restio

Forms

restio (feminine restia, masculine plural restii, feminine plural restie)^[1] Old and dialect forms include Old Italian restito, Old Italian restivo and Old Italian ristio.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *restīvus (“that stays behind, that stops”), formed from Latin restō (“to stay behind, to stop”).^[4][5][6][1] DELI calls this direct link with the Latin verb the commonly accepted view.^[7]

Scholars have also proposed other spoken Latin forms to explain the adjective: *restitīvus, shortened to the form above (the FEW and DEI), *restatīvus (Alessio) and *resistitīvus (Devoto).^[7] GRADIT, Devoto–Oli, Sabatini–Coletti, Zingarelli and Gabrielli connect it with resistō (“to resist”) instead, through a form of that kind.^{[8][9][10][11][12]} The GDLI calls the etymon controversial and sets out both views.^[2]

The adjective also existed as Old French restif, from the 12th century according to DELI and the 11th according to the GDLI.^[7][2] It survives as French rétif.^[6][4] Other outcomes are Old Occitan restiu, Neapolitan restivo and Sicilian ristivu.^[6][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is from the 13th-century poet Monte Andrea, who already uses the word of a person reluctant to do something.^[7] The sense from which this is extended, of a horse or pack animal that will not go forward, is dated before 1348 in Francesco da Barberino.^[7][8] Barberino writes of a “human horse turned balky” (Cavallo uman divenuto restío).^[3]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian the word belonged to horse-keeping: Sacchetti observes that good horses become balky when they are beaten and treated harshly (Quando li buoni cavalli sono battuti ed aspreggiati, diventano restii), and a treatise on farriery prescribes a heavy bit for the horse il quale è restio.^[2] The adjective was also used as a noun for the vice itself, first before 1484 in Pulci; 16th-century statutes of Ravenna list restium among the faults of a horse.^[7][3]

Bembo compared a defect of beautiful women to the restio of fine horses.^[3] Today the word is used mainly of people unwilling to do something, followed by a and a noun or an infinitive, while the noun is uncommon.^[9][5][10] In horse racing a cavallo restio is one that refuses to perform.^[5]

Timeline

• 13th century – Monte Andrea uses restio of a reluctant person.^[7]
• Before 1348 – Francesco da Barberino uses it of a horse that will not go on.^[7][8]
• Before 1484 – Pulci uses the noun for the vice of a balky animal.^[7]
• 16th century – The statutes of Ravenna list restium among the diseases of horses.^[7]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of a horse or a draught animal or pack animal: refusing to go forward, balky: Il somaro restio si piantò in mezzo alla strada.^{[8][10][9][5]}
2. Of a person: reluctant, unwilling to do something or to yield to others, with a and a noun or an infinitive: Mio padre è restio a prendere l'aereo.^{[8][9][10][11]}

Noun

1. (uncommon) The vice of an animal that refuses to go forward.^{[8][9][5][11]}

Related words

• restare
• resistere
• French rétif

Usage notes

The masculine plural is restii and the feminine restia.^[10][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e 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 Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
4. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ 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)
6. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
8. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
9. ^ a b c d e Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
10. ^ a b c d e Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
11. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
12. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli