increscere

Forms

increscere (first-person singular present incrésco, first-person singular past historic incrébbi, past participle incresciùto, auxiliary èssere)^[1]

Etymology

It is learned according to DELI: it is borrowed from Latin incrēscō (“to grow, to increase”), from in- and crēscō (“to grow”).^[2][3][4] Wiktionary treats it as inherited, and Nocentini calls it a Latin formation, citing Old French encroistre beside it.^[1][5]

The Italian sense “to displease” did not exist in Classical Latin.^[2][5] It grew out of “to grow too much”, hence “to become tiresome”, and it is well represented in the dialects.^[2][5][6] The GDLI places this shift in the Italian and French area.^[7] Tommaseo rejected a derivation from Latin ingravēscō or aegrēscō and explained the sense as something unpleasant whose weight grows.^[8]

The verb crēscō goes back to Proto-Italic *krē- (“to grow, increase”).^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Ritmo laurenziano at the end of the 12th century, already with the sense “to displease, to cause regret”.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

Giacomo da Lentini (or Rinaldo d'Aquino) used the verb, and Ruggerone da Palermo advises the lover e lui no ’ncresca la gran dimoranza (“and let the long delay not weigh on him”).^[7] Dante has Non t’incresca restare a parlar meco: / vedi che non incresce a me, e ardo! (“May it not irk you to stay and speak with me: see, it does not irk me, and I burn!”).^[8][10] Petrarch writes quanto la nova libertà m’increbbe (“how much the new freedom grieved me”).^[7]

The impersonal use meant feeling sorrow or pity for someone, as in Boccaccio's sallo Iddio che di voi m’incresce (“God knows I pity you”).^[4][10] The verb also described bodily discomfort: in Ariosto the breastplate gl’incresca, weighs on the knight.^[8][10] Leopardi still used it, but already in the 19th century Tommaseo found it less common than rincrescere, the form with the prefix r-, recorded since the 14th century.^[8][5] Today it is literary.^[4][11][12]

The adjective increscioso “troublesome” appears in Bembo in 1505, and it has no Latin model.^[2]

Timeline

• Late 12th century – The Ritmo laurenziano uses increscere “to displease”.^[2]
• 14th century – Rincrescere appears.^[5]
• 1505 – Bembo uses increscioso.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. (literary) To displease, to be irksome or a cause of regret to someone, the same as rincrescere (with a): Mi incresce lasciarvi così presto.^{[4][11][12][1]}
2. (archaic, impersonal) To feel sorrow or pity for someone (with a and di).^{[4][11][6][13]}

Word family

• rincrescere
• increscioso
• increscevole
• increscimento

Related words

• crescere
• incremento

Usage notes

The verb is conjugated like crescere and takes essere.^[11][12][13] An old variant is encrescere.^[7][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ a b c d e f Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
7. ^ 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, p. 7, 757
8. ^ a b c d Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ a b c Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
11. ^ 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
12. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
13. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana