impedicare

Forms

impedicare (first-person singular present impèdico, first-person singular past historic impedicài, past participle impedicàto, auxiliary avére)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin impedicāre (“to fetter, entangle”), a Late Latin verb recorded in Ammianus Marcellinus in the 4th century.^{[2][3][4][5][1]} It is formed from in- and pedica (“fetter, snare”), itself from pēs (“foot”).^[3][4][1] Zingarelli calls the Italian verb learned.^[6]

In most of Romance the Latin verb gave way to loans of Old French empeechier (the source of the Italian word for “hamper”), but it survives at the edges: Romanian împiedeca, Portuguese empelgar and southern Italian dialects.^[2][7] Meyer-Lübke also traces French empêcher to it.^[7][8] Wiktionary calls impacciare and impicciare its doublets.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in the Sienese poet Ruggieri Apugliese, in the middle of the 13th century; its first sense is “hinder an action, making it impossible or harder; hobble, block”.^[9] GRADIT and Devoto–Oli date the verb to the first half of the 13th century.^[3][4]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian also used it for keeping someone from an activity, for falling into an error through one's own conduct, and for meddling in something not one's own.^[9] Guittone d'Arezzo writes in a letter Onde era impedicato e legato nel mondo (“so that he was entangled and bound in the world”), and the Fioretti di san Francesco have Io non lo voglio impedicare dell'orazione (“I do not want to keep him from his prayer”).^[10] A commentary on Boethius uses it for intercepting letters.^[10] The participle impedicato is in the vernacular Albertano, and the noun impedico “hindrance” in the vernacular Guido delle Colonne.^[11] The verb is now obsolete.^[3][6]

Timeline

• c. 1250 – Ruggieri Apugliese has the first record.^[9]
• 14th century – An anonymous madrigal complains that an old woman l'andar a la mia donna pur m'impedica (“keeps me from going to my lady”).^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive, obsolete) To hobble or fetter.^[3][1][5]
2. (transitive, obsolete) To hinder or prevent; to intercept letters.^[3][6][10]
3. (transitive, obsolete) To distract someone or draw them away from something.^[3][6][10]
4. (intransitive, obsolete) To fail or err.^[3][1][10]

Related words

• impacciare
• impicciare
• impedire
• Latin pedica
• French empêcher

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1957
3. ^ 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
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 Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
6. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
7. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
9. ^ a b c Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
10. ^ a b c d e Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
11. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 549