ferire

Forms

ferire (first-person singular present ferìsco, first-person singular past historic ferìi, past participle ferìto, auxiliary avére)^[1] There was also Old Italian fedire, and the literary infinitives Old Italian fiedere and Old Italian ferere; the old present forms fiere and fere survive in poetry.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin feriō (“to strike”).^[5][2][6][1] Already in spoken Latin the verb moved from “to strike” to “to wound”, and it later took the place of vulnerō (“to wound”);^[5][2][7] DEI calls the Italian word semi-learned.^[5][2][7] The same verb is French férir (now obsolete), Occitan ferir, Spanish herir, Portuguese ferir and Logudorese ferrere; it is missing in Romanian.^[2][8][7]

Old Italian fedire shows a dissimilation of ⟨r…r⟩ to ⟨d…r⟩; the infinitive fiedere was formed in the literary language of the 16th century on the third person fiede, and was used until the 19th century.^[2]

De Vaan derives the Latin verb from Proto-Indo-European *bʰerH- (“to pierce, strike”), whose o-grade is in forō (“to bore”), though the e-grade of the verb is unexpected.^[9] Nocentini compares Lithuanian bárti (“to scold”) and Old High German berjan (“to strike”).^[2] A feritoia “loophole” is so named because one struck at the enemy through it.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is the Venetian Proverbia que dicuntur super natura feminarum of the last quarter of the 12th century.^[10] DELI's first record is the Tuscan Breve di Montieri of 1219, with the sense “to strike, causing a wound”;^[5] ferita “wound” is in the same text.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The figurative senses are early: “to cause light or the sun's rays to strike” before 1276 in Guido Guinizelli, and “to grieve with acts or words” before 1294 in Guittone d'Arezzo.^[5] Old Italian also used the verb for striking in general, for wind blowing, for a ship touching land, for fighting (ferire un torneamento, “to fight in a tournament”) and for attacking an enemy.^[10][3]

The old sense “to strike” survives in senza colpo ferire, “without striking a blow”, that is without meeting resistance.^[11][12] In love poetry the god of love wounds the heart, and ferire il cuore still means both to grieve and to make someone fall in love.^[10][4][13] The proverb chi di spada ferisce, di spada perisce (“who strikes with the sword dies by the sword”) is also quoted in the older forms fere … pere.^[4][14]

Timeline

• Last quarter of the 12th century – The Venetian Proverbia que dicuntur has the first record.^[10]
• 1219 – The Breve di Montieri has ferire and ferita.^[5]
• Before 1250 – Giacomo da Lentini uses feruta for a moral wound.^[5]
• Before 1276 – Guido Guinizelli uses the verb for light striking the eyes.^[5]
• Before 1294 – Guittone d'Arezzo uses it for “to grieve”.^[5]
• Before 1472 – Leon Battista Alberti uses ferimento.^[5]
• 1609 – Feritoia is recorded in Bonaiuto Lorini.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To wound, to injure by a blow, a cut or a shot: Il cacciatore ha ferito il cinghiale a una zampa.^[6][15][4]
2. (figurative) To hurt, offend deeply: Quella battuta l'ha ferita più di quanto credi.^[6][15][11]
3. (figurative) Of light or sound, to strike the senses unpleasantly: Il riverbero della neve feriva la vista.^[6][15][4]
4. (literary) To strike, hit; to deal (blows); now mostly in senza colpo ferire.^[6][11][12]
5. (literary) To cleave (the air); to hurl.^[6]
6. (obsolete) Of an army, to attack.^[6][4]
7. (ferirsi) To injure oneself.^[15][4][12]

Word family

• ferita
• ferito
• ferimento
• feritoia
• feritore

Related words

• fedire
• forare
• Latin feriō
• Spanish herir

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
3. ^ a b Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 432
4. ^ a b c d e f g 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 m 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 De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1620
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
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. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
11. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
12. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
13. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
14. ^ Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
15. ^ 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