restituire

Forms

restituire (first-person singular present restituìsco, first-person singular past historic restituìi, past participle restituìto, auxiliary avére)^[1] Old Italian also wrote the verb Old Italian ristituire, Old Italian restatuire and Old Italian ristetuire, and used a past participle Old Italian restituto.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin restituere (“to set up again, restore; give back”), moved from the Latin third conjugation in ⟨-ere⟩ to the Italian verbs in ⟨-ire⟩.^[4][5][6][1] The Latin verb is a compound of re- (“back, again”) and statuō (“to set up, establish”), so that it meant “to put back where it was before”.^[4][7][8] The ⟨a⟩ of the simple verb became ⟨i⟩ in the open inner syllable of the compound, a regular Latin change.^[9] statuō is formed from status (“position”), a derivative of stō (“to stand”).^[5][1]

The same Latin verb was borrowed as French restituer and Spanish restituir.^[5] The GDLI dates the French verb to 1250, and DEI to the 14th century.^[2][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is Dante, in 1304–1308, for giving back what had been taken from someone or lent, given or entrusted to one.^[4][6] Zingarelli dates the verb to 1268 and Sabatini–Coletti to the 13th century.^[11][8] In the Novellino, at the end of the 13th century, it is used for giving someone again a thing he had lost.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian already used the verb for handing back goods held in trust: the Novellino has a man return caskets in the hope of a greater deposit, and Giovanni Villani reports that the Florentines begged Pisa to give back their merchandise.^[2] Boccaccio writes of a speech “given back” to a man who had lost it through illness.^[3] The literary sense “to put back into the former state” is recorded from the 15th century, in a translation of Petrarch.^[4]

The abstract senses grew from this: to return a favour, a visit or a blow, to reinstate someone in an office, to give back health, freedom or peace, and to restore a painting or a text to its original form.^[6][12][13] Philology uses it for establishing a critical text, and surveying for the photogrammetric plotting of a map.^[6] In the language of industry restituito came to mean “regenerated”, recorded in 1942.^[4] Euphemistically the verb also means “to vomit”.^[12][13]

Timeline

• 1268 – Zingarelli's date for the verb.^[11]
• Late 13th century – The Novellino uses it for giving back what was lost.^[4]
• 1304–1308 – Dante uses restituire “to give back”.^[4][6]
• 1348–1353 – Boccaccio has restitutore “one who gives back”.^[4]
• Before 1348 – Giovanni Villani has restituzione.^[4]
• 15th century – The sense “to restore to the former state” appears in a translation of Petrarch.^[4]
• 1629 – Guido Bentivoglio has restituibile.^[4]
• 1942 – Restituito “regenerated” is recorded in industry.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. To return, give back what was lent, entrusted, given or taken: Domani ti restituisco il dizionario che mi hai prestato.^[6][12][8]
2. (figurative) To return in kind, reciprocate: restituire una visita, un saluto.^[6][12][13]
3. To give back a lost condition or quality: Le vacanze gli hanno restituito il buonumore.^[12][8][7]
4. To reinstate someone in an office or a right, or to bring something back to its original state: restituire un dipinto ai colori originali.^[6][12][13]
5. (philology) To establish the correct text of a work by critical revision.^[6]
6. (euphemistic) To vomit.^[12][13]
7. (literary, reflexive) restituirsi: to return to a place or to an activity.^[12][11][13]

Word family

• restituzione
• restitutore
• restituibile
• restitutivo
• restitutorio

Related words

• statuire
• statuto
• Latin restituō
• French restituer

Usage notes

Restituire la parola a qualcuno is to release someone from a promise, especially one of marriage.^[12][13][7]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
3. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
5. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ 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
7. ^ a b c Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
8. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
9. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
10. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3234
11. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
12. ^ a b c d e f g h i Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
13. ^ a b c d e f g Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana