infisso

Forms

infisso m (plural infissi)^[1]

Etymology

It is learned: it is borrowed from Latin īnfixus (“driven in, fixed”), the past participle of īnfīgō (“to drive in”).^[2][3] Italian treats it as the past participle of infiggere, which is recorded later, before 1566.^[2][4][5] The Latin verb is formed from in- (“in”) and fīgō (“to drive in, fasten”),^[5][4] which de Vaan traces to Proto-Indo-European *dʰeygʷ-.^[6]

The noun for the frame of a door or window is recorded in 1932, but Cherubini had already defined Lombard infìss in 1840 as everything held to be inseparable from a room or a house.^[2] The grammatical term for an element inserted inside a word was coined on the model of prefisso and suffisso; the DEI dates it to 1878, other dictionaries to 1909.^[3][4][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is from before 1484, in Feo Belcari, with the sense of the participle, “driven in”.^[2] In 1582 Diomede Borghesi defended infisso against a critic, Muzio, by showing that Boccaccio had already used it.^[2] Boccaccio's Decameron has a red mark naturalmente nella pelle infissa, “naturally fixed in the skin”.^[8]

Semantic evolution

Literary Italian used the participle of weapons and stakes driven into something and of feelings fixed in the heart: Annibal Caro has a spear standing in fra due coste infissa, “fixed between two ribs”, and Firenzuola grief infisso in the depths of the breast.^[8]

The noun took two technical senses.^[7][9] In building it names a fixture of a door or window, a frame joined to the masonry, and by extension the whole window or door unit.^[5] DELI dates it to Emilio Cecchi in 1932.^[2] Strictly the infisso is the fixed part and the serramento the moving one, although everyday use treats the two as synonyms.^[10] In linguistics it names an element inserted inside a root, such as the -n- of Latin tango beside the root tag-.^[11][7]

Timeline

• Before 1484 – Feo Belcari uses infisso “driven in”.^[2]
• 1582 – Diomede Borghesi defends the word, citing Boccaccio.^[2]
• 1840 – Cherubini defines Milanese infìss.^[2]
• 1878 – The grammatical term is recorded.^[3]
• 1909 – The linguistic sense in the date the modern dictionaries give.^[4][7][9]
• 1932 – Emilio Cecchi uses the noun for a fixture of doors and windows.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Driven in, embedded: Il cartello era infisso in un palo di legno.^[9][11][12]
2. (figurative) Deeply fixed, as in the memory.^[13]

Noun

1. (building) A frame fixed to the wall around the opening of a door or window.^[5][7][11]
2. By extension, a window or door fitting as a whole, a serramento: Abbiamo cambiato tutti gli infissi di casa.^[5][12]
3. (linguistics) An infix, an element inserted inside a root or word.^[5][7][9]

Word family

• seminfisso

Related words

• fisso
• affisso
• prefisso
• suffisso
• Latin īnfīgō

Usage notes

In foundation engineering pali infissi are piles made off site and then driven into the ground.^[10][5] The DEI lists the participle and the noun of grammar as two headwords, but both come from the same Latin participle.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ a b c d Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2019
4. ^ a b c d Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b c d e f g De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
6. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
7. ^ 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
8. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
9. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
10. ^ a b 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 Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
12. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
13. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli