pregare

Forms

pregare (first-person singular present prègo, first-person singular past historic pregài, past participle pregàto, auxiliary avére)^[1] Old and dialect forms include Old Italian precare, Old Italian preare, Old Italian prigare and Old Italian priegare, and the Old Italian present had diphthongised stressed forms such as priego.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *precāre, the active form of Latin precor (“to pray, entreat”), a verb derived from prex (“prayer, request”).^[4][5][6][2] The voiced /g/ for Latin /k/ is, Devoto says, a northern lenition, and the older form ⟨precare⟩ survived in poetry, as when Dante rhymes “ven preco”.^[7][8][9]

The verb is found across the western Romance languages and in Dalmatian: French prier, Occitan pregar, Catalan pregar, Portuguese pregar and Dalmatian precur.^[5][10][11] In Spanish and Portuguese the usual verbs for “to pray” are Spanish orar and Spanish rezar.^[11]

The Latin noun goes back to Proto-Indo-European *preḱ- (“to ask”), whose cognates include poscō (“to demand”), Sanskrit पृच्छति (pṛcchati, “asks”), German Frage (“question”) and Old Church Slavonic просити (prositi, “to ask”).^[5][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

GRADIT and Nocentini date the verb to about 1050, and the GDLI's first quotation is the Umbrian confession formula, in which the penitent asks the priest to pray for him (Pregonde te, sacerdote).^[12][5][2] DELI's earliest dates are the Venetian “to ask for something by entreaty” in 1253 and the absolute “to say prayers” in the early 13th-century Ritmo su Sant'Alessio.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian had both the secular and the religious senses: Guittone d'Arezzo begs “ladies in love” to plead for him with his lady, and Boccaccio's characters pray one another for favours.^[2][8] In the 14th century the verb could also mean “to wish” and, ironically, “to curse”, as when Boccaccio has someone “pray” cruel blasphemies on another's head; both are now obsolete.^[12][10]

The interjection prego, the first person of the present, is recorded from 1737 by Nocentini;^[5][4] DELI finds it as an answer to grazie in an 1868 phrasebook and in Tommaseo, and Panzini thought it modelled on German bitte in the lands once ruled by Austria.^[5][4] Farsi pregare “to need coaxing” describes someone who grants a request only after much insistence.^[12][9]

Timeline

• c. 1050 – The verb is first recorded.^[12][5]
• Early 13th century – The Ritmo su Sant'Alessio uses it for “to say prayers”.^[4]
• Before 1243 – Guido Faba uses the noun prego “prayer”.^[4]
• 1253 – A Venetian text uses it for “to entreat”.^[4]
• 1737 – Prego is recorded as a formula of courtesy.^[5]
• 1868 – Prego as the reply to grazie appears in a German–Italian phrasebook.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To beg, ask humbly: L'ho pregato di non partire.^[12][9][6]
2. (transitive) To pray to God, a saint or a deity: pregare la Madonna.^[12][9][6]
3. (intransitive) To pray, say prayers: La nonna prega ogni sera prima di dormire.^[12][9][1]
4. (transitive) To ask politely, invite, also in formulas of courtesy: I signori passeggeri sono pregati di allacciare le cinture.^[12][6][13]
5. (literary) To implore, call down something on someone.^[12][3]

Word family

• prego
• preghiera
• pregatore
• pregadio

Related words

• prece
• Latin precor

Usage notes

Ti prego and la prego are polite formulas, “please”, and prego alone answers grazie (“you're welcome”) or invites someone in.^[6][12][4] Non farsi pregare means to agree at once and gladly.^[12][3]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
3. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d e Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
7. ^ a b Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
9. ^ a b c d e Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
10. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3059
11. ^ a b Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
12. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
13. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana