Etymology and origin of the Italian word ricettare
ricettare1 to shelter; to receive stolen goods
Etymology tree of ricettare1
Pronunciation
- /ri.t͡ʃetˈta.re/[1]
Forms
ricettare (first-person singular present ricètto, first-person singular past historic ricettài, past participle ricettàto, auxiliary avére)[1]
Etymology
The word for sheltering and for receiving stolen goods is borrowed from Latin receptō (“to take back; to receive, harbour”), the intensive or frequentative of recipiō (“to take back, receive”), formed on its past participle.[2][3][4][1][5] DELI explains the Latin verb as “to pull back with force”, hence “to take back” and “to take in, receive”.[2] Nocentini analyses it instead as captō (“to try to catch”), itself the frequentative of capiō (“to take”), with the prefix re-.[6]
Latin also had receptātor (“one who harbours”) and receptātiō, the sources of ricettatore and ricettazione.[2][6] Zingarelli calls the verb learned, and DEI thinks it probably came into Italian by a learned or literary route; in that case Old French recet and Old Occitan recet would be Italianisms.[7][8] Meyer-Lübke lists only the Italian verb under the Latin one.[9]
Earliest recorded meaning
The first record is legal: the statute of the wool guild of Siena (1298–1309) uses the verb of a person guilty of receiving stolen goods, the offence later called ricettazione.[2] The sense “to give shelter” is recorded in a document from Volterra of 1326.[2] GRADIT dates the verb to before 1309.[3]
Semantic evolution
DELI notes that the legal sense, now the main one, is younger than the once very common sense “to receive, take in”, which the noun ricetto “refuge” keeps.[2] Florentine chroniclers used the verb for harbouring exiles: Matteo Villani writes of mountain lords who cominciarono a ricettare sbanditi dal Comune di Firenze (“began to harbour men banished by the Commune of Florence”).[10] Tommaseo records the variants raccettare and recettare, the latter in proclamations from Lucca.[10]
The sense “to welcome, give lodging” lives on only in literary use, as in Foscolo's lines on the land that welcomes the pilgrim;[3][11][12] Pindemonte used it figuratively of experience taken into the heart.[3][11][12] The legal sense passed to the nouns: Medieval Latin of Bologna had receptator for a harbourer of thieves in 1252, Italian ricettatore is recorded in the legal sense from 1798 and ricettazione from 1799.[2]
Timeline
- 1252 – Medieval Latin receptator names a harbourer of thieves at Bologna.[2]
- 1298–1309 – The statute of the Sienese wool guild uses ricettare for receiving stolen goods.[2]
- 1326 – A document from Volterra has the sense “to give shelter”.[2]
- 1798 – Ricettatore is recorded in the legal sense.[2]
- 1799 – Ricettazione appears in a document of the Jacobin period.[2]
Meanings
Verb
- (law) To receive, buy or hide goods that come from a crime: La polizia lo accusa di ricettare biciclette rubate.[3][11][4][12]
- (literary, archaic) To shelter, take in, give lodging to; figuratively, to take in, acquire.[3][11][12][1]
Word family
- ricettatore
- ricettazione
- ricetto
- ricettacolo
- ricettamento
ricettare2 to prescribe
- Confidence
- Established
- Formation
- Derivation
- First attested
- 1300s Libro della cura delle malattie
- Ultimate origin
- Latin capiō
Etymology tree of ricettare2
Pronunciation
- /ri.t͡ʃetˈta.re/[1]
Forms
ricettare (first-person singular present ricètto, first-person singular past historic ricettài, past participle ricettàto, auxiliary avére)[1]
Etymology
The word for prescribing is from Italian ricetta (“prescription”) + -are.[2][3][4][1] The noun is learned: it comes from Latin recepta (“(formula) received”), the feminine past participle of recipiō (“to receive”), after its imperative “take!”, the word with which medical prescriptions began.[2][6][3]
Earliest recorded meaning
DELI dates the verb to the 14th century, in the Libro della cura delle malattie, in the sense “to prescribe by a written prescription”.[2] Tommaseo quotes that book: Degni son di lode que’ fisici, che ricettano con diligenza (“those physicians who prescribe with care are worthy of praise”).[10] Nocentini puts the first record in the 15th century.[6]
Semantic evolution
Old Italian also used the verb for taking and preparing the ingredients of a medicine, a calque on the Latin recipe that opened recipes; the GDLI quotes it from Del Garbo.[13] Belcari used it figuratively, “to prescribe” a remedy for oneself, a use Tommaseo marks as obsolete.[10]
Redi and Frugoni wrote of doctors prescribing waters and foods, and a 1988 magazine of a drug ricettato dai medici.[13] Treccani describes the verb as an old word brought back into use in recent times, mostly without an object, in the sense “to write prescriptions”.[12]
Timeline
- 1300s – The Libro della cura delle malattie uses ricettare “to prescribe”.[2][3]
- 1400s – Nocentini's date of first record.[6]
- 1988 – The magazine Grazia writes of a drug prescribed (ricettato) by doctors.[13]
Meanings
Verb
Related words
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ 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
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
- ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
- ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
- ^ a b c d e Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
- ^ Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
- ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3247
- ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
- ^ a b c d Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
- ^ a b c d e f Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
- ^ a b c d e f g Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
- ^ 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. 16, 73
Related etymologies
Cite this entry
“Ricettare.” Etymologically, 14 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/it/ricettare. Accessed 15 Nov. 2026.
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