking to a successful end.[7][2][16] The old sense “to rent, to hire” survives in law as “to take on lease”.[12][3]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e 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 e f g h i j Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  4. ^ a b Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
  6. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  8. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  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, 1206
  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. ^ a b c Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
  12. ^ a b c d e Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
  13. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
  14. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
  15. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
  16. ^ Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli