infiggere

Forms

infiggere (first-person singular present infìggo, first-person singular past historic infìssi, past participle infìsso, auxiliary avére)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin īnfīgō (“to drive in, implant”), a learned word.^[2][3][4] The Latin verb is formed from fīgō (“to drive in, fasten”) with in- (“in, into”).^[5][6][4] Wiktionary treats it as inherited.^[1] The past participle infisso comes from Latin īnfīxus.^[2]

The Latin verb lives on in Romanian înfige.^[7][8] Catalan enfitar “to stuff, cram” is from a frequentative Vulgar Latin *infictare.^[7]

De Vaan reconstructs the simple verb as Proto-Indo-European *dʰeigʷ-e/o- or *dʰiHgʷ-e/o-.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is in Caro, who died before 1566, with the sense “to drive in, plant”, also figuratively.^[2] The GDLI quotes his Eneide: the serpents' mouths entro al suo capo fieramente infisse (“fiercely driven into his head”).^[10] Zingarelli dates the verb to 1527, while DEI puts it in the 14th century.^[11][7]

Semantic evolution

The pronominal infiggersi “to stick fast”, also figuratively, is recorded in Cesarotti in 1786.^[2] Tommaseo quotes s'infigge più nella memoria (“it fixes itself more in the memory”) from Salvini.^[12]

The participle infisso was used before the verb, by Belcari, who died before 1484, and in 1582 Diomede Borghesi defended it against Muzio, who had condemned it, by showing that Boccaccio had used it.^[2] As a noun it names the fixed parts of a building, such as window and door frames and railings: Cherubini defined Milanese infìss in 1840, and the Italian noun is in Cecchi in 1932.^[2] In grammar infisso has meant an infix since 1878.^[13]

Timeline

• Before 1566 – Caro uses infiggere.^[2][4]
• 1582 – Diomede Borghesi defends infisso as Boccaccio's word.^[2]
• 1786 – Cesarotti uses infiggersi.^[2]
• 1840 – Cherubini defines Milanese infìss as the fixtures of a house.^[2]
• 1878 – Infisso is used in grammar for an infix.^[13]
• 1932 – Cecchi uses the noun infisso.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To drive in, thrust (with in): infiggere un paletto nel terreno.^{[4][14][15][11][16]}
2. (figurative) To impress firmly in the mind.^[4][15][11]
3. (infiggersi) To stick fast, become embedded: la lama si infisse nella trave.^{[14][15][11][16]}
4. (infiggersi, figurative) To become fixed in the mind or memory.^{[14][15][11][16]}

Word family

• infisso
• infissione

Related words

• figgere
• affiggere
• Latin figo

Usage notes

Infiggere is conjugated like figgere, except for the past participle infisso;^[15][16] infitto is a rare literary participle.^[15][16]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
4. ^ a b c d e De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2017
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
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. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 7, 940
11. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
12. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
13. ^ a b Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 557
14. ^ a b c Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
15. ^ a b c d e f Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
16. ^ a b c d e Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana