incettare

Forms

incettare (first-person singular present incètto, first-person singular past historic incettài, past participle incettàto, auxiliary avére)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *inceptāre, a verb of popular Latin.^[2][3][4][5] DELI and Devoto see it as remodelled on acceptō (“to accept, receive”), with in- in place of ad-, and on receptō (“to take back, receive”).^[2][6][4][7] Nocentini, GRADIT and Gabrielli derive it instead from captō (“to try to seize”), the intensive of capiō (“to take”), with the same prefix.^[3][8][9] Zingarelli treats it as a learned word.^[10]

It is distinct from classical inceptō (“to begin”), the intensive of incipiō (“to begin”), whose descendants are Iberian: Catalan encetar (“to cut into”), Portuguese encetar (“to begin; to cut into”) and Spanish encentar (“to cut into”).^{[2][4][11][12]} Meyer-Lübke asked whether the Italian verb belongs with them.^[11]

The noun incetta is a back-formation from the verb, and incettatore its agent noun.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is from the Canti carnascialeschi of the 15th century, with the sense “to obtain as much as possible of a commodity, to sell it at a speculative price”.^[2][13] Tommaseo quotes a song about figs: Nè se ne può incettare, / Chè marciscono in breve tutti quanti (“Nor can one buy them up, for they all rot in a short time”).^[14] Zingarelli dates the verb to 1478.^[10]

Semantic evolution

The noun appears earlier than the verb: inciet(t)a is in Florentine documents of 1384 and 1455, and Saviozzo, before 1420, has ardente incetta “tormenting acquisition” in a figurative sense.^[2] Incetta becomes common in the 16th century (Sassetti, 1582).^[2]

Cecchi uses incettare a comune figuratively, of a woman loved by two men.^[14] The verb also came to mean to recruit workers or slaves, a sense now old.^[8][4] In 1855 Ugolini notes that the good Tuscan word for an incettatore is barullo.^[2]

Today the verb is uncommon.^[5][4] Besides hoarding goods it is used figuratively for gathering votes, praise or prizes.^{[5][8][7][10]}

Timeline

• 1384 – Incietta appears in a Florentine document.^[2]
• Before 1420 – Saviozzo uses incetta figuratively.^[2]
• 1478 – Zingarelli's date for incettare.^[10]
• 15th century – The Canti carnascialeschi use incettare and incettatore.^[2]
• 1582 – Sassetti uses incetta.^[2]
• 1855 – Ugolini comments on incettatore.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To buy up large quantities of a commodity, especially to profit from scarcity: to corner, to hoard: Durante la guerra molti incettavano il sale.^{[8][5][10][7]}
2. (figurative) To gather a great deal of something: Il film ha incettato premi a ogni festival.^[8][7][10]
3. (dated) To recruit workers or slaves.^[8][4]

Word family

• incetta
• incettatore
• incettazione

Related words

• accettare
• captare
• Latin capio

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e f Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
5. ^ a b c d Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
6. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
8. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
9. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
10. ^ a b c d e f Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
11. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
12. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1986
13. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
14. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET