contrarre

Forms

contrarre (first-person singular present contràggo, first-person singular past historic contràssi, past participle contràtto, first-person singular imperfect contraévo, auxiliary avére)^[1] An older form is Old Italian contraere.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin contrahō (“to draw together; to bring about; to incur”), adapted to the pattern of trarre.^[5][2][6][7] The Latin verb is formed from con- and trahō (“to draw, drag”).^[7][1] The origin of the simple verb is unclear: a link with Proto-Germanic *draganą (“to drag”) is debated, because Latin /t/ does not usually answer Germanic /d/.^[1]

Several derivatives come from Latin forms of the verb: contraente from the present participle contrahēns, contratto from the past participle contractus, and contrazione from contractiō.^[7][8] DELI derives contrattuale from French contractuel, recorded in 1596.^[7] The same Latin verb gave Spanish contraer.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is a translation by Ranieri from the first half of the 13th century, from Viterbo; its first sense is to put together, gather.^[9] DELI dates the senses “to tighten, wrinkle” and “to take on a debt or obligation” from Jacopone da Todi (before 1306).^[7]

Semantic evolution

Jacopone uses the verb of a hand that closes and will not give: O ch'ei sua man contragga, non volendo più dare.^[2][3] Old Italian already had the medical sense of catching an illness or a vice, the legal and commercial sense of making a contract, and set phrases such as contrarre matrimonio, contrarre parentado and contrarre amicizia.^[9] Domenico Cavalca has the sense “to take in, receive” (before 1342), and Giovanni Villani “to conclude by agreement” (before 1348).^[7]

Later uses include the physiological contraction of muscles, and in linguistics the fusion of two vowels into one, for which contrazione is first recorded in Tommaseo.^[7][10] Contrazione is recorded for a fall in sales or prices in 1931, and contrarsi is used in the same way.^[7][10]

Timeline

• First half of the 13th century – First record of the verb, in a Viterbo translation.^[9]
• 1233–1243 – The noun contratto “contract” is recorded in the Matasalà accounts.^[7]
• Before 1306 – Jacopone da Todi uses it for “to tighten” and “to take on an obligation”.^[7]
• Before 1348 – Giovanni Villani uses it for concluding an agreement.^[7]
• c. 1350 – Contrazione is recorded in the Italian translation of Crescenzi.^[7]
• 1570 – Contrattura is recorded in Andrea Palladio.^[7]
• 1931 – Contrazione is recorded for a fall in sales or prices.^[7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To contract, tighten, wrinkle: a part of the body or the face; of muscles, to tense them: Contrasse la fronte, perplesso.^[11][12][4]
2. To reduce, cut down: contrarre i consumi.^[11][13][12]
3. To catch an illness, or take on a habit or vice: contrarre il morbillo.^[11][13][4]
4. To take on, incur: a debt or an obligation.^[11][13][10]
5. To conclude, enter into: an agreement or alliance; to form a friendship or a family tie.^[11][13][4]
6. (intransitive, uncommon) To make a contract.^[13][1]
7. (obsolete) To gather, bring together.^[11][4]

Pronominal verb

1. contrarsi: to shrink, wrinkle, contract: of muscles, to undergo a contraction.^[4][10]
2. contrarsi: to fall, decrease.^[14][10]
3. contrarsi (linguistics): of two or more vowels, to merge into one vowel or a diphthong.^[4][12][10]

Word family

• contraente
• contrattare
• contrattazione
• contrattile
• contrattilità
• contratto
• contrattuale
• contrattura
• contrazione
• decontrarre

Related words

• trarre
• attrarre
• distrarre
• Latin contrahō

Usage notes

The verb is conjugated like trarre (contraggo, contrassi, contratto).^[13][1] Contrarre matrimonio is the formal phrase for “to marry”.^[11][4][10] DELI notes that the records of contrattura from Maestro Aldobrandino and other early texts in the Crusca dictionary, Tommaseo and the GDLI are false.^[7]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
3. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
5. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti
6. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
8. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
9. ^ a b c Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
10. ^ 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)
11. ^ a b c d e f g De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
12. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
13. ^ a b c d e f Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
14. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana