giacere

Forms

giacere (first-person singular present giàccio, first-person singular past historic giàcqui, past participle giaciùto, auxiliary èssere or (usually in the meaning "to sleep with") avére)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin iacēre (“to lie”), a verb inherited by nearly all of the Romance languages.^[2][3][4][1] The Latin verb is the stative partner of iaciō (“to throw”): it first meant “to be thrown down, lie as something thrown” and so “to lie”, as Latin pendeō (“to hang”) stands beside pendō (“to weigh”).^{[2][3][5][6][7]} De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *jakē- (“to lie down”) beside *jaki- (“to throw”), from the root Proto-Indo-European *(H)yeh₁- (“to throw, let go”), whose Greek cognate is Ancient Greek ἵημι (híēmi, “to send, throw”); the ⟨ia-⟩ of the Latin stem is either a regular outcome or analogical.^[6][1]

The same verb is French gésir, Occitan jazer, Catalan jaure, Spanish yacer, Portuguese jazer, Logudorese giacchire and Romanian zăcea.^[3][8] The DÉRom reconstructs Proto-Romance ⟨*/ˈiak-e-/⟩ “to lie; to be situated” from cognates in every branch except Dalmatian and Friulian, and dates it to the oldest layer of Proto-Romance.^[9] Battaglia's dictionary calls the Italian word semi-learned.^[10] Of its derivatives only giaciglio continues a spoken Latin formation, Vulgar Latin *iacilium; the others were formed in Italian.^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is the Ritmo di Sant'Alessio, a poem from the Marche of the late 12th century; the first sense there is “to lie stretched out”.^[11] GRADIT dates the verb to about 1274, in the sense “to lie dead, be buried”, and DELI has “to lie in bed” in Bono Giamboni, before 1292.^[12][2]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian used the verb for lying down to sleep, lying ill, lying stunned or dead after a blow, and being buried; it also meant to stay or dwell in a place.^[11] Dante has it for “to be situated” (1300–1313) and for “to lie idle” (before 1321); from that sense come the uses for being stuck in misery or in prison and, later, for money, goods or files left unused or unanswered.^[2][11][12] Giacere con “to lie with, have sex with” is old and now literary, usually with the auxiliary avere, as in Villani's aveva giaciuto colla moglie.^[13][1]

The derivatives followed these senses: giacente (14th century), also “unassigned, in abeyance” from the 13th century; giacitura “posture” (before 1685, Daniello Bartoli), which had the sense “intercourse” in Boccaccio; giacimento “ore deposit” (1817); and giacenza “stock in a warehouse or till” (1797).^[2] In geometry a line giace on the plane that contains it.^[14][15]

Timeline

• 1150–1200 – The Ritmo di Sant'Alessio, from the Marche, has the first record.^[11]
• c. 1274 – GRADIT's first date, for “to lie dead, be buried”.^[12]
• Before 1292 – Bono Giamboni uses giacere for “to lie in bed”.^[2]
• 1300–1313 – Dante uses it for “to be situated”.^[2]
• Before 1311 – Giordano da Pisa has “to lie stretched out”.^[2]
• Before 1313 – The infinitive is used as a noun, “the act of lying”, in a Florentine version of Ovid's Art of Love.^[11]
• Before 1321 – Dante uses it for “to lie idle, inactive”.^[2]
• Before 1364 – Giaciglio “pallet, poor bed” appears in Zanobi da Strata.^[2]
• 1817 – Giacimento is used for an ore deposit.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To lie, to be stretched out on a surface; especially to lie in bed through illness: giaceva malato da settimane.^[12][16][15]
2. To lie dead or lifeless; to lie buried: qui giace, “here lies”, on gravestones.^[12][16][14]
3. (literary) To lie with, have sex with someone (with con).^[12][16][17]
4. Of places, to lie, be situated, especially low or in a plain; in geometry, of a line or point, to lie on: il borgo giace ai piedi della collina.^[12][16][15]
5. (figurative) To remain in a wretched or unwanted condition: giacere nella povertà, giacere in cella.^[12][16][15]
6. (figurative) Of things, to lie neglected, unused or unprocessed: i soldi giacciono in banca, la domanda giace negli uffici.^[12][17][14]
7. (literary) To lie prostrate, unable to recover; to be downcast.^[12][14]

Word family

• giacente
• giacenza
• giaciglio
• giacimento
• giacitura
• rigiacere

Related words

• adiacente
• soggiacere
• gettare
• Latin iaceō
• French gésir

Usage notes

The auxiliary is essere, rarely avere;^[14][13][1] avere is usual in the sense “to lie with”.^[14][13][1] The present has giaccio, giacciamo, giacciono, past historic giacqui, past participle giaciuto;^[14][10] Battaglia quotes a grammarian of the Tuscan usage that doubles the ⟨c⟩ before ⟨i⟩ except at the end of a word (giaci).^[14][10] A popular Tuscan variant was diacere.^[18] The proverb chi muore giace, chi vive si dà pace means that the living must make peace with a death.^[13][19]

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 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 Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975)
5. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ 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
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ Buchi, Éva; Schweickard, Wolfgang, eds. (2008–), Dictionnaire Étymologique Roman (DÉRom), Nancy: ATILF, http://www.atilf.fr/DERom
10. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
11. ^ a b c d e Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
12. ^ a b c d e f g h i j De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
13. ^ 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)
14. ^ a b c d e f g h Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
15. ^ a b c d Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
16. ^ a b c d e Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
17. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
18. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 499
19. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET