muovere

Forms

muovere (first-person singular present muòvo, first-person singular past historic mòssi, past participle mòsso, auxiliary (transitive or intransitive) avére or (alternatively when intransitive) èssere)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin movēre (“to move”), with a change of conjugation, through a Vulgar Latin *movĕre.^{[2][3][4][1][5]} The verb is found throughout Romance except Romanian and Sardinian:^[6] French mouvoir, Occitan mover, Catalan moure, Spanish mover, Portuguese mover, Romansh muvair and Dalmatian mugro;^[3][7] Logudorese took its word from Italian.^[3][7]

In Latin, as in Ancient Greek κινέω (kinéō, “to move”), which it rendered, the verb had both a physical and a moral sense, as in “movēre animōs”, to stir the mind.^[2] Its present participle was much used, and the neuter plural of the participle meant “motives”.^[2] Nocentini describes it as originally a causative, “to make run, make go forward”, and compares Ancient Greek ἀμεύομαι (ameúomai, “to surpass”).^[3] De Vaan reconstructs the root as Proto-Indo-European *m(i̯)euh₁- (“to move”).^[8]

Moviola is only indirectly connected: it is an American English trade name, English movieola (1929), from movie.^[2] Mozione came, through French parliamentary use, from English motion.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Breve di Montieri of 1219, a Tuscan statute, in the reflexive sense “to move away, leave”: non si ne movaranno diffintanto ke-l parlamento non fusse compiuto (“they shall not move from there until the assembly is over”).^[2][3][4]

Semantic evolution

In the 13th century the verb already had its moral senses: Giacomo da Lentini, before 1250, uses it for arousing a feeling, Cielo d'Alcamo for being moved, Brunetto Latini for moving someone to pity, and Dante, in the Vita nuova, for urging and for setting out.^[2] Dante's Convivio (1304–1308) has the plain physical sense: È biasimevole muover la cosa d'un luogo dove sia utile e portarla in parte dove sia meno utile (“It is blameworthy to move a thing from a place where it is useful and carry it where it is less useful”).^[2][9] The language of medieval philosophy used it for God as the first cause of all motion and for the movers of the heavenly spheres.^[9]

In Tuscan the intransitive verb could mean “to sprout”, of plants (Giordano da Pisa, 1303–1306), and the chess sense, moving a piece from one square to another, is recorded in Tommaseo–Bellini (1869).^[2] Its derivatives include mossa “movement, move”, used of tactical moves from before 1348, movimento (13th century) and movenza (15th century).^[2][3] Fixed phrases include muovere mari e monti, to try everything, and non muovere un dito, to do nothing at all to help.^[10][11][12]

Timeline

• 1219 – The reflexive muoversi “to move away” in the Breve di Montieri.^[2]
• Before 1250 – Giacomo da Lentini uses it for arousing a feeling.^[2]
• 1293–1294 – Dante uses it for urging and for setting out.^[2]
• 1304–1308 – Dante's Convivio uses it for shifting a thing from its place.^[2]
• Before 1348 – Mossa “tactical move” in Giovanni Villani.^[2]
• 1869 – The chess sense is recorded in Tommaseo–Bellini.^[2]
• 1929 – American English movieola, the source of moviola, is recorded.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To move, set in motion, especially a part of one's body: Il cane muoveva la coda tutto contento.^{[4][10][13][1]}
2. (transitive) To make something work, to drive: È il vento a muovere le pale del mulino.^[4][10][13]
3. (transitive) To shift something from its place or position: Aiutami a muovere il divano verso la finestra.^[4][10][11]
4. (games) To move a piece in chess or draughts; also intransitive: Hai mosso l'alfiere senza pensarci.^[4][10][1]
5. (figurative) To start a hostile action, or to raise an objection or accusation: Gli hanno mosso critiche molto dure.^{[4][13][11][1]}
6. (figurative) To arouse a feeling, or to move someone to a feeling: La sua storia mosse tutti a compassione.^[4][13][11]
7. (intransitive) To set out, advance towards or against: All'alba le truppe mossero verso la città.^[13][2][1]
8. (intransitive, figurative) To start from, originate in: Il suo ragionamento muove da un'idea semplice.^[1][13]
9. muoversi: to move, stir; to get going; to take action: Non riuscivo più a muovermi dal freddo.^[2][1][13]

Word family

• mossa
• mosso
• mossiere
• movente
• movenza
• movimento
• movimentare
• movibile
• smossa

Related words

• smuovere
• rimuovere
• commuovere
• promuovere
• momento
• moto
• Latin moveo

Usage notes

The stressed uo of muovo, muove traditionally gave way to o in unstressed syllables (moviamo, movete), but the forms with uo now tend to prevail there too.^[12][5][11] The undiphthongized movere is popular or literary.^[10][13]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s 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 e f Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
6. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2531
7. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 11, 86
10. ^ 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
11. ^ a b c d e 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. ^ a b c d e f g h Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse