Etymologically
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costringere

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Pronunciation

  • /kosˈtrin.d͡ʒe.re/[1]

Forms

costringere (first-person singular present costrìngo, first-person singular past historic costrìnsi, past participle costrétto, auxiliary avére)[1] Old Italian also had costrignere and constringere.[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin cōnstringō (“to bind fast; to restrain”), formed with con- from stringō (“to draw tight, bind”), the source of stringere.[5][6][7][8] DELI and Zingarelli call it a learned word, while Wiktionary treats it as inherited.[5][9][1] DEI notes that the verb belongs to Italy and the western Romance area.[2] The Latin verb also gave French contraindre, Old Occitan costrenher and Portuguese constranger.[10][6]

The derivatives are learned too: costrizione is from Late Latin constrictiō, costrittivo from constrictīvus and costrittore from Medieval Latin constrictor.[6][5] De Vaan thinks that Latin ⟨stringō⟩ merged the roots Proto-Indo-European *strig- (“to brush, strip”) and *strengh- (“to draw, tie”), and the compounds continue the second.[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in the Parlamenti of Guido Faba (Bologna, about 1243), for making someone act against their will.[12] DELI's first records are in Bono Giamboni, before 1292, both for compelling someone by force or threats and for squeezing.[5]

Semantic evolution

Giamboni writes that molte volte di notare è l'oste costretto per li fiumi (“the army is often forced to swim because of the rivers”).[13] In Old Italian the verb also meant to hold someone at the mercy of hunger or pain, to punish, to gather people together, to besiege, to restrain, and in medicine to make blood clot.[12] Tommaseo describes it as stronger than astringere: it puts a person in such straits that no other way out seems easier.[14]

The physical sense survives in literature, as in D'Annunzio's lines i muscoli ingenti / costringono l'ardua ossatura (“the huge muscles bind the steep frame of bone”).[8][7] In everyday use the verb means to force or oblige, and the passive essere costretto a to have no choice.[3][9]

Timeline

  • c. 1243 – Guido Faba's Parlamenti give the first record.[12]
  • c. 1261 – Zingarelli's date for the first record.[9]
  • Before 1292 – Bono Giamboni uses the verb for “compel” and “squeeze”.[5]
  • 1938 – Carlo Battisti uses the derivative costrittiva in phonetics.[5]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To force, to compel someone to act against their will: Lo hanno costretto a firmare con le minacce.[8][3][7]
  2. To confine, to keep in a place: La febbre mi ha costretto in casa per tre giorni.[3][15]
  3. (literary) To squeeze, to bind tightly.[8][3][9]
  4. (figurative, literary) To hold back, to restrain: to restrain one's tears or laughter.[8][3][16]

Word family

  • costrittiva
  • costrittivo
  • costrittore
  • costrizione
  • costretto
  • costringersi
  • costringimento
  • ricostringere

Usage notes

The reflexive costringersi a means to force oneself to do something.[3][9]

References

  1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975)
  3. ^ 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
  4. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
  5. ^ a b c d e f 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 Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  8. ^ a b c d e De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  9. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  11. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  12. ^ a b c Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
  13. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 3, 907
  14. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
  15. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
  16. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana