fornire

Forms

fornire (first-person singular present fornìsco, first-person singular past historic fornìi, past participle fornìto, auxiliary avére)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old French fornir, the old form of French fournir (forniz in 1130).^{[2][3][4][5][1]} DELI, Nocentini, DEI, GRADIT and the GDLI derive the French verb from Frankish *frumjan (“to carry out”), which Wiktionary takes from Proto-Germanic *frumjaną (“to further, promote”), from Proto-Indo-European *promo- (“front, forward”).^{[2][3][6][7][1]} Its relatives are Old Saxon frummian and German frommen (“to benefit”).^[3][8] The GDLI also names an old Tuscan verb frummiare.^[9] Meyer-Lübke, Prati and Devoto instead start from *frōnjan (“to do servile work”), the verb of feudal labour services.^[10][11][12]

The /n/ in place of /m/ is put down to the influence of finire by DEI and Salvioni, and to that of French garnir by the GDLI and Gamillscheg.^[6][9][10] Zaccaria rejected an older derivation from forno, pointing to Occitan forms with /m/ and to the old sense “to finish”.^[13] The French verb spread to the other Romance languages: Occitan fornir, Catalan fornir, Spanish fornir and Portuguese fornir, beside Spanish fornecer.^[3][10][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is from the 13th century, in Ricordano Malispini, in the sense “to give someone what they need”;^[2][14] Zingarelli dates the word to 1266.^[2][14] The GDLI's oldest quotations, from Florentine texts and the Old Italian Bible, have the sense “to carry out, to complete”: a man leaves the council per fornire la 'npresa.^[9]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian fornire meant both “to provide, supply” and “to bring to an end, finish”: Prati gives Dante and Petrarch for the second, and Petrarch's old man leaves the place ov'ha sua età fornita.^[11][7] DEI notes that the sense “to finish” lives on in the southern dialects, and REW finds “to bring to an end” widely in Italy.^[6][10] The derivatives are old: fornito “well supplied” (before 1292, Bono Giamboni), fornimento (early 14th century) and fornitore “supplier”, found once at Pisa in 1330 and then from 1778.^[2][3] Fornitura “supply” is from 1598, though in the sense “trimming” it was used at Pisa in 1319.^[2]

The French noun fourniment (16th century, military) was borrowed back from Italian.^[6] In modern Italian the sense “to finish” is archaic, and the verb means to supply, equip, or produce (evidence, an alibi).^[7][4]

Timeline

• 1130 – Old French forniz is recorded.^[2]
• 1266 – Zingarelli's date for fornire.^[14]
• 13th century – Ricordano Malispini uses fornire “to supply”.^[2]
• Before 1292 – Bono Giamboni uses fornito “well supplied”.^[2]
• 1319 – Fornitura “trimming” is recorded at Pisa.^[2]
• 1330 – Fornitore is recorded in a Pisan statute.^[2][3]
• 1598 – Fornitura “supply” is recorded.^[2][3]
• 1872 – Rifornimento is recorded.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To supply or provide: to give someone what they need: fornire coperte agli sfollati.^[7][4][5][1]
2. (transitive) To yield as a product: l'ape fornisce il miele.^[7][4]
3. (transitive) To give on request: fornire un'informazione.^[7][4]
4. (transitive, with di) To equip or furnish with: fornire una scuola di computer.^[7][14][1]
5. (transitive, bureaucratic) To show or produce: fornire il passaporto all'ufficio.^[7][4][14]
6. (transitive, archaic) To finish, bring to an end.^[7][4][8]
7. (fornirsi) To stock up (di); to be a customer of a shop or supplier (da, a).^[4][14][8]

Word family

• fornitore
• fornitura
• rifornire
• fornito
• fornimento
• rifornimento
• rifornitore
• sfornire
• fornibile

Related words

• French fournir
• English furnish

Usage notes

The verb is conjugated with -isc- (fornisco, fornisci).^[1][14] Fornire qualcosa a qualcuno and fornire qualcuno di qualcosa are both used.^[8][14]

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 h i j k l 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 f g h Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
6. ^ a b c d Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1693
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. ^ a b c d Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
9. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
10. ^ a b c d Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
11. ^ a b Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 458
12. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
13. ^ Zaccaria, Enrico (1901), L'elemento germanico nella lingua italiana: lessico con appendice e prospetto cronologico, Bologna: Treves
14. ^ a b c d e f g h Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli