furare

Forms

furare (first-person singular present fùro, first-person singular past historic furài, past participle furàto, auxiliary avére)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin fūror (“to steal”), a verb formed from fūr (“thief”).^[2][1][3][4] DEI and the GDLI call it a semi-learned word, with very few dialect outcomes, and Zingarelli a learned one;^[5][6][7][1] Wiktionary gives it as inherited.^[5][6][7][1] The verb lives on in Romanian fura, Sardinian furare of Logudoro, Old French furer and Old Occitan furar.^[8][9][5] Piedmontese and Sardinian have a noun fura (“theft”) formed from it.^[5]

The Latin noun comes from Proto-Italic *fōr and Proto-Indo-European *bʰṓr (“thief”), and is cognate with Ancient Greek φώρ (phṓr, “thief”).^[10][1] A borrowing from Greek has been proposed, but de Vaan doubts it: the many derivatives show an old word, and the vowel can be explained within Latin.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in Jacopo Mostacci, in the first half of the 13th century;^[11][7] Zingarelli dates the word to 1268.^[11][7] The sense is to take what belongs to another secretly, by trickery or by force.^[11]

Semantic evolution

The TLIO records a wide range of Old Italian senses: to rob a place or person, to take a town, to carry off a woman, to remove a corpse secretly, to enrapture, to hide from view, to plagiarise and, as a pronominal verb, to slip away or hide.^[11] Dante tells of foolish Achan, who stole the spoils, come furò le spoglie.^[12][6] Petrarch writes morte fura / prima i migliori e lascia star i rei, “death steals the best first and leaves the wicked alone”.^[12][4]

Tommaseo found the word barely used outside verse in his time, and marked a distinction: furare was to take by stealth, rubare openly and by force.^[13] It is now an obsolete or literary word.^[2][14]

Timeline

• First half of the 13th century – Jacopo Mostacci uses furare.^[11]
• 1268 – Zingarelli dates the word to this year.^[7]
• 14th century – Furamento and furatore are recorded.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive, archaic) To steal, take away by force or deceit; also figurative.^[2][4][14]
2. (transitive, archaic) To carry off, kidnap.^[11][12]
3. (transitive, archaic) To hide, conceal.^[15][7][16]
4. (pronominal furarsi, archaic) To withdraw secretly; to escape from: furarsi agli sguardi.^[7][16]

Word family

• furamento
• furatore

Related words

• furo
• furto
• furtivo
• Latin fūr

Usage notes

The present is fùro.^[1][16] A rare old variant is forare, the same spelling as forare “to pierce”.^[6]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
3. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c d e Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1737
6. ^ a b c d Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
7. ^ a b c d e f g Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
10. ^ 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
11. ^ a b c d e f Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
12. ^ a b c Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
13. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
14. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
15. ^ Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
16. ^ a b c Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli