contattare

Forms

contattare (first-person singular present contàtto, first-person singular past historic contattài, past participle contattàto, auxiliary avére)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Italian contatto + -are, on the model of English to contact, an English verb recorded from 1834.^{[2][3][4][5][1]} DELI treats it simply as the English verb taken over, and Sabatini–Coletti call it a calque of it.^[6][7] Zingarelli instead derives it from French contacter, at first only a spoken word.^[8]

The noun contatto is a learned borrowing of Latin contāctus, from the past participle of contingō (“to touch”), itself from tangō (“to touch”).^[6][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

GRADIT's first record is the Enciclopedia della civiltà atomica of A. and G. Menarini, 1959, in the sense “to get in touch with someone”.^[2][7] DELI and Nocentini date it from Migliorini's 1963 appendix to Panzini's dictionary, which explains it as calling someone by telephone, radio or other means.^[6][9][5]

Semantic evolution

Devoto–Oli note that it is used especially in business and politics, for approaching a client or an organization.^[3] Primo Levi has his character Faussone say that he “contacted” someone, which only means that he telephoned, but sounds more elegant.^[5] In Calvino's Se una notte d'inverno un viaggiatore it is used of the first person a secret agent has been ordered to meet.^[5]

Timeline

• 1834 – English to contact is recorded.^[2][5]
• 1959 – Contattare appears in the Enciclopedia della civiltà atomica.^[2]
• 1963 – Migliorini records it in his appendix to Panzini's dictionary.^[6]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To contact, to get in touch with someone, in person, by telephone or in writing: Per informazioni potete contattare l'ufficio del sindaco.^[2][3][7][1]

Word family

• ricontattare
• contattabile

Related words

• contatto
• English contact

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
3. ^ a b c Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
4. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
5. ^ a b c d e Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
6. ^ a b c d Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
7. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
8. ^ Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
9. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier