pesare

Forms

pesare (first-person singular present péso, first-person singular past historic pesài, past participle pesàto, auxiliary (transitive or intransitive) avére or (alternatively when intransitive) èssere)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *pesāre, the spoken form of Latin pēnsō (“to weigh”), with the /n/ before /s/ lost.^[2][3][4][1] The Latin verb is an intensive of pendō (“to hang; to weigh”), formed on its past participle pēnsus.^[2][5][6] The classical form with /n/ survives in pensare “to think”, a doublet.^[2][1]

The same word is French peser, Occitan pezar, Catalan pesar, Spanish pesar and Portuguese pesar.^[2][7] In Logudorese, Sardinian pezare also means “lift” and “rise”, of dough.^[7]

The sense of this Latin verb went from “hang” to “weigh out” and “pay”.^[8] De Vaan traces it to Proto-Indo-European *(s)pend- (“to spin”), which most handbooks see as a variant of *(s)penh₁- (“to spin, weave”).^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is a Tuscan treatise of 1264, with the sense “weigh, find the weight of”.^[9][10]

Semantic evolution

The figurative sense “weigh up, examine closely” appears before 1292 in B. Giamboni.^[9] Intransitive uses followed: “be hard or unpleasant” in Dante (1293–94), “carry authority” in Giordano da Pisa (before 1311) and “have a given weight” in Cavalca (before 1342).^[9]

The participle pesante “heavy” is recorded in the 13th century, and modern compounds name scales: pesalettere (1891), pesapersone (1932), pesabambini (1954).^[9][2] Common phrases include pesare le parole “choose one's words carefully” and far pesare “make someone feel” a favour or a fault.^[10][11]

Timeline

• 1264 – A Tuscan treatise has the first record.^[9]
• Before 1292 – B. Giamboni uses it for “weigh up, examine”.^[9]
• 1293–1294 – Dante uses it for “be burdensome”.^[9]
• Before 1311 – Giordano da Pisa uses it for “carry authority”.^[9]
• Before 1342 – Cavalca uses it for “have a given weight”.^[9]
• 1873 – Soppesare is recorded.^[2]
• 1891 – Pesalettere appears in Petrocchi's dictionary.^[9]

Meanings

Verb

1. To weigh, measure the weight of: pesare la farina per il pane.^[10][3][1]
2. (figurative) To weigh up, ponder: pesare i rischi di una scelta.^[10][3]
3. (figurative) To size up, judge a person.^[10][3]
4. (statistics) To give a weight to the terms of a series.^[10]
5. (intransitive) To weigh a given amount: il pacco pesa tre chili.^[10][1]
6. (intransitive) To be heavy.^[10][1]
7. (intransitive) To press with its weight; to weigh on.^[10][1]
8. (intransitive, figurative) To matter, carry weight, influence.^[10][1]
9. (intransitive, figurative) To be a burden, be hard for someone: quella partenza gli pesa.^[9][1]

Word family

• pesa
• pesante
• pesantezza
• appesantire
• pesata
• pesatore
• pesatura
• soppesare
• contrappesare
• pesalettere
• pesapersone
• pesabambini

Related words

• peso
• pensare
• pendere
• French peser
• Latin pēnsō

Usage notes

The /s/ is pronounced voiced or voiceless, /peˈza.re/ or /peˈsa.re/.^[1] As an intransitive verb it takes avere or essere.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
3. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
4. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
5. ^ Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
6. ^ Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ a b 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 g h i j k Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
11. ^ Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli