figgere

Forms

figgere (first-person singular present fìggo, first-person singular past historic fìssi, past participle fìtto, auxiliary avére)^[1] An older form is figere.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin fīgō (“to drive in, to fasten”).^[5][6][7][1] The doubled consonant is the normal lengthening after the stressed syllable in a word stressed on the third syllable from the end.^[8][9] The verb survives only in Italian and in Romanian territory, with the Aromanian hidzeare; in the Italian dialects ficcare has taken its place.^[10][11]

De Vaan traces the Latin verb to Proto-Indo-European *dʰeygʷ- (“to stick, to set up”); the older Latin fīvō keeps the regular outcome of the labiovelar, and the ⟨g⟩ came in from the perfect.^[12][1] Cognates are Lithuanian díegti (“to plant, to sting”) and dýgti (“to sprout”).^[12][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is the Ritmo di sant’Alessio from the Marche, of the second half of the 12th century, in the sense “to drive firmly into a surface”.^[13] DELI's first record is Dante, before 1321, both for “to drive in” and for “to fix (one's gaze)”;^[5][2][7] Zingarelli gives 1266 and GRADIT before 1313.^[5][2][7]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian used the verb for planting things in the ground, for grafting, for nailing to the cross, for joining one limb to another, for fixing something in the mind, for kneeling at someone's feet (figgersi ai piedi), for fixing one's eyes, and for piercing or wounding.^[13] Dante writes of a dragon che per lo carro su la coda fisse (“that drove its tail up through the chariot”) and e fissi li occhi al sole oltre nostr’uso (“and I fixed my eyes on the sun beyond our wont”).^[7][9][14] In Ariosto a grief ch’infermo al letto il fisse (“that kept him sick in bed”).^[2][15]

By the 19th century the verb was found almost only in verse, while its participles lived on.^[3] Of these, fisso is now only an adjective, and fitto is both participle and adjective.^[16][15]

Timeline

• 1150–1200 – The Ritmo di sant’Alessio uses the verb.^[13]
• 1266 – Zingarelli's date of first record.^[2]
• 1282 – Affiggere is recorded.^[6]
• Before 1313 – Trafiggere is recorded.^[6]
• Before 1321 – Dante uses figgere “to drive in” and “to fix (the gaze)”.^[5]
• 16th century – Infiggere is recorded.^[6]
• 1909 – Infisso is used of an infix in grammar, and since 1932 of a door or window frame.^[6]

Meanings

Verb

1. (literary) To drive in, to stick or thrust firmly: Figgeva i paletti nel terreno.^[7][14][1]
2. (literary) To fix one's eyes or gaze on something: figgere lo sguardo.^{[7][14][16][1]}
3. (archaic) To pierce, to wound; also figurative.^[7][14][1]
4. (archaic) To keep still, to pin down.^[7][14][2]
5. (archaic) To establish, to prescribe, as a time limit.^[7][14][1]

Word family

• affiggere
• configgere
• infiggere
• trafiggere
• prefiggere
• suffiggere
• defiggere
• rifiggere
• fitto

Related words

• affittare
• crocifiggere
• fibbia
• ficcare
• fisso
• Latin fīgō

Usage notes

Figgersi in mente or in testa means to get an idea stuck in one's head.^[14][2][4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
4. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
5. ^ a b c d 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 Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ 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
8. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
9. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
10. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1636
11. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
12. ^ 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
13. ^ a b c Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
14. ^ a b c d e f g 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 Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
16. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana