pulire

Forms

pulire (first-person singular present pulìsco, first-person singular past historic pulìi, past participle pulìto, auxiliary avére or (in the archaic intransitive usage) èssere)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin polīre (“to polish, to smooth”).^[2][3][4][1] Sabatini–Coletti call it the popular form beside the learned polire.^[5] The same verb is French polir, Occitan polir, Catalan polir and Spanish pulir.^[3]

The origin of the Latin verb is uncertain.^[6] Joseph Vendryes held that it belonged to the trade of the fullers, who pressed and beat the cloth, and connected it with the Germanic word for felt, the source of feltro;^[6][3][7] Nocentini and Devoto follow this view.^[6][3][7] De Vaan also considers a derivation from Proto-Indo-European *pelh₁- (“to swing”), as in Ancient Greek πάλλω (pállō, “to swing, to shake”), or from an adjective meaning “flat”.^[6] The old explanation as a verb drawn from the perfect of polinō (“to smear”) was rejected by Walde–Hofmann and Ernout–Meillet.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is in Monte Andrea, in the 13th century, with the sense “to remove dirt”;^[2] GRADIT and Nocentini date the verb to before 1292.^[4][3] In Monte's line Sì come il ferro si pulisce a mena the iron is burnished, and GDLI files it under “to make smooth, to polish”.^[8]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian used the verb for polishing in the crafts and, figuratively, for refining a piece of writing, as in Dante and Petrarch;^[9][10] Francesco da Barberino used it for “to flatter”.^[9][10] The participle polito meant “smooth” in Ristoro d'Arezzo (1282), and pulito “clean” is in Boccaccio (1353), “elegant” in Giovanni Villani and “honest, upright” in 1605.^[2] Pulizia, first “simple elegance”, is recorded in the 16th century.^[3]

The modern sense is above all “to clean”.^[4][11] Figurative phrases include pulire il piatto, to eat every last crumb, and pulire il portafoglio or le tasche to someone, to take all their money.^[4][11] Compounds name cleaning tools: pulisciorecchi (1887–1891) and puliscipenne (1907).^[3]

Timeline

• 13th century – Monte Andrea uses pulire.^[2]
• 1282 – Ristoro d'Arezzo uses polito for “smooth”.^[2]
• 1353 – Boccaccio uses pulito for “clean”.^[2]
• 16th century – Pulizia is recorded.^[3]
• 1871 – Pulita, a quick clean, is recorded by Tommaseo.^[2]
• 1887–1891 – Pulisciorecchi is recorded.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To clean, free from dirt: Ogni sabato puliamo il garage. Used without an object, to do the housework.^[4][11][5]
2. To remove dirt or stains: Ha pulito il fango dagli stivali.^[4][11]
3. To clear of what is useless or in the way: pulire il giardino dalle erbacce.^[4][11][1]
4. (figurative, colloquial) To clean someone out, strip them of their money: pulire il portafoglio a qualcuno.^[4][11][1]
5. (uncommon) To polish, smooth: pulire una lastra di metallo.^[5][1]
6. (figurative) To refine, polish a piece of writing.^[5][1]
7. pulirsi: to clean oneself; to clean one's own hands, face and so on: pulirsi le scarpe sullo zerbino.^[11][1]

Word family

• pulito
• pulizia
• pulitura
• pulitore
• pulitrice
• pulita
• pulitezza
• pulimento
• ripulire
• pulisciorecchi
• puliscipiedi

Related words

• polire
• politura
• Latin polio
• French polir

Usage notes

Pulire is conjugated with -isc-: pulisco, pulisci.^[11][1] DEI and GDLI record an old pulire “to punish”, a form of punire with -l- by dissimilation, found in Giovanni Villani;^[9][8] the TLIO files it under punire.^[12]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g 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 f g h i Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
6. ^ a b c d e de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
7. ^ a b Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
9. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3144
10. ^ a b Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 811
11. ^ 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
12. ^ Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it