piegare

Forms

piegare (first-person singular present piègo or piégo, first-person singular past historic piegài, past participle piegàto, auxiliary avére)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin plicō (“to fold”), through an earlier *piecare.^[2][3][4][1] DEI, the GDLI and Sabatini–Coletti call it a northern word, citing plegare at Parma in 1266 and at Venice in 1275, and Devoto explains the /g/ as northern voicing of /k/.^[5][6][7][8] The southern dialects kept the voiceless consonant, as in Sicilian chicari.^[5] It is the popular form beside learned words such as complicare and esplicare.^[7]

The verb is panromance: French plier, Occitan plegar, Catalan plegar, Spanish llegar (“to arrive”), Portuguese chegar (“to arrive”) and Romanian pleca (“to leave”).^[3][9] Nocentini explains the Spanish and Portuguese sense through applicō (“to bring to, land”), and the Romanian one through folding up the tents, a military phrase for leaving.^[3][9] Welsh borrowed the word as Welsh plygu.^[9][5]

The Latin verb was formed back from compounds such as complicō and explicō, beside the one meaning “bring to, land”, which point to an unattested *plecāre; it belongs with plectō (“to plait”).^[3][10][8] The root is Proto-Indo-European *pleḱ- (“to plait, weave”), seen also in Ancient Greek πλέκω (plékō, “I plait”) and in the -plex of duplex.^{[1][10][8][11]}

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is in the 13th-century Legend of Saint Catherine, in the figurative sense “induce, persuade, subdue”.^[2] The physical sense “make curved” is in the Tavola ritonda in the 14th century.^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

Boccaccio uses the verb for folding cloth (1353), and Dante for bowing, for turning in a direction, and in the reflexive for bending and for yielding.^[2] The army sense “give way” is in GRADIT.^[4]

Piega, a fold, is in Boccaccio (1341–1342), and pieghevole “flexible” in the same years; the noun pieghevole, a leaflet, translates French dépliant.^[2][8] Messa in piega, a hair set (1939), follows French mise en pli.^[2] In motorcycling the verb means leaning the bike into a bend, recorded in La Repubblica in 1999.^[6][12] Sports reporting uses it for defeating an opponent.^[1][4]

Timeline

• 1200s – The Legend of Saint Catherine uses the verb.^[2]
• 1266 – Plegare is recorded at Parma.^[5][6]
• 1275 – Plegare is recorded at Venice.^[5][6]
• Before 1321 – Dante uses it for bowing and yielding.^[2]
• 1341–1342 – Boccaccio uses piega and pieghevole.^[2]
• 1353 – Boccaccio uses it for folding.^[2]
• 1939 – Messa in piega is recorded.^[2]
• 1999 – The motorcycling sense appears in the press.^[6]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To bend; to make curved: Il fabbro piegò la sbarra a forma di L.^[4][11][13]
2. (transitive) To fold, laying one edge over the other: Piega la tovaglia e mettila nel cassetto.^[4][11][7]
3. (transitive) To bend the legs or arms.^[4][11]
4. (transitive) To lower, bow, incline: Il vecchio piegò la testa per salutarci.^[4][11][13]
5. (transitive, figurative) To subdue, overcome; to defeat an opponent.^[4][11][12]
6. (transitive, figurative) To persuade, induce.^[4][11][7]
7. (intransitive) To turn, change direction: Dopo il ponte la strada piega verso il mare.^[4][7][12]
8. (intransitive) To bend under a weight.^[4][14]
9. (intransitive) Of an army, to give way, retreat.^[4]
10. (motorcycling) To lean into a bend.^[12][6]
11. (piegarsi) To bend over;^[12][7] (figurative) to yield, give in.^[12][7]

Word family

• piega
• piegaferro
• piegamento
• piegata
• piegatrice
• piegatura
• pieghettare
• pieghettatura
• pieghevole
• pieghevolezza
• piegatore
• ripiegare

Related words

• spiegare
• complicare
• plico
• Latin plicō
• French plier

Usage notes

Mi spezzo ma non mi piego (I break but I don't bend) expresses a refusal to give in.^[14][12]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b c d Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ a b c d e Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2909
6. ^ a b c d e f g Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
7. ^ a b c d e f g Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
8. ^ a b c d Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
9. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ 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
11. ^ a b c d e f g Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
12. ^ a b c d e f g Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
13. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
14. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli