perdurare

Forms

perdurare (first-person singular present perdùro, first-person singular past historic perdurài, past participle perduràto, auxiliary (with a person or thing as subject) avére or (with a thing as subject) èssere)^[1]

Etymology

It is learned: it is borrowed from Latin perdūrāre (“to last, endure”), formed from per-, which marks continuation or intensity, and dūrō (“to harden; to hold out”).^{[2][3][4][5][6]} The Latin verb is in Plautus and Terence in the sense “to hold out to the end”.^[6] That verb is formed from dūrus (“hard”).^[6]

The Latin verb also gave Old French pardurer, recorded in the 12th century.^[7][8] The Old French verb was borrowed as the English word perdure, which DEI dates to 1450.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in Bartolomeo da San Concordio, 1302–1308, a Pisan writer copied in Florence; the verb meant to last on in time, to go on existing.^[9] DELI dates it to Boccaccio, 1341–1342, in the sense “to last long, still”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian already used the verb of people who persevere in an activity or attitude.^[9] Old translations have perdurare for Latin perdurat in Boethius, and the old maxim that beginning praiseworthy things is less than persisting in a good intention.^[10] The TLIO records a Sicilian form pirduranu.^[9] DEI dates the derivatives perdurabile, perduranza and perdurevole to the 14th century.^[7]

Tommaseo marked the verb as obsolete in the 19th century, but it lived on in learned prose, as in Carducci's il paganesimo perdurava (“paganism persisted”).^[10][8] It is now a common word, especially of weather, illness and strikes that go on, and of people who persist in an error or a vice.^[4][11] The infinitive is also a noun, as in il perdurare della crisi.^[11][12]

Timeline

• 1302–1308 – Bartolomeo da San Concordio uses the verb.^[9]
• 1341–1342 – Boccaccio uses perdurare.^[2][4]
• 1300s – Perdurabile, perduranza and perdurevole are recorded.^[7]
• 1450 – English perdure is recorded.^[7]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive; auxiliary essere or avere) Of conditions, to last on, persist, continue: La pioggia perdura da tre giorni.^[4][13][14]
2. (intransitive; auxiliary avere) Of people, to persevere or persist in a behaviour or attitude (with in): perdurare nell'errore.^[4][13][11]
3. (literary) To hold out, resist.^[4][14]

Word family

• perdurante
• perdurabile
• perduranza
• perdurevole

Related words

• durare
• Latin dūrō

Usage notes

In the first sense the auxiliary is essere or avere.^[14][13][11] Of people it is avere.^[14][13][11] The present participle perdurante is also an adjective: un perdurante silenzio.^[12][11]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
6. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2848
8. ^ a b 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 d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
10. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
11. ^ a b c d e f Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
12. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
13. ^ a b c d Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
14. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli