radere

Forms

radere (first-person singular present ràdo, first-person singular past historic ràsi, past participle ràso, auxiliary avére)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin rādere (“to scrape, scratch, shave”).^[2][3][1][4] Nocentini and Meyer-Lübke treat it as the popular outcome found across Romance: Old French rere, Occitan raire, Catalan raure, Spanish raer, Sardinian raere and Romanian rade.^[2][4] DELI instead classes the Italian verb as a learned word.^[5] From the participle rāsus spoken Latin formed a new verb, the source of rasare, which has the larger family.^[5]

The origin of the Latin verb is uncertain.^[5][6] De Vaan reconstructs a Proto-Italic *rasd-e/o-, with cognates only in Celtic, such as Welsh rhathu (“to scrape”), so a PIE source is doubtful.^[6] Nocentini sets it in the family of rōdō (“to gnaw”) and compares a Sanskrit verb for “to scratch”.^[2][7] Meyer-Lübke derives the old adverb radente “close by” from the verb, and says that rasente has its *-s-* from raso.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is in Dante (1300–1313), with the sense “to take off by scraping or grazing”.^[5] The sense “to shave” appears in the 14th-century Italian translation of Gregory the Great's Moralia.^[5][8]

Semantic evolution

Dante asks to have the frozen tears scraped from his face: mi rade / le 'nvetriate lagrime dal volto.^[9] By 1313–1319 Dante uses the verb in the sense “to graze, to skim past”.^[5] Older Italian also used it for clipping coins, cancelling writing and mortgages, and striking a name off a list.^[9][3]

Antonio Pucci, before 1388, used it for pulling down a building, the sense of today's radere al suolo.^[5] The reflexive radersi, “to shave oneself”, is recorded from 1658.^[5] The participle radente “grazing” dates from 1592, and the physicists' attrito radente, sliding friction, from 1939–1940.^[5]

Timeline

• 1300–1313 – Dante uses radere “to scrape away”.^[5]
• 1313–1319 – Dante uses it for “to graze”.^[5][3]
• 14th century – A translation of Gregory the Great uses it for shaving.^[5]
• Before 1388 – Antonio Pucci uses it for “to pull down”.^[5]
• 1592 – Radente “grazing” is recorded.^[5]
• 1658 – The reflexive radersi is recorded.^[5]
• 1889 – Radenza is recorded in Guglielmotti.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To shave off hair or a beard with a razor; to shave a person: Il barbiere gli rase il mento.^{[3][10][11][9]}
2. (uncommon) To scrape off; formerly also to clip coins, cancel a mortgage or strike off a register.^[3][10][9]
3. (literary, figurative) To wipe away, to erase from the mind.^[3][10][12]
4. To cut down to the base or raze;^{[3][10][11][1]} radere al suolo, to destroy completely: Il terremoto rase al suolo il paese.^{[3][10][11][1]}
5. (figurative) To graze, to pass very close to a surface: Le rondini radevano il prato.^{[3][10][11][1]}

Word family

• radente
• radenza
• raditura
• raso

Related words

• rasare
• rasentare
• rasoio
• abradere
• eradere
• Latin rādō

Usage notes

The past tense is rasi and the past participle raso; old Italian also had radei and raduto.^[10][11][13] The reflexive radersi used alone means “to shave one's beard”.^[9][14]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
4. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
6. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
9. ^ a b c d e Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
10. ^ a b c d e f g Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
11. ^ a b c d e Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
12. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
13. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 15, 252
14. ^ Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli