incalzare

Forms

incalzare (first-person singular present incàlzo, first-person singular past historic incalzài, past participle incalzàto, auxiliary avére)^[1] The old Tuscan form, now out of use, is Old Italian incalciare.^[2][3][4] The GDLI also records Old Italian incalsare and Old Italian encalsare.^[5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *incalciāre (“to be at someone's heels”), formed from in- and calx (“heel”).^{[3][6][7][8][9][1]} The Vulgar Latin verb spread through all of western Romance, but not to Sardinia.^[3][10]

The same verb is Old French enchaucier, Occitan encalsar and Catalan encalsar, and with a change of prefix Spanish alcanzar (“to reach”) and Portuguese alcançar.^[6][11][10]

DEI sees the form with ⟨z⟩ as northern (Padua, 13th century) or southern (Old Italian incalsare at Tivoli, 1305) in origin.^[10] Devoto explains it as a northern assibilation of /kj/ to /s/, corrected in Tuscan to /ts/.^[12]

The origin of the Latin word for “heel” is uncertain: de Vaan doubts a link with Balto-Slavic words for parts of the leg, and notes that a non-Indo-European, perhaps Etruscan, source lacks a concrete model.^[13][1] Zingarelli thinks an Etruscan origin probable.^[14]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first records are of incalciare, “pursue without giving respite”, in Giacomo da Lentini (before 1250), Rustico di Filippo and Iacopo da Leona.^[3] The form incalzare appears in the 14th century, in the vernacular Fatti di Alessandro.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The word was first military: the GDLI notes that it mostly refers to armies, and quotes Matteo Villani on men who fled e non furono incalciati (“and were not pursued”).^[5] An old sense “cram, stow” has fallen out of use.^[10][14] The figurative sense “press close, become urgent” is recorded before 1603 in Giovan Pietro Maffei, and the reciprocal incalzarsi, “follow one another quickly”, in 1737 in Tommaso Campailla.^[3] Foscolo wrote of un incalzar di cavalli accorrenti (“a pressing on of horses running up”).^[8][4]

The adjective incalzante is recorded before 1673.^[6] In music the verb means “quicken the tempo”, and the gerund incalzando became a musical direction, also used in German and dated 1983 in Italian.^[15][14]

Timeline

• Before 1250 – Giacomo da Lentini uses incalciare “pursue closely”.^[3]
• 14th century – The form incalzare appears in the vernacular Fatti di Alessandro.^[3]
• Before 1603 – Giovan Pietro Maffei uses it figuratively, “press, become urgent”.^[3]
• Before 1673 – Incalzante is recorded.^[6]
• 1737 – Tommaso Campailla uses the reciprocal incalzarsi.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To pursue closely without respite; to be on someone's heels.^{[7][8][14][1]}
2. (transitive, figurative) To press someone insistently, as with questions or requests.^[7][8][14]
3. (literary) To spur on, urge.^[14][7]
4. (intransitive, figurative) Of danger, need or time, to be pressing or imminent.^{[7][14][9][1]}
5. (pronominal) incalzarsi: to follow one another in rapid succession.^[7][14][4]
6. (music) To quicken the tempo.^{[7][14][8][1]}
7. (obsolete) To press down, cram.^[14][7]

Word family

• incalzante
• rincalzare
• incalzamento
• incalzando
• incalzo

Related words

• calce
• calcagno
• Latin calx

Usage notes

Il tempo incalza means that time is running short and one must hurry.^[14][9]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
4. ^ a b c Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
5. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
6. ^ a b c d Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ 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
8. ^ 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
9. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
10. ^ a b c d Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1979
11. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
12. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
13. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
14. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
15. ^ Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it