indurare

Forms

indurare (first-person singular present indùro, first-person singular past historic indurài, past participle induràto, auxiliary (transitive) avére or (intransitive) èssere)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin indūrō (“to make hard”), formed from dūrus (“hard”) with the prefix in-.^[2][3][4][1] Wiktionary treats it as inherited, while DEI calls it semi-learned and Zingarelli learned.^[1][5][6] Meyer-Lübke lists it under REW 4386.^[7][8]

The same verb is Romanian îndura, French endurer, Old Occitan endurar, Catalan endurar, Spanish endurar and Portuguese endurar.^[7] In French and Spanish it took the sense “to bear, endure”;^[5][9] French also has the learned indurer and induration, both from the 14th century.^[5][9]

De Vaan traces the Latin adjective to Proto-Italic *dūro- and Proto-Indo-European *du(e)h₂-ro- (“far, long”).^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is a Florentine translation of Albertano of 1275, with the sense “to make stiff and hard”.^[11] GRADIT and Devoto–Oli date the verb to the second half of the 13th century, Zingarelli to before 1292.^[4][12][6]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian used the verb for materials becoming hard, a liquid drying up, hands growing calloused and a wound closing, and figuratively for a heart grown hard against the good, a fight growing fiercer, and persisting or holding out.^[11] Dante writes of a place where null'altra pianta che facesse fronda / o indurasse (“no other plant that put out leaves or grew hard”) could live.^[4][13] Crescenzi's translation has the noun induramento.^[8]

Once very common, indurare is now felt as old or literary, and indurire has replaced it in its proper and most of its figurative senses.^[14][15]

Timeline

• 1275 – Indurare appears in a Florentine translation of Albertano.^[11]
• Before 1292 – Zingarelli's date for the verb.^[6]
• 1300s – Indurabile, induramento and indurato are recorded.^[5]
• 1500s – Indurativo is recorded.^[5]
• 1700s – Indurazione is recorded, also as a medical term.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. (literary) To harden, make hard or harder.^{[4][12][13][15]}
2. (literary, figurative) To make callous or pitiless; to confirm in a vice.^[4][12][6]
3. (intransitive, literary) To become hard.^{[4][12][13][15]}
4. (intransitive, figurative) To become unfeeling; to grow obstinate.^{[4][12][6][16]}
5. (intransitive, figurative) To become inured to hardship.^[12][6][16]

Word family

• indurabile
• induramento
• indurativo
• rindurare

Related words

• duro
• indurire
• French endurer
• Latin induro

Usage notes

The intransitive takes essere;^[1][15][6] indurarsi is used in the same senses.^[1][15][6]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e f g De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ a b c d e f Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2009
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
7. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ a b Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 556
9. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ a b c Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
12. ^ a b c d e f Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
13. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
14. ^ Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
15. ^ a b c d e Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
16. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli