percuotere

Forms

percuotere (first-person singular present percuòto, first-person singular past historic percòssi, past participle percòsso, auxiliary avére)^[1] Old forms include Old Italian percodere, Old Italian percotere and Old Italian percutere.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin percŭtere (“to strike through; to strike”), formed with per- on quatiō (“to shake”).^[3][4][1][5] Sabatini and GRADIT start from a Vulgar Latin *perquatere with the full vowel of the simple verb, and Sabatini derives the ⟨co⟩ from ⟨qua⟩.^[6][7] Its past participle percussus and the nouns made from it reached Italian as learned words: percussione and percussore.^[3]

The inherited verb is also Catalan percudir, Spanish percudir (“to wear out; to crumple”) and Portuguese percudir (“to wound mortally”).^[4][5] French percuter and Spanish percutir were taken from Latin by learned transmission.^[4]

De Vaan derives the simple verb from Proto-Italic *kwat-i- and compares the Germanic words for “to shake”, but thinks it may be a non-Indo-European word.^[8] Wiktionary takes it to Proto-Indo-European *kʷeh₁t- (“to shake”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is the Novellino, from the late 13th century, with the sense “to beat, to strike”.^[3][4]

Semantic evolution

Dante uses the verb for a demon lashing a sinner with his whip and for beating one's breast in repentance.^[2] DELI dates “to strike violently” to Boccaccio in 1353 and “to afflict, torment” to Passavanti in 1354.^[3] Later senses extend the verb to light and sound striking the senses, as in Tasso and Leopardi.^[7]

The derivatives are older than the verb in the records: percossa “blow” is recorded about 1260, in the Cortona lauds.^[3] The learned percussione gave terms of medicine (1583), of firearms (fucile a percussione, 1824) and of music (strumenti a percussione, 1853), and percussore came to mean the firing pin in 1895.^[3] percussionista “percussionist” followed in 1980.^[4]

Timeline

• About 1260 – Percossa “blow” is recorded.^[3]
• Late 13th century – The Novellino uses percuotere.^[3]
• 1353 – Boccaccio uses it for striking with violence.^[3]
• 1354 – Passavanti uses it for “to afflict”.^[3]
• 1853 – Strumenti a percussione is recorded.^[3]
• 1895 – Percussore “firing pin”.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To strike or beat with the hands, the feet or an object: Percosse il gong con un martelletto.^[7][9][10]
2. (transitive) To beat up, thrash a person.^[7][6][11]
3. (transitive) Of things, to hit with force: La grandine percuote i vigneti.^[7][9][6]
4. (transitive) Of light or sound, to strike the eyes or ears.^[7][9][6]
5. (transitive, figurative) To afflict or torment.^[7][12][11]
6. (transitive, figurative, uncommon) To move or impress deeply.^[7][9][6]
7. (intransitive, uncommon) To bump against something.^[6][1]

Word family

• percossa
• percosso
• percotitore
• percotimento

Related words

• percussione
• percussore
• ripercuotere
• scuotere
• Latin percutiō
• French percuter

Usage notes

Percuotersi il petto is to beat one's breast in grief or repentance.^[9][12][10] The diphthong ⟨uo⟩ should drop where the stress moves (percotiamo), but Treccani and Sabatini note that the forms with ⟨uo⟩ now prevail there too.^[10][6] The variant percotere is popular or poetic.^[9][10]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 12, 1099
3. ^ 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
4. ^ a b c d e Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
6. ^ a b c d e f g Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
7. ^ 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
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 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
10. ^ a b c d Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
11. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
12. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli