pressione

Forms

pressione f (plural pressioni)^[1] An old form is Old Italian plesione.^[2]

Etymology

It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin pressiō (“pressure, weight”), a noun of action formed on pressus, the past participle of premō (“to press”).^[3][4][5][6] The Latin noun is found in Vitruvius.^[7][8] The same word is French pression, recorded from 1256, and Spanish presión.^[9][4][7] It belongs with premere and with impressione.^[10][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's earliest date for the word is John Florio's Italian–English dictionary of 1611, with the sense “the act or effect of pressing”.^[3][9] The scientific sense, the force with which a fluid acts on a surface, is found in Galileo, who died in 1642.^[3][7]

Semantic evolution

The word became a term of 17th-century physics: the experimenters of the Accademia del Cimento debated whether Torricelli's mercury was held up by the “natural pressure of the air”.^[8] From physics came the meteorological pressione atmosferica and the medical pressione arteriosa or simply pressione for blood pressure.^[11][1]

The figurative sense “insistent urging to make someone do something” is dated 1855 by DELI;^[3][7] DEI dates it 1871 and calls it a Gallicism.^[3][7] Later uses include gruppo di pressione “pressure group”, pressione fiscale “tax burden”, and essere sotto pressione “to be under pressure, under stress”.^[12][13][5]

Timeline

• 1256 – French pression is recorded.^[9]
• 1611 – Florio's dictionary records pressione.^[3][9]
• Before 1642 – Galileo uses it for the pressure of a fluid.^[3]
• 1855 – The figurative sense “insistent urging” is recorded.^[3]
• 1871 – DEI's date for the same sense, which it takes from French.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. pressure: the act of pressing on a surface or object, or the force so exerted: Basta una leggera pressione sul pulsante.^[9][5][13]
2. (physics) The ratio of the force acting perpendicularly on a surface to the area of that surface; also the pressure of a fluid.^[9][5][11]
3. (meteorology) Atmospheric pressure, pressione atmosferica.^[9][5]
4. (medicine) blood pressure: Il medico mi ha misurato la pressione.^[9][11][1]
5. (military) A prolonged offensive on a wide front.^[9][13]
6. (figurative) Insistent urging to make someone act in a certain way; leverage: Il sindaco ha ceduto alle pressioni dei commercianti.^[9][13][11]
7. (economics) Pressione fiscale: the ratio of taxes collected to national income.^[13][14]

Word family

• contropressione
• sovrappressione
• pressostato
• pressofusione

Related words

• impressione
• premere
• Latin pressio

Usage notes

Essere sotto pressione is said both of a boiler that has reached working pressure and, figuratively, of a person under stress.^[5][12] A pressione describes something that works by pressing, such as a stud or a press-fit cap, and pentola a pressione is a pressure cooker.^[14][9]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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 d e f g h Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
4. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ 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
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3070
8. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
9. ^ 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
10. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
11. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
12. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
13. ^ a b c d e Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
14. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana