ficcare

Forms

ficcare (first-person singular present fìcco, first-person singular past historic ficcài, past participle ficcàto, auxiliary avére)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *fīgicāre (“to fasten, drive in”), an intensive or frequentative of Latin fīgō (“to drive in, fix”).^[2][3][4][1] The verb was formed with the suffix -icāre, with early loss of the short /i/ and assimilation of /gk/ to /kk/.^[1] Medieval Latin ficcare is already recorded at Bologna in 1214.^[2][5] Körting and Meyer-Lübke rejected an alternative base *ficticāre as phonetically harder.^[6][7]

The verb is very much alive in Gallo-Romance and Italian.^[5] It is French ficher, Occitan ficar, Spanish hincar and Portuguese ficar, which has come to mean “to stay”.^[3][6] Old Spanish had ficar and fincar beside the later form.^[7]

The Latin verb goes back to Proto-Indo-European *dʰeygʷ- (“to stick, set up”).^[8][1] The old forms fīvere and offīvēbant keep the regular Latin outcome of the labiovelar; the ⟨g⟩ came in from the perfect.^[8] A cognate is Lithuanian diegti (“to plant, to sting”).^[8][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first Italian record is in the Storie de Troia e de Roma, a Roman text of 1252–1258, in the sense “to set an object into a surface so that it stays fixed”.^[9] Bono Giamboni, before 1292, writes of a fire-spear whose shaft in uno forte ferro si ficca (“is driven into a strong iron head”).^[2][10]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian used ficcare for planting a seed or a cutting, for fixing something in the mind, for setting the eyes on a point, for entering a place or a body, and for piercing.^[9] Dante's ficcare gli occhi, to fix one's eyes on something, has stayed in use.^[11][12] The reflexive “to thrust oneself into something”, also figuratively, is found before 1348 in Francesco da Barberino.^[2]

The old military language used it for gunfire striking from above, as in Galileo.^[13] Ficcanaso, a nosy person, is an imperative compound with naso;^[2][3] DELI dates it to the late 17th century (Giovanni Camillo Peresio), Nocentini to 1767.^[2][3] In everyday speech the verb often means no more than “to put, to stick somewhere”.^[4][13] A vulgar sense “to have sex” is recorded in Sicilian usage, in Andrea Camilleri among others.^[10]

Timeline

• 1214 – Medieval Latin ficcare is recorded at Bologna.^[2]
• 1252–1258 – The Storie de Troia e de Roma has the first Italian record.^[9]
• Before 1292 – Bono Giamboni uses ficcare for driving something in by force.^[2]
• Before 1348 – Francesco da Barberino uses the reflexive ficcarsi.^[2]
• Late 17th century – Ficcanaso appears in Giovanni Camillo Peresio.^[2]
• 1958 – Ficcanasare is recorded.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To drive or thrust in by force: Ha ficcato un paletto nella sabbia.^[4][14][15]
2. (colloquial) To stick, to put somewhere, often carelessly: Ho ficcato il giornale nello zaino.^[4][14][15]
3. (colloquial) To shut someone away against their will: L'hanno ficcato in collegio.^[4][14][12]
4. ficcare il naso: to meddle in other people's business.^[14][12][16]
5. ficcare gli occhi: to stare hard at someone or something.^[14][12][17]
6. (reflexive) ficcarsi: to get into a place, to hide oneself; figuratively, to get mixed up in something: ficcarsi nei guai.^[16][12][15]
7. ficcarsi in testa: to get an idea into one's head and hold on to it.^[14][12][16]
8. (military, historical) To strike from above.^[4][12]

Word family

• ficcanaso
• ficcanasare
• conficcare
• sconficcare
• ficcante
• rificcare

Related words

• figgere
• French ficher
• Latin figo

References

1. ^ a b c d e f 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 d e Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1632
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ a b Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
8. ^ 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
9. ^ a b c Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
10. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
11. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 437
12. ^ a b c d e f g Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
13. ^ a b Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
14. ^ 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
15. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
16. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
17. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli