curare

Forms

curare (first-person singular present cùro, first-person singular past historic curài, past participle curàto, auxiliary avére)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin cūrō (“to take care of, attend to”), a verb formed from cūra (“care, concern; treatment”).^[2][3][4][5] DELI counts the verb and the noun among the learned words.^[2] The verb is pan-Romance: French curer, Occitan curar, Catalan curar, Spanish curar, Portuguese curar, Sardinian curare, and Romanian cura “to clear land”.^[3] In French it also came to mean “to clean”.^[6]

The Latin noun was written ⟨coira⟩ and ⟨coera⟩ in inscriptions of the 2nd and 1st centuries BC, and goes back to Proto-Italic *kʷoisā “care”.^[7] Nocentini knows only one sure comparison, a Sabellic verb meaning “they took care”.^[3][7] De Vaan suggests a link with Proto-Indo-European *kʷeis- (“to heed”).^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Venetian Proverbia que dicuntur of the last quarter of the 12th century, in the sense “to take an interest in, attend to, think important”.^[8] DELI dates the medical sense “to treat a patient” to a 13th-century translation of Peter of Spain, and “to make an object of care” to Bono Giamboni, before 1292.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian the verb also meant “to see to it that something happens”, “to heal” a person or animal, also in a moral sense, and, in the cloth trade, “to bleach raw cloth”.^[8] Fra Giordano speaks of bleaching linen, and Guittone has the derived curandaio, a bleacher.^[9] The reflexive “to worry about something” dates from before 1294 (Brunetto Latini), and curare with a clause, “to see to it”, from before 1347 (Bartolomeo da San Concordio).^[2] Dante's mountain of Purgatory is the one che l'anime cura, that heals souls.^[10]

“To look after one's health or see a doctor” is recorded before 1471 in Alessandra Macinghi Strozzi.^[2] Modern Italian adds “to edit” a text, “to organize” an exhibition, “to collect” a bill, and in football “to mark” an opponent.^[5][11]

Timeline

• 1175–1200 – The Venetian Proverbia que dicuntur has the first record.^[8]
• 13th century – A translation of Peter of Spain uses curare for treating the sick.^[2]
• Before 1292 – Bono Giamboni uses it for “to take care of”.^[2]
• Before 1294 – Brunetto Latini uses the reflexive curarsi, “to worry about”.^[2]
• Before 1347 – Bartolomeo da San Concordio uses curare for “to see to it”.^[2]
• Before 1471 – Alessandra Macinghi Strozzi uses curarsi for looking after one's health.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To look after, take care of with attention: curare l'orto.^[5][11][12]
2. (medicine) To treat a patient or an illness; to nurse someone: Il medico lo cura da anni.^[5][12][13]
3. To organize or manage something with one's own skills; to edit a text for publication: curare un'antologia.^[5][11][12]
4. (football) To mark an opponent closely.^[5][11][14]
5. (colloquial) To keep an eye on someone, hoping to catch them out.^[5][11]
6. With che or di: to see to it that: Cura che il cane non esca.^[5][12][14]
7. (uncommon) To value, to heed: Non curo le chiacchiere.^[12][14][13]
8. (commerce) To carry out the steps for collecting a bill.^[5][11]
9. (obsolete) To bleach raw yarn or cloth.^[12][14][13]
10. (reflexive) curarsi: to look after one's health, to undergo treatment; to look after one's appearance.^[12][14][10]
11. curarsi di: to care about, mind: Non si cura dei pettegolezzi.^[12][14][13]

Word family

• curante
• curatore
• curativo
• curabile
• trascurare
• noncurante
• incurante

Related words

• cura
• curatela
• curato
• Latin curo

Usage notes

A separate noun curare, the arrow poison of South American peoples, came from French in the 19th century (Italian from 1874, also curaro); Prati traces it to a Carib language.^[15][16]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
6. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
7. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ a b c Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
9. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 358
10. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
11. ^ 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
12. ^ a b c d e f g h Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
13. ^ a b c d Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
14. ^ a b c d e f Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
15. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 359
16. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET