prudere

Forms

prudere (third-person only, third-person singular present prùde, third-person singular past historic (rare) prudétte or (ditto, traditional) prudètte or (rare) prudé, no past participle)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *prūdere, from Latin prūriō (“to itch”) by dissimilation of the first /r/ and a change of conjugation.^[2][1][3][4] Nocentini reconstructs the Vulgar Latin verb as *prudīre, keeping the Latin conjugation.^[5][6] DELI prefers this dissimilation to Alessio's proposal of a blend of the Latin verb with rōdō (“to gnaw”).^[2] Meyer-Lübke used that blend only for Neapolitan prodere.^[7]

The same Vulgar Latin verb gave Occitan pruzir, Catalan pruir and Portuguese pruir.^[5][7][8] Another dissimilated form, with /l/, lies behind the southern Sicilian ciùriri.^[7][8]

De Vaan traces the Latin verb to a root Proto-Indo-European *preus- (“(cold and) wet, itching”), also found in pruīna (“hoarfrost”), in prūna (“glowing coal”), and in the Germanic words for frost.^[9][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the 14th-century Italian translation of Pietro Ispano's medical recipes: “Lava dove prude e ponvi su di dette foglie” (“wash where it itches and put some of those leaves on it”).^[2][10][11]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian formed the noun prudura “itch” in the 14th century, and pruzza, a skin complaint, from the present stem.^[8][12][7] Salvini added the learned prudore in the 18th century.^[8]

Tommaseo records the colloquial figures still in use: le mani gli prudono, “his hands itch”, said of someone spoiling for a fight, and toccare dove prude, to touch someone on a sore point.^[11][13] Sentirsi prudere la lingua is to be eager to speak out.^[4][3] In Palazzeschi the impersonal verb also means “to matter greatly to someone”.^[3]

Timeline

• 14th century – Prudere appears in the Italian translation of Pietro Ispano.^[2][10]
• 14th century – The noun prudura is recorded.^[8]
• 18th century – Salvini uses prudore.^[8]

Meanings

Verb

1. To itch, to cause an itching feeling; often impersonal with an indirect pronoun: Mi prude il gomito.^[4][14][15]
2. (figurative) In set phrases: sentirsi prudere le mani, to want to hit someone;^[4][13][16] sentirsi prudere la lingua, to be eager to say what one thinks;^[4][13][16] toccare qualcuno dove gli prude, to touch a sore point.^[4][13][16]

Word family

• prudore
• prudura

Related words

• prurito
• Latin prūriō

Usage notes

The verb is defective: it has no past participle and no compound tenses, and the past historic (prudé, prudette) is rare.^[3][14][1] It is mostly used in the third person.^[15][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d 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 Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
4. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
7. ^ a b c d Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ a b c d e f Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3124
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
11. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
12. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 808
13. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
14. ^ a b Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
15. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
16. ^ a b c Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli