richiamare

Forms

richiamare (first-person singular present richiàmo, first-person singular past historic richiamài, past participle richiamàto, auxiliary avére)^[1] Old and dialect forms include rechiamare and reiamare.^[2]

Etymology

It is from Italian ri- + chiamare, properly “to call again”.^{[3][4][5][6][7][1]} The GDLI describes the prefix as Latin re-, with a repeating and intensifying value.^[2] DELI compares reclamare, and the noun richiamo is formed from the verb.^[3]

The base chiamare is Latin clāmō (“to shout, proclaim”).^[3][4] Nocentini derives the Latin verb from an unattested noun *clāma, formed on calō (“to call out, summon”), and compares Ancient Greek καλέω (kaléō, “to call”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's oldest record is in the Novellino, at the end of the 13th century, in the reflexive sense “to ask for justice, to complain to an authority”.^[3] In 1580 or a little before, Vincenzo Borghini wrote that the verb was properly said of someone offended who went to a magistrate or lord for protection (Richiamare è propriissimamente posto d’uno offeso e ingiuriato che se ne va al magistrato o signore che lo difenda).^[3] The sense “to call back” is in Dante's Inferno (1300–1313): Già il maestro mio mi richiamava (“My master was already calling me back”).^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

Dante also has the plain sense “to call again”, and the noun richiamo with the senses of a call back and of an allure.^[3] Later senses are dated by DELI: “to make people flock, to draw” in Paolo Segneri (1686), “to cite, refer to” in 1848, when Ugolini condemned the extension, and “to reprove, call to order”, said of a deputy in parliament, in Petrocchi's dictionary (1891).^[3] Tommaseo lists the old use for “to protest, to claim”, beside reclamare.^[8] The reflexive richiamarsi a “to refer to” is recorded in the 14th century.^[3]

The participle richiamato became a noun for a soldier called back to arms from leave, before 1872 in Mazzini.^[3] Richiamo gained the senses of a decoy bird (1827) and of a sign in a text that refers the reader elsewhere (before 1642, Galileo, DEI has 1474).^[3] Modern dictionaries add the telephone sense “to call back”, the banking sense of stopping a bill from being cashed, the aviation sense of pulling a plane out of a dive and the recall of faulty products.^[5][9][10]

Timeline

• Late 13th century – The Novellino uses richiamarsi for appealing to an authority.^[3]
• 1300–1313 – Dante uses richiamare “to call back” in the Inferno.^[3][5]
• 14th century – Richiamarsi “to refer to” is recorded.^[3]
• 1686 – Paolo Segneri uses it for drawing people together.^[3]
• 1848 – The sense “to cite” is recorded and criticised by Ugolini.^[3]
• Before 1872 – Mazzini uses richiamato for a recalled soldier.^[3]
• 1891 – Petrocchi records richiamare all’ordine “to call to order”.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To call someone again; to call back on the telephone: Adesso non posso parlare, ti richiamo stasera.^[5][6][10]
2. To call back, make someone return; to recall an envoy or troops, or let an exile come home: Il governo ha richiamato l’ambasciatore.^[5][6][9]
3. (military) To call reservists back to service: richiamare alle armi.^[5][6][11]
4. To attract, draw people or animals to a place: La sagra richiama turisti da tutta la regione.^[10][9][12]
5. To bring back to mind, evoke; also to cite or mention: Questo profumo mi richiama l’estate al mare.^[10][9][11]
6. To reprimand, call someone to order: L’allenatore ha richiamato i giocatori più distratti.^[9][11][10]
7. (banking) To stop a bill or cheque from being cashed; to ask for a letter or parcel to be returned to the sender.^[5][9][12]
8. (aviation) To pull an aircraft out of a dive into level flight.^[10][9]
9. (commerce) To recall a product with a manufacturing defect.^[9]
10. (pronominal) Richiamarsi a: to refer to, appeal to: Nella sua relazione si richiama a uno studio precedente.^[10][3]

Word family

• richiamo
• richiamato
• richiamata
• richiamabile

Related words

• chiamare
• reclamare
• Latin clāmō

References

1. ^ a b c 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, p. 16, 86
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
4. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b c d e f g De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
6. ^ 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
7. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
8. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
9. ^ a b c d e f g h Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
10. ^ a b c d e f g Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
11. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
12. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli