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piacere

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Etymology and origin of the Italian word piacere

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
late 12th century, Ritmo laurenziano
Inherited from
Latin placeo
Ultimate origin
Latin placeō
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin placeo
French plaisir
Italian piacere
From the same root
Latin placidus ← placeo
Latin placitus ← placeo
Italian spiacere ← piacere

Pronunciation

  • /pjaˈt͡ʃe.re/[1]

Forms

piacere (first-person singular present piàccio, first-person singular past historic piàcqui, past participle piaciùto, auxiliary èssere)[1] Old forms include plaçere, placere, plagere and piagere.[2][3][4][5] Sabatini–Coletti explains plagere as a continuation of Old Occitan plazer.[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin placēre (“to please”).[6][7][2][1] The verb is panromance: French plaire, Occitan plazer, Catalan plaure, Spanish placer, Portuguese prazer, Sardinian piàghere and Romanian plăcea;[7][8] DÉRom reconstructs a Proto-Romance verb meaning “to be to someone's liking”, but notes that it has been losing ground in the Romance languages.[9] DEI considers the Spanish and Portuguese words learned and the southern Italian forms loans from Tuscan.[10] The noun is the same infinitive used as a noun, with parallels in French plaisir, Catalan plaer and Romanian plăcere.[7][8][11]

De Vaan sets up a stem Proto-Italic *plak-ē- and a root Proto-Indo-European *pl(e)h₂k- “to agree, be pleasant”, whose only certain comparison is Tocharian A plāk- (“to agree”); Latin plācō (“to appease”) belongs to the same root.[12] Nocentini traces the root to the family of Latin plānus (“flat”), so that the first sense would be “to be smooth, and so agreeable”,[7] and Devoto describes the Latin verb as originally impersonal, “it is all right”.[13]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is the form plaçono (they please) in the Ritmo laurenziano, from the end of the 12th century;[6] piacere itself is in Bondie Dietaiuti, in the first half of the 13th century.[6] The sense “to wish” is recorded in 1219 in the Breve di Montieri.[6] As a noun GRADIT dates it before 1243, and DELI's first record of the sense “enjoyment” is the Novellino, at the end of the 13th century.[2][6]

Semantic evolution

In Dante the verb has its modern construction, the thing liked as subject and the person in the dative: “Marzïa piacque tanto a li occhi miei” (Marcia so pleased my eyes, Purgatorio 1).[14] The noun meant enjoyment, will (Novellino), and, from Boccaccio (1353) a favour done to someone;[6] it also named the beauty that arouses love, as in Francesca's words in Inferno 5, “mi prese del costui piacer sì forte”.[2][14] The phrase a piacere “at will” goes back to the 14th century and passed into French.[10]

From Late Latin placibilis came piacevole (before 1294).[6][7] A treno di piacere, a cheap train for outings, was a calque of French train de plaisir, recorded by Panzini in 1931.[15] In psychology the principio del piacere is Freud's pleasure principle,[11][4] and in modern use piacere! is the usual reply on being introduced.[2][4]

Timeline

  • Late 12th century – Plaçono in the Ritmo laurenziano.[6]
  • 1219 – The sense “to wish” in the Breve di Montieri.[6]
  • Before 1243 – GRADIT's date for the noun.[2]
  • First half of the 13th century – Bondie Dietaiuti writes piacere.[6]
  • Late 13th century – The noun “enjoyment” and “will” in the Novellino.[6]
  • 1353 – The noun “favour” in Boccaccio.[6]
  • 1931 – Treno di piacere is recorded by Panzini.[15]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To please, be liked by (with the person liking in the dative, so usually rendered “to like”): a mia nonna piacciono i gialli, mi piace camminare in montagna.[2][11][3]
  2. In the conditional, to like, to wish: mi piacerebbe vedere Lisbona, (jocular) ti piacerebbe!, of something unlikely to happen.[2][11]
  3. To win approval or esteem: il suo modo di fare non mi piace.[2][11][16]
  4. To attract, of a person: quella ragazza gli piace da mesi.[2][11][3]
  5. To seem right, to choose: fai come ti piace, faccio quel che mi pare e piace.[2][17][3]
  6. (impersonal) In wishes: piaccia a Dio, piacesse al cielo!.[2][17]

Noun

  1. pleasure, enjoyment, the satisfaction of a desire or of the senses: leggere con piacere, i piaceri della buona cucina.[2][11][3]
  2. In courtesy formulas, honour, pleasure: è stato un vero piacere rivederti; on being introduced, piacere! “nice to meet you”.[2][11][4]
  3. amusement, leisure: una gita di piacere, prima il dovere, poi il piacere.[2][4][3]
  4. A favour, a kindness: mi faresti un piacere?, per piacere, please.[2][3][16]
  5. Will, choice, in a piacere (at will) and a tuo piacere.[2][3]
  6. (psychology) Pleasure as opposed to pain, in Freud's principio del piacere.[2][11][4]

Word family

Usage notes

The verb takes essere and puts the person who likes in the dative: mi piace (I like it), ci sono piaciuti (we liked them).[11][16] The idioms piaccia o non piaccia (like it or not) and non mi piace said of a cough or a look (it worries me) are common.[17][16]

References

  1. ^ a b c 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 De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  4. ^ a b c d e f Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
  5. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 768
  6. ^ 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
  7. ^ a b c d e Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  8. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  9. ^ Buchi, Éva; Schweickard, Wolfgang, eds. (2008–), Dictionnaire Étymologique Roman (DÉRom), Nancy: ATILF, http://www.atilf.fr/DERom
  10. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2890
  11. ^ 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
  12. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  13. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier, p. 329
  14. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
  15. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3884
  16. ^ a b c d Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
  17. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli

Derived terms

Related etymologies

  • no · also from Latin
  • cosa · also from Latin
  • a · also from Latin
  • mio · also from Latin
  • uno · also from Latin
  • si · also from Latin
  • sapere · also from Latin
  • fare · also from Latin
Cite this entry

“Piacere.” Etymologically, 21 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/it/piacere. Accessed 22 Oct. 2026.

Last edited on . ·