recere

Forms

recere (third-person only, third-person singular present rèce, no past historic, past participle reciùto, no imperfect, no future, no subjunctive, no imperfect subjunctive, auxiliary avére)^[1]

Etymology

DELI and the GDLI treat it as learned: it is borrowed from Latin reiciō (“to throw back”), from re- (“back”) and iaciō (“to throw”), which in medical language already meant “to vomit” in Pliny and others.^[2][3][4][5] DELI corrects the DEI, which had given a different Latin form.^[2][6] Wiktionary, by contrast, has the word inherited, and Meyer-Lübke lists it beside dialect forms such as Lombard res in Ticino, recer in Valtellina and Romansh rieder.^[1][7][8] The DEI notes that the word is now mainly northern, as in the Lombard Alps.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is a 14th-century Italian version of a work of Saint Jerome: quando egli vuole bere, sì rece lo veleno, “when he wants to drink, he throws up the poison”.^[2][9] Zingarelli dates the first record to 1364, and GRADIT to the second half of the 14th century.^[10][4]

Semantic evolution

In Lancia's translation of the Aeneid a dying man recette i vini mescolati col sangue, “threw up the wine mixed with blood”.^[3][9] Later writers used it in the same sense, often hyperbolically: Aretino of a man who has thrown up his guts, Carducci of a drunk who tosse e rece, “coughs and vomits”.^[3][9]

By the modern period the verb was defective, used mostly in the infinitive, in rece and in the participle reciuto, and it is now rare and literary or Tuscan.^[11][12][10] Expressions such as far recere, “to make someone sick, to disgust”, and the Tuscan a capo reci, “head down”, survive.^[10][13][4]

Timeline

• 14th century – The translation of Saint Jerome uses rece.^[2][9]
• 1364 – First record according to Zingarelli.^[10]

Meanings

Verb

1. (literary or Tuscan, uncommon) To vomit, throw up; also used without an object.^{[4][11][10][12]}
2. (figurative, hyperbolic) To feel disgust: far recere, to sicken, to be disgusting.^[4][11][10]

Word family

• reciticcio

Related words

• rigettare
• gettare
• Latin reiciō

Usage notes

The verb is defective: only the infinitive, the third person singular present rèce and the past participle reciuto are in use, with the auxiliary avere.^[11][12][10] A capo reci (Tuscan) means “upside down, head down”.^[13][4][14]

References

1. ^ a b c 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 Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 15, 633
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. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975)
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
9. ^ a b c d Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
10. ^ a b c d e f g Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
11. ^ a b c d Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
12. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
13. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
14. ^ Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)