forare

Forms

forare (first-person singular present fòro or (traditional) fóro, first-person singular past historic forài, past participle foràto, auxiliary avére)^[1] Northern Old Italian forms include forar, Old Italian forado and Old Italian foradho.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin forō (“to bore, pierce”).^[3][4][5][1] The verb lives on in Italian, Occitan and Portuguese: Old Occitan forar and Portuguese furar.^[4][6][7] Late Latin formed forātūra, found in Augustine, from which foratura comes, and the noun foro “hole” is a back-formation from the verb.^[3]

De Vaan derives the Latin verb from a PIE iterative of Proto-Indo-European *bʰorH- (“to pierce, strike”), “to pierce many times, bore”, the root of Lithuanian bárti (“to scold”) and Old High German berjan (“to hit, pound”); older works took it as a verb formed from a noun.^[8] Italian dictionaries compare Old High German borōn (“to bore”), German bohren, from which Italian bulino comes.^[4][9][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in the Libro of Uguccione da Lodi, from Cremona, early in the 13th century; the oldest Tuscan record is in Bono Giamboni, before 1292.^[2][3] The sense is to go through a surface from side to side, by force or violence.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian the verb was used of weapons wounding by piercing, of an army breaking through the enemy's ranks, of an abscess opening and of plants cracking with age.^[2] Dante describes souls whose eyelids are pierced and sewn with an iron wire: A tutti un fil di ferro i cigli fora.^[11] Savonarola speaks of piercing little girls' ears for earrings.^[11] A Tuscan proverb says l'armi de' poltroni non tagliano, nè forano, “cowards' weapons neither cut nor pierce”.^[12]

The verb formed a set of compounds with a noun: foraterra, a tool for making holes in the ground (about 1350), forasiepe “wren” (1513), forasacco, a grass whose spikelets work through sacks (1625), and forapaglia (1856), a small warbler.^[3][4] The intransitive sense “to get a puncture” in a tyre is first recorded in 1951, in Giovanni Comisso.^[3] Punching a ticket to validate it is a modern use.^[5][13]

Timeline

• Early 13th century – Uguccione da Lodi uses forare.^[2]
• Before 1292 – Bono Giamboni uses forare and foro.^[3]
• 14th century – Foracchiare and foratura are recorded.^[3]
• c. 1350 – Foraterra appears in the vernacular Crescenzi.^[3]
• 1513 – Forasiepe is first recorded.^[4]
• 1625 – Forasacco is first recorded.^[4]
• 1951 – Giovanni Comisso uses the verb for a tyre puncture.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To pierce, make one or more holes through; to bore: forare una tavola col trapano.^[5][13][14]
2. (transitive) To punch a ticket to validate it.^[5][13][15]
3. (transitive) To tunnel through: forare una collina.^[5][13]
4. (transitive, also absolute) To get a puncture in a tyre: abbiamo forato sulla strada di casa.^[5][14][16]
5. (pronominal forarsi) To get a hole, to be holed: il secchio si è forato.^[13][14][16]

Word family

• foro
• foratura
• foracchiare
• sforacchiare
• foraterra
• forasiepe
• forasacco
• forapaglia
• sforare
• forato

Related words

• forame
• traforare
• traforo
• perforare
• Latin forō

Usage notes

The present is fòro, with the traditional fóro.^[1][17] In Old Italian forare is also a rare variant of furare “to steal”.^[11][2]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
4. ^ a b c d e f Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1684
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
10. ^ Zaccaria, Enrico (1901), L'elemento germanico nella lingua italiana: lessico con appendice e prospetto cronologico, Bologna: Treves
11. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
12. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
13. ^ a b c d e 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 Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
15. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
16. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
17. ^ Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli