liberare

Forms

liberare (first-person singular present lìbero, first-person singular past historic liberài, past participle liberàto, auxiliary avére)^[1] Old and dialect forms include liverare and livrare, which go back to the French form of the verb; the past participle also had a short form libero.^[2][3][4][1]

Etymology

It is a learned borrowed from Latin līberō (“to set free”), derived from the adjective līber (“free”).^{[5][6][7][2][8]} DELI dates it to Dante (1304–1308).^[5][7]

The Latin verb also lived on in popular use with the secondary sense “to hand over, deliver”: French livrer, Old Occitan liurar and Catalan lliurar have it, as does German liefern.^[2][9][3] Old Italian liverare and livrare, still used in Lucca in the 15th century, were taken from French;^[2][3][9][1] Körting glosses them “to finish” and “to deliver”, and in Old Umbrian the verb meant “to earn”.^[2][3][9][1] In Sardinian and Catalan the verb came to mean “to give birth”.^[2][9] The French noun livrée, the clothing “delivered” by a lord to his servants, was borrowed as livrea.^[9][3] The learned French verb is libérer, of the 14th century.^[2]

Latin līber goes back to Proto-Italic *leuþero- and Proto-Indo-European *h₁leudʰero-, “belonging to the people”, hence “free”, as in Ancient Greek ἐλεύθερος (eleútheros, “free”); the root Proto-Indo-European *h₁leudʰ- (“to grow”) also gave Old High German liut (“people”).^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is in Dante (1304–1308), in the sense “to make free by removing hindrances or loosening bonds”.^[5][7] The sense “to exempt” follows in the statute of the Florentine cloth merchants of Calimala (1332–1337).^[5]

Semantic evolution

Matteo Villani (before 1363) uses the verb for giving freedom back to someone, and GDLI quotes him on vassals freed from their fealty; the same sense covered the freeing of slaves and serfs, as in Bernardo Segni's account of Andrea Doria freeing the Christian slaves in a harbour.^[5][4] In law the verb came to mean releasing a debtor from a debt once it is paid.^[4] The reflexive liberarsi “to free oneself, to get rid of” is dated to Bernardo Davanzati in 1602.^[5]

Tommaseo's dictionary records the sense “to save from a danger” in 1869, and the commercial liberare un'azione, to pay the full nominal value of a share, is in Panzini's dictionary of 1918.^[5] The phrase Dio ce ne scampi e liberi! “God preserve us from it!” keeps the religious sense of deliverance from evil.^[7][11] Modern uses also include freeing a room or a seat, clearing a surface, releasing a jammed mechanism, and in chemistry and physics giving off a substance or energy.^[7][12][13]

Timeline

• 1304–1308 – Dante uses liberare.^[5][7]
• 1332–1337 – The Calimala statute has it for “to exempt”.^[5]
• Before 1363 – Matteo Villani uses it for setting someone free.^[5]
• 15th century – Livrare, from French, is recorded at Lucca.^[2]
• 1602 – Bernardo Davanzati has the reflexive liberarsi.^[5]
• 1869 – Tommaseo's dictionary records the sense “to save from a danger”.^[5]
• 1918 – Liberare un'azione “to pay a share in full” is in Panzini's dictionary.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To set free, to release (a prisoner, a slave, an animal): Dopo tre anni lo liberarono dal carcere.^[7][8][11]
2. To free from oppression, a siege or an occupying force: L'esercito liberò il villaggio.^[7][8]
3. To rid someone of something that torments or troubles them, or of an unwelcome person: Quel farmaco lo ha liberato dal mal di testa.^[7][12][13]
4. To vacate, to leave free: Dobbiamo liberare la stanza entro mezzogiorno.^[7][8][12]
5. To clear of clutter, also figuratively: Ho liberato il tavolo dai libri.^[7][8]
6. To exempt from an obligation, a duty or a tax.^[7][14][11]
7. To free from an obstruction, to unjam (a mechanism, a rope).^[7][8][12]
8. (figurative) To give free rein to (one's energy, imagination or feelings).^[7][12][14]
9. (chemistry, physics) To release, give off: La reazione libera calore.^[12][13][11]
10. (commerce) To pay the full value of (a share or bond).^[14][11][12]

Word family

• liberazione
• liberatore
• liberatorio
• liberabile
• liberamento
• liberativo

Related words

• libero
• libertà
• livrea
• Latin līber
• French livrer

Usage notes

Dio ce ne scampi e liberi! is a set exclamation for warding off a misfortune.^[7][11][13] Liberare l'intestino and liberare lo stomaco are euphemisms for defecating and vomiting.^[7][8][11]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2221
3. ^ a b c d e Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
4. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 9, 8
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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 g h i j k l m n o p De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
8. ^ 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
9. ^ a b c d e Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ a b c d e f g Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
12. ^ a b c d e f g Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
13. ^ a b c d Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
14. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli