pigiare

Forms

pigiare (first-person singular present pìgio, first-person singular past historic pigiài, past participle pigiàto, auxiliary avére)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *pinsiāre, a Vulgar Latin verb beside classical Latin pīnsere (“to pound, crush”).^[2][3][1][4] Nocentini derives it from the first-conjugation pīnsāre “to pound”, Wiktionary and Treccani from the past participle pīnsus, and GRADIT gives the base as *pīsiāre.^[5][1][6][7] The word came into Tuscan from the north: DEI, the GDLI and Sabatini–Coletti call it northern in origin, and Devoto explains its sound by the northern voicing of ⟨sj⟩, rendered in Tuscan as ⟨gi⟩.^{[8][9][10][11]}

The other Romance languages continue the Latin verb without the suffix: French piser, Occitan pizar, Spanish pisar, Portuguese pisar and Romanian pisa.^[5]

The Latin verb goes back to Proto-Indo-European *peys- (“to crush, grind”), with a nasal present *pi-n-s-.^[12][5] Its cognates include Ancient Greek πτίσσω (ptíssō, “to winnow, pound”) and Lithuanian pisti.^[12][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Nocentini and GRADIT date the verb before 1320.^[5][7] DELI's first record is the Italian translation of Pietro de' Crescenzi, about 1350, for pressing something with more or less force; its chapter title asks how grapes should be trodden to make wine.^[2][13]

Semantic evolution

The verb kept the sense of pressing or treading, above all grapes, and Tommaseo quotes an old Gospel commentary on those who tread the winepress.^[13] It also came to mean pushing and crowding people into a narrow space, and as pigiarsi “to crowd together”.^[3][14][6] The figurative sense “to insist” is recorded by Tommaseo in 1871.^[2][7]

The reduplicated imperative pigia pigia “crush, throng” is recorded in 1865, and also means “by dint of pushing, by insisting”.^[2][6] Names of the wine-making tools followed: pigiatura (in Medieval Latin at Piacenza in the 13th century as a stamp or seal, in Italian from 1476), pigiatrice, the grape crusher (1876), and pigiatoio (1922).^[2]

Timeline

• Before 1320 – First record, with pigiatore.^[5][7]
• About 1350 – The Crescenzi translation uses pigiare of grapes.^[2]
• 1476 – Pigatura is recorded in Cristoforo Landino.^[2]
• 1865 – Pigia pigia “crush, throng” is recorded.^[2]
• 1871 – Tommaseo records the sense “to insist” and the noun pigiata.^[2]
• 1876 – Pigiatrice, the grape crusher, is recorded.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To press, squeeze or tamp down with more or less force: pigiare la terra nel vaso.^[7][3][14]
2. (transitive) To tread or crush grapes to make must.^[3][14][1]
3. (transitive) To push or cram people into a narrow space; also used without an object, of a crowd pushing.^[3][10][7]
4. (transitive, figurative) To insist.^[7][15]
5. (pronominal, as pigiarsi) To crowd together, jostle.^[14][3][6]

Word family

• pigiatura
• pigiatore
• pigiatrice
• pigiatoio
• pigiata
• pigia pigia
• ripigiare

Related words

• pestare
• Latin pīnsō

Usage notes

Pigia pigia is used as a noun for a crush of people and as an adverbial phrase, “by dint of pushing” or “by insisting”.^[2][6][15]

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 e f Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
4. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
5. ^ a b c d e f Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d e Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
7. ^ a b c d e f g De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
8. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2915
9. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 13, 442
10. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
11. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
12. ^ 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
13. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
14. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
15. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli