consegnare

Forms

consegnare (first-person singular present conségno, first-person singular past historic consegnài, past participle consegnàto, auxiliary avére)^[1] Old Italian also had the form consignare, closer to the Latin.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin cōnsignō (“to seal; to put in writing; to assign”), a learned word reshaped after the native verb segnare.^[4][1][2][5] The Latin verb is made of con- and signō (“to mark, seal”), which comes from signum (“mark, sign”).^[6][7][8] De Vaan connects the noun with secō (“to cut”), from a form Proto-Indo-European *sek-no- (“something cut”): a sign was first something carved.^[9] Nocentini explains the Italian ⟨e⟩, against the ⟨i⟩ of French consigner and Spanish consignar, as taken over from segno.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in the Milanese poems of Bonvesin da la Riva (late 13th century).^[10] DELI's first date is 1397, in a letter of the Datini archive about two bales and three barrels of tin to be delivered in Majorca, with the sense “to give into someone's keeping or possession”.^[4][2]

Semantic evolution

Nocentini traces the senses from the Latin “to put a seal on” to the legal “to record, to deposit (a sum)”, and in the army to “to pass on a written order”, from which comes the modern sense “to keep in barracks”.^[6] In Old Italian the verb meant to hand over or entrust something, to give it as a pledge, to bring it to its destination, to commend one's soul to God, and in military use to review soldiers, arms and horses and enter them in the rolls; used reflexively it meant to report to the authorities.^[10] The GDLI compares the military senses with French consigner, recorded from the 14th century and in the specific sense from the 18th.^[2]

The military sense “to punish with confinement to barracks” is first recorded in Foscolo in 1805.^[4] The noun consegna, formed from the verb without a suffix, followed the same path: “delivery” from the 14th–16th centuries, “orders for a sentry” in 1824 and “confinement to barracks” in 1930.^[4] Literary phrases such as consegnare alla memoria mean to hand down to posterity.^[7][11][12]

Timeline

• Late 13th century – Bonvesin da la Riva uses the verb in Milanese.^[10]
• 1397 – Consegnare “to deliver” appears in the Datini archive.^[4][7]
• 1805 – Foscolo uses it for confining soldiers to barracks.^[4]
• 1824 – The noun consegna is recorded for a sentry's orders.^[4]
• 1930 – Consegna is recorded for the punishment of confinement to barracks.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. To deliver or hand over something to the person it is meant for: Il corriere ha consegnato il pacco stamattina.^[7][11][13]
2. To hand in a finished piece of work: Gli studenti devono consegnare la relazione entro venerdì.^[7][11]
3. To entrust someone or something to another's keeping, for a time or for good; also to hand a wanted person over to the authorities: Ho consegnato le chiavi al vicino.^[7][11][3]
4. (literary) Consegnare alla memoria, alla posterità: to hand down to later generations.^[11][3][12]
5. (military) To punish a soldier with confinement to barracks, or to keep troops in barracks in readiness.^[7][11][12]
6. (reflexive) Consegnarsi: to give oneself up, to surrender: Il fuggiasco si è consegnato ai carabinieri.^[11][13][3]

Word family

• consegna
• consegnatario
• riconsegnare
• riconsegna

Related words

• segnare
• segno
• assegnare
• Latin cōnsignō

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
3. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
4. ^ 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
5. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1067
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 De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
8. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ a b c Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
11. ^ 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
12. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
13. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse