inseguire

Forms

inseguire (first-person singular present inséguo or insèguo, first-person singular past historic inseguìi, past participle inseguìto, auxiliary avére)^[1] Old Italian also has insiguire.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin īnsequor (“to follow closely”), from in- and sequor (“to follow”), taken over as a learned word and remade on the model of seguire.^[3][1][4][5] Nocentini and Meyer-Lübke start instead from Vulgar Latin *insequere, with the ending of the active verbs, which also gave Old French ensuivre, Old Occitan enseguir, Catalan enseguir and Logudorese Sardinian insegere.^[6][7][8]

The Latin verb goes back to Proto-Italic *sekʷe- and Proto-Indo-European *sekʷ- (“to follow”), the source also of Ancient Greek ἕπομαι (hépomai), Sanskrit सचते (sácate) and Lithuanian sekti.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is the Florentine translation of Brunetto Latini's Tesoro, of the late 13th century, for going after someone, usually with hostile intent, to catch up with him.^[2] DELI's first date is 1677, in Galeazzo Gualdo Priorato, who describes a governor skirmishing with enemy squadrons and chasing them (inseguendoli) halfway down the road.^[3][10]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian the verb could also mean “to take as a model, imitate”.^[2] It remained rare and literary until the 18th century: Prati calls it a word of literary origin, found in Monti and Alfieri, and Tommaseo notes that one pursues someone nearly always to harm him.^[4][11]

In modern Italian the verb is common, also in sport for riders and runners chasing the leaders;^[12][13][3] inseguimento became the name of a track cycling race in 1953.^[12][13][3] The figurative senses, pursuing a dream or being haunted by a memory, are recorded in all the modern dictionaries.^[12][14][15]

Timeline

• Late 13th century – The Florentine Tesoro uses inseguire.^[2]
• 1363 – Zingarelli's date for the first record.^[16]
• 1677 – Gualdo Priorato uses the verb for chasing enemy troops.^[3]
• 1869 – Inseguimento “pursuit” is recorded.^[3]
• 1928 – Inseguitore “pursuer” is recorded.^[3]
• 1953 – Inseguimento is recorded as a track cycling race.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To chase, run after someone or something to catch or stop them: I poliziotti hanno inseguito il ladro per tre isolati.^[12][13][14]
2. (sports) To try to catch up with the leaders of a race: Il gruppo insegue i fuggitivi a un minuto.^[12][13]
3. (figurative) To follow closely in a ranking.^[12]
4. (figurative) To pursue an aim that is hard to reach: Da anni insegue il sogno di aprire un ristorante.^[12][13][14]
5. (figurative) Of thoughts or feelings, to haunt, give no peace: Lo insegue il ricordo di quella notte.^[12][13][15]
6. (reciprocal, inseguirsi) To chase each other; to follow one another quickly.^[13][14][15]

Word family

• inseguimento
• inseguitore

Related words

• seguire
• Latin insequor

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
4. ^ a b Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 561
5. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2047
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. 8, 97
11. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
12. ^ a b c d e f g h De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
13. ^ a b c d e f g Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
14. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
15. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
16. ^ Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli