fremere

Forms

fremere (first-person singular present frèmo, first-person singular past historic fremétti or (traditional) fremètti or freméi, past participle fremùto, auxiliary avére)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin fremō (“to roar, rumble”): DEI and the GDLI call the Italian verb a learned word.^[2][3] DELI and GRADIT give the same Latin verb as its source and describe it as imitative in origin, and DELI adds that the derivatives fremebondo, fremito and fremente reached Italian by the learned route.^[4][5] Wiktionary treats the verb itself as inherited.^[1]

The Latin verb lives on in French frémir, Occitan fremir and Portuguese fremir, and the old Old French friembre belongs here too.^[6][7][2] DEI derives the old Italian variant fremire from the Occitan and Portuguese type.^[2][1]

Latin fremō continues Proto-Italic *fremō, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰrem- (“to hum, rumble”).^[8][1] Nocentini notes that the imitative word is already Indo-European, as Old High German breman (“to hum”) and bremo (“gadfly”) show.^[6] Wiktionary also compares Ancient Greek βρέμω (brémō).^[1] De Vaan adds that the exact shape of the root is not quite certain.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is the Florentine translation of the Aeneid by Lancia, dated 1316, where the verb describes a living being showing violent excitement, often anger, by shaking and making inarticulate sounds.^[9] DELI dates the sense “to be extremely agitated” to the early 14th century, in Ugurgieri's translation of the same poem: Enea stava acerbamente fremendo (“Aeneas stood bitterly raging”).^[4][3]

Semantic evolution

In the 14th century the verb also meant “to make a din, be in turmoil”, first in the Italian translation of Livy.^[4] Old Italian used it of emotion held back as well as shown, and had the phrase fremere i denti “to grind the teeth”.^[9] Boccaccio compares an angry person to the Libyan lion: non altrimenti fremendo che 'l lion libico.^[10]

Older writers used it for the roar of wild beasts and the neighing of horses, senses the modern dictionaries mark as archaic.^[11][12] In literary use the sea in a storm and trees in the wind fremono, and Petrarch wrote Non freme così 'l mar quando s'adira (“The sea does not roar so when it rages”).^[11][13] Later it was used of engines as well.^[5][11] Poets made it transitive, “to demand ardently” or “to express with passion”: Tasso's Arme, arme freme il forsennato and Foscolo's e l'ossa / fremono amor di patria.^[5][11]

Its derivatives came in early: fremito “sudden thrill of emotion” in the early 14th century (Guido da Pisa), fremente in 1341–1342 (Boccaccio), and fremebondo once in Francesco Colonna (1499) and then from the late 18th century (Baretti).^[4]

Timeline

• Early 14th century – Ugurgieri uses fremere for being extremely agitated.^[4]
• 1316 – The verb appears in Lancia's Florentine translation of the Aeneid.^[9]
• 14th century – The Italian Livy uses it for making a din.^[4]
• 1341–1342 – Boccaccio uses fremente.^[4]
• 1499 – Fremebondo appears in Francesco Colonna.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive) To tremble or seethe with a strong feeling such as anger, impatience or desire, often with di, per or da: fremeva d'impazienza davanti alla porta chiusa.^[5][12][14]
2. (literary) Of the sea, trees or wind, to move noisily; of engines, to roar.^[5][12][14]
3. (archaic) Of wild animals, to roar; of horses, to neigh.^[12][11]
4. (literary, transitive) To demand eagerly, or to express with passion.^[5][12][13]

Word family

• fremito
• fremente
• fremebondo
• rifremere

Related words

• fremire
• Latin fremō
• French frémir

Usage notes

The past historic is freméi or fremètti, and the past participle fremuto is uncommon.^[14][12]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1713
3. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 6, 335
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
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. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ 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
9. ^ a b c Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
10. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
11. ^ a b c d e Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
12. ^ a b c d e f Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
13. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
14. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse