interrare

Forms

interrare (first-person singular present intèrro, first-person singular past historic interrài, past participle interràto, auxiliary avére)^[1] Early forms include Old Italian enterrare, 'nterrare and interrari.^[2] An old variant was interriare.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is formed from Italian in- + terra + -are, with the prefix meaning “into”.^[5][6][7][8] The verb is recorded in the Medieval Latin of Modena from 1327.^[5] Wiktionary instead traces it to Vulgar Latin *interrō (“to put into earth”), from in (“in”) and terra (“earth”).^[1] The same formation is French enterrer, recorded from the 12th century,^[3][8] and Catalan enterrar, Spanish enterrar and Portuguese enterrar, and the English word inter is related.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in the Florentine vernacular version of the Tesoro, from the end of the 13th century, with the sense “to cover with earth”; the same early texts use it for putting a body underground, burying.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian also used the verb for holding a funeral and, in cloth-making, for treating cloth with earth.^[2]

The farming sense, to put seeds into the soil, is first recorded in Soderini, before 1597: of fenugreek he advises interrandolo bene, “working it well into the earth”.^[5][8][4] Filling with earth or sand is recorded from 1561 in Anguillara, and the pronominal interrarsi, of a river bed or harbour filling with earth, from 1664.^[5] Military writers used the verb for a battery set in a pit dug in the ground instead of behind raised parapets.^[4] The noun interramento meant burial in Sanudo (interamento, 1531) and silting up in Vallisnieri (1719), who wrote of gl’interramenti che il Nilo nell’Egitto ha prodotti.^[5] The past participle interrato is used for a floor wholly below street level.^[9]

Timeline

• Late 13th century – The Florentine version of the Tesoro uses the verb.^[2]
• 1327 – The verb appears in the Medieval Latin of Modena.^[5]
• 1531 – Sanudo has interamento “burial”.^[5]
• 1561 – Anguillara uses interrare for filling with earth or sand.^[5]
• Before 1597 – Soderini uses it for putting seeds into the ground.^[5]
• 1664 – Michelini has the pronominal interrarsi, “to silt up”.^[5]
• 1719 – Vallisnieri uses interramento for silting.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To put into the ground: to plant seeds or bulbs, or to lay a pipe or cable underground.^[7][10][9]
2. (archaic) To bury a dead body.^[7][11][12]
3. To fill a ditch, canal or river bed with earth, sand or debris; also to cover a field with added soil.^[7][10][9]
4. (military) To dig in a gun or vehicle, placing it in a hollow of the ground to hide or protect it.^[7][10][1]
5. (uncommon) To dirty with earth.^[7][11]
6. (interrarsi) Of a canal, harbour or river bed, to silt up, fill with earth or debris.^[10][11][13]
7. (interrarsi) Of roots or burrowing animals, to go down into the ground.^[12][14]

Word family

• interramento
• rinterrare
• interrato
• interratore
• interro

Related words

• sotterrare
• terra
• French enterrer
• English inter

References

1. ^ a b c d e 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 Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2066
4. ^ a b c Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
5. ^ 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
6. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
8. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
9. ^ a b c Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
10. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
11. ^ 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
12. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
13. ^ Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
14. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli