inchiudere

Forms

inchiudere (first-person singular present inchiùdo, first-person singular past historic inchiùsi, past participle inchiùso, auxiliary avére)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin inclūdō (“to shut in”), from in- (“in”) and claudō (“to shut”), remade on chiudere.^{[2][3][4][5][1]} Devoto's Avviamento calls it a crossing of the Latin verb with the Italian one.^[6] Sabatini–Coletti presents it as the word of popular tradition beside the learned includere, and Wiktionary treats the two as doublets.^[4][1] Devoto–Oli instead derives it within Italian, from the verb with the same prefix.^[7] DEI compares French enclore, remade on clore.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Zingarelli dates the verb to about 1261, and GRADIT and Devoto–Oli to the 13th century.^[9][5][7] Among GDLI's oldest quotations is one from Chiaro Davanzati, of the storm that throws the wave wherever it could not be shut in (là ove inchiuder non si potè), with the sense “to enclose, shut in”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In the Paradiso Dante describes the angelic choirs around God, a point that seems enclosed by what it encloses: parendo inchiuso da quel ch’elli ’nchiude.^[5][3][2] Old Italian writers used the verb for shutting in or surrounding: the Trojans close in on Turnus, the Nile encloses a part of Egypt.^[2] Tommaseo quotes Passavanti for the sense “to contain”: Inchiude questa superbia due mali (“This pride contains two evils”).^[10]

Tommaseo noted that one encloses a letter in another, but advised includere for that use, keeping inchiudere for figurative senses.^[10] The modern dictionaries mark the verb literary or obsolete.^[5][4][3]

Timeline

• c. 1261 – Zingarelli's date for the first record.^[9]
• 14th century – DEI's date for the agent noun inchiuditore.^[8]
• 1861 – Tommaseo recommends includere for enclosing a letter.^[10]

Meanings

Verb

1. (archaic) To shut in, to close inside a place: Inchiusero il prigioniero nella torre.^[5][4][9][1]
2. (literary, figurative) To contain, to include or comprise: parendo inchiuso da quel ch’elli ’nchiude (Dante).^[5][4][10]
3. (literary) To enclose with a letter.^[9][10]

Related words

• chiudere
• includere
• rinchiudere
• racchiudere
• Latin includo

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
3. ^ a b c Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
4. ^ a b c d e Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
5. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
6. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ 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
8. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1987
9. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
10. ^ a b c d e Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET