guadare

Forms

guadare (first-person singular present guàdo, first-person singular past historic guadài, past participle guadàto, auxiliary avére)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin vadāre (“to wade, ford”), a verb formed from vadum (“ford”), with its initial ⟨gu-⟩ taken from guado.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} Wiktionary instead derives it from the noun with the verb ending -are, perhaps matching the Late Latin verb.^[1] For the initial, the GDLI points to the outcome of Lombardic words in /w/.^[7] DEI and Meyer-Lübke see *wadan (“to wade”), a Frankish verb of the same root as the Latin, laid over it, though Meyer-Lübke also allows a new formation from the Latin noun.^[8][9] Zaccaria reports that Kluge took the verb directly from Germanic, comparing Old High German watan, while Diez saw the Latin verb pronounced in the Germanic way.^[10]

The same verb is French guéer and Old Occitan guazar.^[8][9][11] Körting adds Spanish vadear and Portuguese vadear.^[11]

The Latin noun goes back to Proto-Italic *waðom and Proto-Indo-European *uh₂dʰóm, from the root Proto-Indo-European *weh₂dʰ-.^[1] It is cognate with Old English wadan, the source of the English word wade.^[1][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Bono Giamboni's Florentine translation of Orosius, from before 1292, with the sense “cross a stream where one can touch the bottom”.^[13][14] There a king, angry at a river that had drowned one of his horsemen, vows to make it so small che il guaderebbero le femmine non toccando l'acqua il ginocchio (“that women would wade it without the water reaching their knees”).^[7]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian also used it for carrying someone across a river on horseback or in a cart.^[13] Giovanni Villani writes that the Arno, swollen with rain, non si potea guadare, and Florentine decrees speak of fording the Bisenzio with carts.^[15] Domenico Cavalca used it figuratively: La Scrittura è un sì fatto fiume, che 'l lionfante ci nuota, e l'agnello ci guada (“Scripture is such a river that the elephant swims in it and the lamb wades”).^[15] The adjective guadabile is recorded from the 16th century.^[8]

Timeline

• Before 1292 – Bono Giamboni's translation of Orosius has the first record.^[13][14]
• 16th century – Guadabile “fordable” is recorded.^[8]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To ford a river or stream, crossing where the water is shallow on foot, on horseback or in a vehicle, without swimming.^{[3][5][16][1]}
2. (intransitive) To wade.^[1]

Word family

• guadabile
• riguadare

Related words

• guado
• guazzare
• Latin vadum

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
3. ^ a b De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
4. ^ Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
5. ^ a b Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
6. ^ Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
7. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
8. ^ a b c d Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1879
9. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ Zaccaria, Enrico (1901), L'elemento germanico nella lingua italiana: lessico con appendice e prospetto cronologico, Bologna: Treves
11. ^ a b Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
12. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ a b c Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
14. ^ a b Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
15. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
16. ^ Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)