esprimere

Forms

esprimere (first-person singular present esprìmo, first-person singular past historic esprèssi, past participle esprèsso, auxiliary avére)^[1] Old forms include Old Italian espremere, Old Italian espriemere and Old Italian esplimere.^[2] Old variants without the first vowel, such as Old Italian sprimere, are also recorded.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is learned: it is borrowed from Latin exprimō (“to press out; to portray, describe”).^[5][6][7][1] The verb is formed from ex- (“out”) and premō (“to press”), and its past participle expressus gave the noun expressiō, the source of espressione.^[5][6] The vowel /i/ of the Latin compound is the regular change of /e/ in an open inner syllable.^[8]

The same Latin verb was taken into French exprimer, recorded from the 12th century, and Spanish exprimir, which means “to squeeze”.^[6][9] Its inherited outcome in Italian is the doublet spremere, and the popular forms elsewhere are French épreindre, Catalan espremer and Portuguese espremer.^{[1][6][9][10]}

De Vaan records the Latin compound, “to squeeze, stamp, express”, from Naevius on.^[11] He traces the simple verb to Proto-Italic *pres- and further to Proto-Indo-European *pr-es- (“to press”), and explains the /m/ of the present by the model of the verb for “to shiver”.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in Andrea da Grosseto, a Tuscan text of 1268, with the sense “to make something known in a way that can be understood”, above all by language.^[2] DELI dates the sense “to show with acts and words” to the end of the 13th century, in a chronicle.^[5]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian already used the verb for stating something explicitly in writing, for a word that signifies a concept, for describing or setting out in a text, for articulating a sound clearly and for representing or portraying.^[2] Boccaccio writes espriemer in a love lyric: “ch'espriemer giammai non potrei quanto” (that I could never express how much).^[12] The reflexive esprimersi “to set out one's thoughts clearly” is recorded before 1595 in Torquato Tasso.^[5]

The figurative senses came into Italian first, and the literal Latin “to squeeze out” was taken up later, mainly in literary and scientific writing.^[12][3] Tommaseo noted that spremere remained the usual verb for squeezing.^[3] An old sense “to translate from another language” has died out, and in modern use the verb can also mean “to produce”, as when a parliamentary majority produces a government.^[4]

The family grew from the past participle: espresso “explicitly stated” before 1294 in Guittone, then the express train (1853) and the espresso coffee (1918), after French and English express.^[5][6] DELI thinks espressivo and espressività may come from French expressif and expressivité.^[5]

Timeline

• 1268 – Andrea da Grosseto uses the verb in a Tuscan text.^[2]
• End of the 13th century – A chronicle has it for “to show with acts and words”.^[5]
• Before 1294 – Guittone uses espresso “explicitly stated”.^[5]
• 14th century – Espressione is first recorded.^[5][6]
• Before 1595 – Torquato Tasso uses the reflexive esprimersi.^[5]
• 1853 – Espresso names an express train.^[5][6]
• 1918 – Espresso names coffee made under pressure.^[5][6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To express, make known or communicate, especially in words: Ha espresso il suo dissenso in una lettera.^{[7][13][14][15]}
2. To show a feeling with the face, the body or gestures.^[7][13][14]
3. Of a thing, to signify or mean: Queste cifre non esprimono la realtà.^[7][13][15]
4. To represent in a work of art.^{[7][13][14][15]}
5. (literary) To produce or generate.^[7][13][4]
6. (literary) To squeeze out, press out.^[7][14][15]
7. esprimersi: to express oneself, to speak or write in a given way, or to give one's opinion on something.^[13][14][4]

Word family

• espressione
• espressionismo
• espressionista
• espressionistico
• espressività
• espressivo
• espresso
• esprimibile
• esprimersi
• riesprimere

Related words

• spremere
• premere
• Latin exprimō

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 Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
4. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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 d e f g h Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c d e f g De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
8. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
9. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1545
10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
11. ^ a b 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 Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 5, 403
13. ^ 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
14. ^ a b c d e Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
15. ^ a b c d Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana