Etymologically
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impedire

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Pronunciation

  • /im.peˈdi.re/[1]

Forms

impedire (first-person singular present impedìsco, first-person singular past historic impedìi, past participle impedìto, auxiliary avére)[1] Old dialect texts have empedire.[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin impediō (“to shackle the feet; to hinder”), from in- and pēs (“foot”), properly “to put fetters on the feet”.[3][4][5][6] Zingarelli and the GDLI call it a learned word.[6][2] In Latin the verb was replaced in popular use by impedicō in the imperial period, and its popular outcome survives only in Old Spanish empecer (“to harm”) and Portuguese empecer.[7][4][8] In some modern uses, such as hiding the view, Italian follows French empêcher.[7]

De Vaan explains the Latin verb from the plural pedēs in the sense “fetters”.[9] The noun goes back to Proto-Indo-European *pṓds (“foot”), the source also of Ancient Greek πούς (poús) and Sanskrit पाद् (pā́t).[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is in Dante, 1300–1313, and Giordano da Pisa, 1305–1306, with the sense “to put obstacles in the way”.[3][5] In the Inferno Virgil tells Minos Non impedir lo suo fatale andare, “do not hinder his fated journey”.[2][10] Zingarelli dates the word to about 1261.[6]

Semantic evolution

Boccaccio, 1348–1353, uses the verb for “to forbid, make impossible”, the main sense today.[3] The noun impedimento is older in Italian documents, as empedementu in a document from Fabriano of 1186, and took the legal sense of an obstacle to a valid marriage before 1396.[3] In the sense “baggage train” it is a Latinism, after impedimenta.[7]

The construction ciò non impedisce “that does not prevent” was rejected by the purists in 1811.[3] In rare use the verb still means “to disable”, of an illness that leaves a limb useless.[5][6]

Timeline

  • 1186 – Empedementu “impediment” appears in a document from Fabriano.[3]
  • About 1261 – Zingarelli's date for the first record.[6]
  • 1300–1313 – Dante uses impedire for “to hinder”.[3]
  • 1305–1306 – Giordano da Pisa uses the verb.[3][5]
  • 1348–1353 – Boccaccio uses it for “to forbid, make impossible”.[3]
  • Before 1396 – Impedimento is recorded as an obstacle to marriage.[3]
  • 1811 – The purists reject ciò non impedisce.[3]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To prevent, make impossible: Il traffico ci ha impedito di arrivare in tempo.[5][11][12]
  2. To forbid: Il medico gli ha impedito di fare sport per un mese.[5][11][6]
  3. To obstruct, block: Un camion parcheggiato impediva l'uscita del cortile.[5][11][12]
  4. To hamper someone's movements: Il cappotto pesante gli impediva ogni gesto.[5][12][13]
  5. (rare) To disable a limb.[5][6][13]

Word family

  • impedimento
  • impedito
  • impediente
  • disimpedire
  • impedibile
  • impeditivo
  • impeditore

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 7, 423
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
  4. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  7. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1957
  8. ^ 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. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
  11. ^ 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
  12. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  13. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli