esigere

Forms

esigere (first-person singular present esìgo, first-person singular past historic (uncommon) esigétti or (ditto, traditional) esigètti or (uncommon) esigéi, past participle esàtto, auxiliary avére)^[1] The past participle is esatto, which is uncommon; legal language also uses esigito.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is learned: it is borrowed from Latin exigō (“to drive out; to demand, collect”), properly “to make go out”, a compound of ex- (“out”) and agō (“to drive, lead”).^[4][5][6][1] The same Latin verb is behind esame, esatto and esiguo.^[5] DELI thinks French usage helped spread some words of this family, such as esigente.^[4]

Elsewhere in Romance too the word is mostly learned: French exiger (1350), Old Occitan exigir, Catalan exigir, Spanish exigir and Portuguese exigir.^[7][5] A popular form survives only in Romansh etscher and in dialects of central and southern Italy, often with the first syllable lost, such as ⟨sigge⟩ in Apulia.^[8]

The simple verb goes back to Proto-Indo-European *h₂eǵ- (“to drive, lead”), like Ancient Greek ἄγω (ágō).^[9][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is a Pisan document of 1264, in a legal sense: to collect, or claim by right, a sum of money or other goods due as tax, credit or damages.^[11] DELI's first records are the Latin spelling exigere (1496–1499) and esigere in Emanuele Tesauro in 1672, in the sense “to ask for something with authority or force as due”.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The sense “to collect money” is in Bibbiena before 1520.^[4][6] Tommaseo explains that the word properly meant collecting through the courts, and marks the difference from riscuotere: Si esige per riscuotere, non sempre si ottiene, “one demands in order to collect, but does not always get it”.^[12]

The derivatives came later.^[4] Esigente meant “collecting payment” in 1554, “demanding” before 1712 and “asking too much” in Manzoni (1818–1819). Esigenza is isolated in Dante and came into use from the 17th century, and esigibile “collectable” is from 1673.^[4] In 1905 Panzini noted that purists rejected esigente as a Gallicism, though he thought it necessary.^[4]

Timeline

• 1264 – A Pisan document has the TLIO's first record.^[11]
• 1304–1308 – Dante uses esigenza once.^[4]
• 1350 – French exiger is recorded.^[7]
• 1496–1499 – The spelling exigere in a document from Galatina.^[4]
• Before 1520 – Bibbiena uses it for “to collect”.^[4][6]
• 1554 – Esigente “collecting” in a statute of the merchants of Lucca.^[4]
• 1672 – Emanuele Tesauro uses esigere for “to demand”.^[4]
• 1673 – Esigibile is recorded.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. To demand something with authority or force as one's due: esigo delle scuse.^[6][3][2]
2. Of things, to require, call for: questo lavoro esige pazienza.^[6][3][2]
3. To collect money owed, such as a tax or a debt: esigere un affitto.^[6][3][13]

Word family

• esigente
• esigenza
• esigibile
• esigibilità
• esattore
• esazione

Related words

• esatto
• esame
• esiguo
• agire
• Latin exigo
• French exiger

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
3. ^ a b c d Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ a b Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it
8. ^ Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 22, 272
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1536
11. ^ a b Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
12. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
13. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana