pressare

Forms

pressare (first-person singular present prèsso, first-person singular past historic pressài, past participle pressàto, auxiliary avére)^[1]

Etymology

It is learned: it is borrowed from Latin pressō (“to press, weigh down”), the frequentative of premō (“to press”), formed on its past participle pressus.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} The Latin verb is recorded from Plautus on.^[7][8] The same Latin verb gave French presser, recorded from the 12th century.^{[9][3][10][11]}

For the base verb de Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *pres- and Proto-Indo-European *pr-es- (“to press”): the present stem ⟨prem-⟩ would be an innovation on the model of tremō (“to tremble”), while the perfect and the participle keep the older stem.^[7] He calls a further link with *per- (“to hit”) guesswork.^[7]

The noun pressa is a deverbal with no suffix.^[2] Its sense “machine for pressing” is a calque on French presse, and pressione follows the French pression.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's earliest record is in Franco Sacchetti, who died in 1400, with the sense “to bump against”.^[2] The passage is Pinto da un altro questo fanciullo, il detto Guido pressò (“this boy, pushed by another, bumped into the said Guido”).^[12][5] Zingarelli dates the verb to 1363.^[5]

Semantic evolution

Around 1410 a meditation on the Passion of Christ used the verb for “to urge, press insistently”: E li perfidi chierici sempre pressavano (“and the wicked clerics kept pressing”).^[2][12] The sense “to squeeze in a press” is recorded by Fanfani in 1865.^[2] Tommaseo gives pressare la carta, la biancheria (to press paper or linen), and the GDLI adds the pressing of olives in the mill and printing with the press.^[12][6]

The present participle pressante “urgent” followed French pressant.^[9][13] In sport the verb now means to apply pressing to the opposing side.^[4][14][1] A literary pronominal pressarsi means “to hurry”.^[5]

Timeline

• 1363 – Zingarelli's date for the verb.^[5]
• Before 1400 – Franco Sacchetti uses it for “to bump against”.^[2]
• About 1410 – A meditation on the Passion uses it for “to urge insistently”.^[2]
• 17th century – pressante is recorded, in Redi.^[9][3]
• 1865 – Fanfani records the sense “to squeeze in a press”.^[2]
• 1885 – pressacarte “paperweight” is formed on the model of French presse-papier.^[3]
• 1921 – pressaforaggio “baler” is recorded.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To press, squeeze or pack down, especially loose material in a container: pressare la neve per fare un pupazzo.^[15][14][5]
2. To press on all sides, to crowd: I tifosi ci pressavano contro le transenne.^[15][4][5]
3. To compress with a pressa, or keep under a press for a long time (paper, tobacco leaves, the quires of a book before binding).^[15][4][13]
4. (figurative) To urge, pester or harass insistently: Il direttore la pressava perché finisse la relazione.^{[15][4][14][13]}
5. (sports) To put pressing on the opponents, also without an object: Nel secondo tempo la squadra ha smesso di pressare.^[4][14][1]
6. (obsolete) To bump against, jostle.^[4][5][12]

Word family

• pressa
• pressaforaggio
• pressante
• pressatore
• pressatura
• pressella
• pressino
• pressatrice
• pressoio
• pressacarte

Related words

• premere
• presso
• Latin premō
• French presser

Usage notes

An old pronominal pressarsi, formed on presso, meant “to draw near, approach”, as in David si pressava alla morte (“David was drawing near to death”).^[6][12][9] The present is io prèsso, with open /ɛ/.^[4][14]

References

1. ^ a b c d 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 d e Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
6. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 14, 252
7. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c d Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3070
10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
11. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
12. ^ a b c d e Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
13. ^ a b c Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
14. ^ a b c d e Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
15. ^ a b c d De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET