gemere

Forms

gemere (first-person singular present gèmo, first-person singular past historic gemétti or (traditional) gemètti or geméi, past participle gemùto, auxiliary avére)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin gemere (“to groan, moan; to creak”).^[2][3][4][1] The Battaglia dictionary calls it learned, while Nocentini counts it among the pan-Romance words.^[5][3] DEI notes that the Latin verb lived on in northern Italy, where it also means “to ooze, drip”.^[6] Old Italian also had gemire.^[7][6]

The Latin verb continues in French geindre (with the learned gémir), Occitan gemir, Catalan gemir, Spanish gemir, Portuguese gemer and Romanian geme.^[3][8] Genoese zimà (“to smoulder”) and zima (“spark”) belong here too.^[8]

The origin of gemō is uncertain.^[2][4] Most scholars have compared Ancient Greek γέμω (gémō, “to be full, loaded”), and Nocentini takes “to lament” as a development of “to creak”, said of an overloaded container.^[3][9] De Vaan finds that change hard to accept and reports Vine's proposal of a root Proto-Indo-European *Gen(H)- (“to call”), seen in Ancient Greek γέγωνα (gégōna, “I shout”) and Tocharian A ken- (“to call”), with the Latin ⟨m⟩ taken from verbs such as fremō (“to roar”) and tremō (“to tremble”).^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Sermoni subalpini, a Franco-Piedmontese text of the 13th century, in the sense “to lament, sigh softly”.^[10] Dante and the vernacular Bible use it in the 14th century.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

From weeping softly the verb went on to suffering in general (Dante, 1300–1313) and to the sounds of animals and things: the cooing of doves and turtle doves in the vernacular Bible, the creaking of wood in the Intelligenza.^[2][10] The northern sense “to drip, ooze” is in Dante, 1313–1319: “Come d'un stizzo verde ch'arso sia / da l'un dei capi, che da l'altro geme” (like a green brand burning at one end, which drips at the other).^[2][11] The transitive use “to give out” is recorded in 1858.^[2]

Gemito “moan” is from the Latin participle used as a noun, and the learned gemebondo was taken from Latin in 1513.^[2][3] The joking far gemere i torchi, to make the presses groan, means to print a book of little worth.^[4][12]

Timeline

• 1200s – Gemere appears in the Franco-Piedmontese Sermoni subalpini.^[10]
• 1300–1313 – Dante uses it for suffering.^[2]
• 1304–1313 – Gemito “moan” is recorded.^[2]
• 1313–1319 – Dante uses it for dripping.^[2]
• 1300s – It is used for the cry of the dove and for creaking.^[2]
• 1513 – The learned gemebondo is recorded.^[2]
• 1858 – A transitive use “to give out” is recorded.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To moan or groan softly, to lament in a low voice: Il ferito gemeva in silenzio.^{[4][12][11][1]}
2. (figurative) To suffer under oppression or injustice.^[4][12][13]
3. Of a dove or turtle dove: to coo.^[4][12][1]
4. To creak, especially of wood under a heavy load.^[4][12][11]
5. (literary) Of water or wind: to murmur, gurgle.^[4][11]
6. To drip, ooze, of a liquid or of what lets it out.^[12][11][1]
7. (transitive, poetic) To lament, mourn.^[11][13][1]

Word family

• gemito
• gemitio
• gemicare

Related words

• gemebondo
• gemichio
• gemizio
• Latin gemō

Usage notes

The auxiliary is avere, but essere when the subject of “to drip” is the liquid itself.^[12] The past historic is gemei or gemetti.^[12][11]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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 Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e f g h De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 6, 638
6. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1780
7. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 490
8. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ 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
10. ^ a b c Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
11. ^ a b c d e f g Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
12. ^ 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
13. ^ a b Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)