fracassare

Forms

fracassare (first-person singular present fracàsso, first-person singular past historic fracassài, past participle fracassàto, auxiliary avére)^[1]

Etymology

It is probably a blend: from Latin frangere (“to break”) crossed with quassāre (“to shake, shatter”).^{[2][3][4][5][6]} The second verb is the intensive of quatere (“to shake”).^[7][8][5] Nocentini puts Vulgar Latin *fragicāre (“to break”) (the source of fracco) in place of the first verb.^[9] Körting starts from the stem of the first verb with the second, as Caix did.^[10] Diez had left the choice between this and īnfrā (“below”) with the second verb.^[10] Wiktionary and Etymonline take that second view: the prefix fra-, shortened from the Latin preposition, with cassare (“to break”), from the same Latin verb.^[1][11] Tommaseo already rejected it.^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Jacopone da Todi, before 1306, in the sense of smashing something to pieces violently and with noise.^[2][13][3] DELI dates the noun fracasso “great crash” to the same author.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian the verb was used for breaking things with violent blows and for fracturing bones, also figuratively; of a person, for breaking someone's bones or wounding them badly; for shaking and throwing into turmoil; intransitively for falling to pieces; for inflicting heavy losses on an enemy; and for refuting an opinion completely.^[13] A vernacular Bible has Iddio fracasserà loro denti “God will smash their teeth”, and Andrea da Barberino a knight who shatters tutto el capo e l'elmo of his foe.^[14]

Today it is used of smashing things and, of people, of beating someone badly, as in fracassare le ossa a qualcuno; reflexive fracassarsi is said of a car crashing into a tree or of breaking one's own limbs.^[3][4][15] French borrowed the verb as French fracasser (1475, or 1554 by the TLF) and formed French fracas from it, and Catalan fracassar and Spanish fracasar were borrowed too.^[16][1][6] English fracas (1727) comes through the French noun.^[11]

Timeline

• Before 1306 – Jacopone da Todi uses fracassare and fracasso.^[2][13]
• 1475 – French fracasser is first recorded.^[16]
• 1727 – English fracas is recorded, from French.^[11]
• 1869 – The derivative fracassone is recorded.^[9]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To smash, to break to pieces with violent blows: La grandine ha fracassato il parabrezza.^{[3][7][8][15]}
2. (transitive) Of a person, to beat badly, leave in a bad state: fracassare le ossa a qualcuno, to give someone a savage beating.^[3][7][15]
3. (transitive, figurative) To wear out, exhaust: Questo trasloco mi ha fracassato.^[17][3]
4. (pronominal) fracassarsi: to shatter, crash against something and break beyond repair; also to break one's own limbs: Il motorino si è fracassato contro il muro.^{[8][7][18][15]}

Word family

• fracasso
• fracassio
• fracassone
• fracassamento
• fracassatore
• sfracassare

Related words

• squassare
• frangere
• conquassare
• Latin quassō
• French fracasser
• English fracas

References

1. ^ a b c d 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 c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
4. ^ a b Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
5. ^ a b Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1701
7. ^ a b c d Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
9. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
10. ^ a b Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
11. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
12. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
13. ^ a b c Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
14. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
15. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
16. ^ a b Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
17. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
18. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana