involgere

Forms

involgere (first-person singular present invòlgo, first-person singular past historic invòlsi, past participle invòlto, auxiliary avére)^[1] Old forms include Old Italian envolgere, Old Italian invogliere, Old Italian invollere and Old Italian invollare, a Sienese form.^[2][3] The learned form involvere was used by Boccaccio and Petrarch.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin involvō (“to wrap up, cover”), from in- and volvō (“to roll, turn”), its form remade after volgere.^{[5][6][7][8][2]} Sabatini–Coletti calls it the popular form beside the learned involvere.^[9]

The Latin verb also gave Old French envoudre, Old Occitan envolver, Catalan envoldre, Spanish envolver and Romanian învoalbe.^[6][10] Latin also used it for winding thread on a reel; this technical sense lives on in Ligurian invoge and in the Spanish and Portuguese verbs.^[3][10]

The Latin simple verb goes back to Proto-Italic *welu-e/o- and Proto-Indo-European *wel-u- (“to wind”).^[11][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest record DELI gives is the pronominal involgersi in the figurative sense “to get caught up in something dangerous”, in the 13th-century Fioretti di vite.^[5] Nocentini and Devoto–Oli also date the verb to the 13th century, Zingarelli to about 1250.^[6][12][8] The transitive sense, to put something inside a cover that wraps it, appears before 1342 in D. Cavalca, in a request for a cloak “accioché in esso involga lo mio corpo” (so that you may wrap my body in it).^[5][7][2]

Semantic evolution

The past participle involto meant “twisted” in Dante (1293–1294), and as a noun “bundle, parcel” from 1494; from it came involtare, to wrap up (14th century), and involtino, at first a small bundle (before 1676) and later a rolled and stuffed slice of meat (before 1936).^[5][6] Boccaccio has the infant Jesus laid in the hay of the manger: “nel fieno... l'involse”.^[2]

The reflexive sense “to wind round on itself” is recorded from 1578, and the sense “to imply” from 1684, in D. Bartoli.^[5] The figurative sense “to drag into a difficult situation” has largely passed to the compound coinvolgere, recorded from before 1911.^[6][13] Disinvolto and disinvoltura (ease, nonchalance) were formed after Spanish desenvuelto.^[4]

Timeline

• 13th century – Involgersi appears in the Fioretti di vite.^[5][6]
• 1293–1294 – Dante uses the participle involto, “twisted”.^[5]
• Before 1342 – D. Cavalca uses involgere for wrapping.^[5][7]
• 1494 – Involto is used as a noun, “bundle”.^[5]
• 1578 – A. Rettori uses involgersi, “to wind round on itself”.^[5]
• Before 1676 – Involtino is recorded.^[5]
• 1684 – D. Bartoli uses involgere, “to imply”.^[5]
• Before 1911 – Coinvolgere is recorded.^[6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To wrap, envelop, covering completely: Involse il pane in un tovagliolo pulito.^{[7][12][13][1]}
2. To wind something around something else: Ha involto lo spago intorno al dito.^[7][12][1]
3. (figurative, uncommon) To involve someone in a difficult or dangerous situation: Non voglio involgerti nei miei guai.^[7][14][1]
4. (rare, literary) To imply, entail: Il progetto involge diversi rischi.^[8][14]
5. (pronominal, as involgersi) To wrap oneself in something; to twist round on itself; figuratively, to get caught up in something.^[8][14][15]

Word family

• involto
• involtare
• involtino
• involgimento
• involtura
• coinvolgere
• coinvolgimento
• rinvolgere
• disinvolgere

Related words

• volgere
• avvolgere
• involvere
• disinvolto
• Latin involvō

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
3. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2086
4. ^ a b Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 563
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
6. ^ a b c d e f g 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 d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
9. ^ Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
10. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
11. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
12. ^ 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
13. ^ a b Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
14. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
15. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli