pesante

Forms

pesante m or f by sense (plural pesanti, superlative pesantissimo)^[1] Old Italian also had pesanti and pesente.^[2]

Etymology

It is from Italian pesare (“to weigh”) + -ante, the present participle of the verb used as an adjective.^[3][4][5][6] Meyer-Lübke lists it among the derivatives of the verb, with the senses “heavy” and “tiresome”.^[7]

The verb pesare continues Vulgar Latin *pesāre, classical Latin pēnsō (“to weigh”) with the loss of /n/ before /s/; the classical form came back as the learned pensare.^[4][3] The Latin verb comes from pēnsus, the past participle of pendō (“to hang; to weigh”).^[4] The same verb is French peser, Occitan pezar, Catalan pesar, Spanish pesar and Portuguese pesar.^[4][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is in Chiaro Davanzati, in the 13th century, in the sense “that weighs”: “Nonn-è al mondo cosa sì pesante / ch'i' no gli truovi contro amovimento” (there is nothing in the world so heavy that I cannot find a way to move it).^[3][2] The figurative sense “tiresome, irksome” is also recorded in the 13th century, in an anonymous poem.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Fra Giordano explained that a thing is called heavy not by its size but by its substance, and Leonardo wrote of the wings that keep the “pesante aquila” (heavy eagle) up in the thin air.^[2] The sense “serious, worrying”, as in parola pesante and condizioni pesanti, is recorded in Tommaseo's dictionary in 1871.^[3]

Modern Italian uses the word of warm, thick clothes, of food that is hard to digest, of a heavy head or stomach, of stale air, of slow, clumsy movement, of over-ornate buildings and of a laboured style.^[8][5] Technical phrases include acqua pesante “heavy water”, industria pesante, artiglieria pesante and droga pesante “hard drug”.^[8][5] As a musical direction, pesante “weighty” was borrowed into German (1802), French and English (19th century).^[9]

Timeline

• 13th century – Chiaro Davanzati uses pesante “heavy”.^[3][2]
• 13th century – An anonymous poem uses it for “tiresome”.^[3]
• 1802 – German takes pesante as a musical term.^[9]
• 1812 – The musical sense “grave, imposing” of a voice is recorded in Italian.^[9]
• 1871 – Tommaseo records parola pesante and condizioni pesanti “serious”.^[3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Heavy, of great or relatively great weight: uno zaino troppo pesante.^[8][5][1]
2. Thick and warm (of fabric or clothes).^[8][5]
3. Hard to digest (of food or a meal).^[8][5]
4. Weighed down, oppressed (of the head, stomach, eyes); deep (of sleep).^[8]
5. Stale, unpleasant (of a smell or air); (figurative) tense (of a situation).^[8]
6. Slow and clumsy, lacking agility: un passo pesante.^[8][5]
7. Too massive or too ornate (of a building or furniture); too marked (of make-up).^[8]
8. (figurative) Tiresome, tedious, oppressive; hard to bear: un clima pesante in ufficio.^[8][5][1]
9. (figurative) Serious, grave (of words, conditions, an accusation).^[3][5]

Adverb

1. Heavily, andarci pesante, to go too far, to be harsh.^[8][5]

Word family

• pesantezza
• pesantemente
• pesantone
• superpesante

Related words

• pesare
• peso
• pensare
• French pesant

References

1. ^ a b c d 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 c d e f g h i 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 Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
6. ^ Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
7. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
9. ^ a b c Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it