foga

Forms

foga f (usually uncountable, plural foghe)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin fuga (“flight, a headlong run”), the popular outcome of the Latin word, beside the learned doublet fuga.^[2][3][1][4] The Latin short /u/ became Italian closed /o/, as is regular.^[3][4] The sense moved from fleeing to the rush and heat of any swift movement.^[5][6]

The Latin noun has popular outcomes also in Romanian and Sardinian, Romanian fugă and Sardinian fua (“speed”) of Logudoro, and passed into Celtic dialects.^[7][8] The Italian word was borrowed as French fougue (“fire, ardour”) in 1580, and Spanish fuga (“liveliness”) in Spanish has the Italian sense.^[8][9][7]

It belongs to Latin fugiō (“to flee”), from Proto-Italic *fugā and Proto-Indo-European *bʰugéh₂, from the root of “to flee”; it is cognate with Ancient Greek φυγή (phugḗ, “flight”).^[10][1][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Bono Giamboni's translation of Vegetius, before 1292: “ships that are driven against the land and hemmed in lose the impetus of fighting” (la foga del combattere perdono quelle navi che alla terra sono impinte e ristrette).^[2][12][6] The sense is a sudden, forceful and often aggressive movement.^[12]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian used the word for any rushing movement: in Giovanni Villani all the water in the city ricorse con gran foga all'Arno “rushed back with great force to the Arno”, and in Boccaccio a ship struck the beach with such force that it was almost buried in the sand.^[13][14] Phrases such as dare foga “to give free rein” and essere in foga “to be in a position of strength” are Old Italian.^[12] Dante uses it for a steep climb, the ardita foga broken by steps.^[14][15] The commentator Francesco da Buti defines it as going on without holding back and acting without a pause for rest.^[6][13]

From the 16th century the sense of ardour in action and speech dominates: Machiavelli speaks of the enemy losing la sua foga, the first heat of fighting, and Leonardo Salviati of writers carried away nella foga dello scrivere.^[6] In Luca Pulci the nautical phrase gittar foga means to gather headway.^[5]

Timeline

• Before 1292 – Bono Giamboni uses foga in his translation of Vegetius.^[2]
• 14th century – Dante, Villani and Boccaccio use the word of forceful movement.^[13]
• 16th century – Machiavelli uses foga for the first ardour of battle.^[6]
• 1580 – French borrows the word as fougue.^[9][8]

Meanings

Noun

1. Impetus, ardour, heat in acting or speaking; also haste, enthusiasm: difendeva le sue idee con molta foga.^[16][15][4]
2. (literary) A rapid, violent rush of something; force of impact: la foga della corrente.^[16][15][17]
3. (literary, archaic) A steep ascent.^[16][4][18]

Word family

• sfogare
• sfogo
• disfogare

Related words

• fuga
• fuggire
• French fougue

Usage notes

The vowel is given as closed, fóga, with an open fòga as a variant.^[17][1] The learned doublet fuga keeps the Latin sense of flight.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
5. ^ a b Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti
6. ^ a b c d e Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
7. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1674
9. ^ a b Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
12. ^ a b c Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
13. ^ a b c Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
14. ^ a b 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 Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
16. ^ a b c De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
17. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
18. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli