Etymologically
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controllare

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Pronunciation

  • /kon.trolˈla.re/[1]

Forms

controllare (first-person singular present contròllo, first-person singular past historic controllài, past participle controllàto, auxiliary avére)[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French contrôler, a verb formed from contrôle (“check, verification”).[2][3][1] GRADIT also analyses it as an Italian derivative of controllo, formed on the French model.[4] The French noun goes back to Old French contrerole (14th century), literally a counter-register, that is a register kept in duplicate so that one copy could be checked against the other.[2][5] Its parts are contre (“against”) and the word for a roll or list that Italian later borrowed as ruolo, and Medieval Latin had the matching contrarotulum.[3][5]

DELI dates the French verb to 1210, in the form ⟨contreroller⟩, GRADIT to 1310 and the GDLI to 1437.[2][4][6] After a few scattered early records, the noun, the verb and controllore spread in Italy under Napoleonic rule and held their ground against the purists.[2] The senses of domination and mastery are calques of English control.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is in Pietro Verri (1773), with the sense “to examine something to make sure it is correct or valid”.[2][7] GRADIT dates the verb to 1779, and Nocentini, Devoto–Oli and Sabatini–Coletti put it before 1812.[4][3][8][9]

Semantic evolution

In the 19th century Tommaseo marked it as a foreign word and suggested controruolare if a calque was wanted, or native verbs such as riscontrare “to check against” and sindacare “to review someone's work”.[10][2] The word nevertheless became the ordinary verb for checking tickets, documents and accounts.[11][4]

The sense “to hold under one's power, dominate”, modelled on English, is recorded in Panzini's dictionary of 1935, and the reflexive controllarsi “to keep one's impulses in check” in the Accademia's dictionary of 1941.[2] Today the verb also covers supervising people, regulating machines, marking an opponent in football and keeping control of a car or a situation.[4][8][9]

Timeline

  • 1210 – The French verb is recorded as ⟨contreroller⟩.[2]
  • 1773 – Pietro Verri uses controllare for “to check, verify”.[2]
  • 1812 – Bernardoni records controllo “check” in his list of words to avoid.[2]
  • 1861–1879 – Tommaseo's dictionary marks the verb as foreign.[10]
  • 1935 – Panzini's dictionary records the sense “to dominate”.[2]
  • 1941 – The reflexive controllarsi “to restrain oneself” is recorded.[2]

Meanings

Verb

  1. (transitive) To check, examine something to make sure it is correct, valid or in order: Prima di partire controllo sempre le gomme.[4][8][9]
  2. (transitive) To keep watch over, supervise someone or something: Chi controlla i ragazzi durante la gita?[4][8][9]
  3. (transitive) To keep under surveillance: Gli agenti controllano le strade intorno allo stadio.[4][9][7]
  4. (transitive) To regulate the working of a machine or system.[4][8][12]
  5. (transitive) To hold under one's power, dominate (a market, a territory, a company).[4][8][9]
  6. (transitive, figurative) To master, keep in check: controllare i nervi, to keep calm.[4][7] Controllare l'auto means to keep the car under control.[4][7][12]
  7. (transitive, football) To mark an opponent, or to keep possession of the ball.[4][8][9]
  8. (reflexive) controllarsi: to control oneself, restrain one's impulses: Ha provato a controllarsi, ma alla fine è scoppiato a ridere.[9][7][13]
  9. (reciprocal) controllarsi: to keep an eye on each other.[9][7]

Word family

  • controllabile
  • controllato
  • ricontrollare

References

  1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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 Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  5. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1085
  6. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 3, 700
  7. ^ a b c d e f Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  8. ^ 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
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h i Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  10. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
  11. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
  12. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
  13. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli