disfare

Forms

disfare (first-person singular present (now less common) disfàccio or (archaic or Tuscan) disfò or (sometimes proscribed, now more common) dìsfo, first-person singular past historic disféci, past participle disfàtto, first-person singular imperfect disfacévo, first-person singular future (now less common) disfarò or (sometimes proscribed, now more common) disferò, first-person singular subjunctive (now less common) disfàccia or (sometimes proscribed, now more common) dìsfi, second-person singular imperative (now less common) disfài or (ditto) disfà' or (sometimes proscribed, now more common) dìsfa, auxiliary avére)^[1] Old forms include Old Italian desfare and Old Italian disfacere, with forms such as desfacto and desface.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is formed from Italian dis- + fare, the prefix having a reversing sense.^{[4][5][6][7][3]} Wiktionary takes it instead as inherited from early Medieval Latin disfacere.^[1] The same formation is Old French desfaire, recorded from the 11th century, modern French défaire.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is the Judaeo-Italian Elegia of the early 13th century, from central Italy.^[2] DELI dates desfare “to destroy, take apart” to 1282 in Restoro d'Arezzo, who writes of mountains, “how they can be made and unmade” (com'elli se ponno fare e desfare), and disfare to before 1292 in Bono Giamboni.^[4][3]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian the verb covered destroying, cancelling a legal act, killing, melting, ruining a body or a land, and defeating an enemy.^[2] In Dante a soul says: “Siena made me, Maremma unmade me” (Siena mi fe', disfecemi Maremma).^[6][8] The reflexive “to fall to pieces, dissolve” and “to pine away” are 13th-century;^[4] “to get rid of” is first recorded in Salvini, before 1729.^[4]

Disfacimento “decomposition” is as old as the verb (before 1292), and disfatta “rout” appears in Guicciardini before 1540.^[4] Disfattismo and disfattista (1917) are taken from French défaitisme and défaitiste, themselves calques of a Russian word, coined by G. Alexinsky at the start of the First World War.^[4] Tuscan proverbs pair the verb with fare: Fare e disfare è tutto un lavorare.^[9]

Timeline

• Early 13th century – The Judaeo-Italian Elegia uses the verb.^[2]
• 1282 – Restoro d'Arezzo uses desfare.^[4]
• Before 1292 – Bono Giamboni uses disfare and disfacimento.^[4]
• Before 1540 – Guicciardini uses disfatta “rout”.^[4]
• Before 1729 – A. M. Salvini uses disfarsi “to get rid of”.^[4]
• 1917 – Disfattismo and disfattista appear in the Corriere della Sera.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. To undo, take apart what has been made: Ha disfatto il maglione per riusare la lana. Disfare il letto, to strip or rumple the bed;^[6][7][10] disfare le valigie, to unpack;^[6][7][10] disfare un nodo, to untie a knot.^[6][7][10]
2. (figurative) To cancel, make vain: to undo another's work.^[6][7]
3. To melt, dissolve: Il calore del forno ha disfatto il burro.^[6][7][11]
4. (uncommon) To destroy, demolish; to rout an army; to devastate a region.^[6][7][11]
5. (literary) To kill.^[6][7]
6. Disfarsi: to fall apart, rot, decompose; to melt;^[11][8][10] (figurative) to pine away: disfarsi in lacrime “to dissolve in tears”.^[11][8][10]
7. Disfarsi di: to get rid of someone or something.^[11][8][10]

Word family

• disfatto
• disfatta
• disfacimento
• disfacibile
• disfacitore
• ridisfare

Related words

• fare
• disfattismo
• disfattista
• French défaire

Usage notes

The present tense has two series of forms, disfaccio, disfai, disfà like fare, and disfo, disfi, disfa like regular verbs in -are; the GDLI considered the latter inexact, while Wiktionary notes that they are now the more common.^[3][1][8]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ 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
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
5. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ 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
7. ^ a b c d e f g h Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
9. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
10. ^ a b c d e f 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 Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse