pinzare

Forms

pinzare (first-person singular present pìnzo, first-person singular past historic pinzài, past participle pinzàto, auxiliary avére)^[1]

Etymology

Its origin is disputed.^[2][3][4] DELI and GRADIT take it as probably borrowed from French pincer (“to pinch”), recorded in French from 1160 and expressive in origin;^[2][5][6] Sabatini–Coletti agree.^[6] DELI follows DEI in treating the verb, pinza and pinzetta as borrowings from French, perhaps independent of one another, and notes that the verb's late record makes direct descent from Latin hard to accept.^[2][7]

Nocentini, Zingarelli and Gabrielli derive it from a Vulgar Latin *pinctiāre “to thrust in”, which the REW lists as an imitative word behind the French verb and Spanish pinchar too.^{[3][8][9][10]} Nocentini makes it an intensive of a Vulgar Latin *pingere “to drive in”, a form of Latin pangō abstracted from compounds such as impingō; from “to thrust in” he derives both Old Italian pinzarsi (“to stuff oneself”) (14th century), the base of rimpinzare, and the Tuscan verb meaning “to sting”.^[3][11] DEI and Devoto see a crossing of *punctiāre, intensive of pungō, with *piccāre.^[7][12][13] Prati and Treccani call the verb imitative, akin to pizzicare, Treccani with possible French influence.^[14][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is in Santi Saccenti, before 1749, with the sense of an insect stinging: la vespa mi pinzava “the wasp stung me”.^[2][15] D'Alberti in 1804 called it a word of current use for the stinging of wasps and flies.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The verb stayed a Tuscan word for insects stinging, used by Fucini and Montale of mosquitoes; it was also said of crustaceans pinching with their claws (D'Annunzio) and of birds pecking (Pirandello).^[15][4] Tommaseo also gives “to tread, press down”.^[16]

The sense “to grip with pliers” is recorded from 1958, together with pinzatura.^[2] With the stapler (pinzatrice), the verb came to mean “to staple”, now its most common sense.^[5][8][6] Slang uses it for catching someone red-handed.^[5][17] Older derivatives are pinzo “sting” and pinzuto “pointed” (Burchiello, 15th century).^[7][14]

Timeline

• Before 1749 – Santi Saccenti uses pinzare for a wasp stinging.^[2]
• 1804 – D'Alberti records the verb as current usage.^[2]
• 1958 – The senses “to grip with pliers” and pinzatura are recorded.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To staple together with metal staples: pinzare le ricevute.^[5][13][8]
2. (transitive, regional, Tuscany) Of insects, to sting; of birds, to peck; of crustaceans, to pinch.^[5][13][4]
3. (transitive, uncommon) To grip or hold with pliers.^[5][13][6]
4. (transitive, slang) To catch someone in the act.^[5]
5. (transitive, textiles) To carry out the pinzatura of a fabric.^[5][4]

Word family

• pinzatura
• pinzatrice
• pinzatore
• pinzata
• pinzo
• appinzare
• pinzacchio

Related words

• pinza
• pinzetta
• rimpinzare
• pizzicare
• French pincer

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ 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)
5. ^ a b c d e f g h De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
6. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
7. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2931
8. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
9. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
11. ^ Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
12. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
13. ^ a b c d Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
14. ^ a b Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 780
15. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 13, 504
16. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
17. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. Supplemento 2009