ricoverare

Forms

ricoverare (first-person singular present ricòvero or (traditional) ricóvero, first-person singular past historic ricoverài, past participle ricoveràto, auxiliary avére)^[1] Old forms include Old Italian ricovrare, Old Italian recoverare, Old Italian recovrare, Old Italian recuverare and Old Italian recrovare.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin recuperō (“to regain, recover”), and it is the popular counterpart of the learned recuperare (or ricuperare).^[3][4][5][6] The older form Old Italian ricovrare lost the vowel before the stress.^[6] Devoto ascribes this syncope, and the change of /p/ to /v/, to the regular development with a northern softening.^[7] The Latin verb, also written reciperō, is formed from re- (“back”) and capiō (“to take”).^[4][8][9]

The same Latin verb gave French recouvrer, Occitan recobrar, Catalan recobrar, Spanish recobrar and Portuguese recobrar.^[4][10] Prati thought the Italian word might as well come from Old French recovrer,^[11] and Meyer-Lübke took it from Old Occitan recobrar (“to recover oneself”);^[10] DELI, Nocentini and GRADIT give the Latin verb alone.^[3][4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record, before 1292 in Bono Giamboni's Vizi e virtù, has the Latin sense “to recover, get back”.^[3][5] Zingarelli dates the word to 1268.^[12]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian used the verb for taking back what had been lost, lent or pawned: Boccaccio's Agolante ricoverò tutto ciò che aver vi doveano (“recovered all that they owed him”).^[2] Petrarch writes Tempo è da ricovrare ambe le chiavi / del tuo cor (“It is time to take back both keys of your heart”).^[13] DELI notes that this sense lived on in writing up to the beginning of the 19th century.^[3]

According to Nocentini, the first sense, “to regain strength”, which the other Romance languages kept, gave way in Italian to “to give shelter”, taken from the noun ricovero in its concrete sense “shelter, refuge”.^[4] Ricovero “refuge” is as old as the verb (before 1292); the verb “to give shelter” is dated before 1388, in Antonio Pucci, and the pronominal ricoverarsi “to take refuge” to the 14th-century Fioretti di San Francesco.^[3] The sense “to commit to an institution for detention” is recorded in 1891, and ricoverato “inmate, patient” in 1841.^[3] Admission to hospital is now the main sense.^[5][6]

Timeline

• Before 1292 – Bono Giamboni uses ricoverare “to recover”.^[3]
• 14th century – Ricoverarsi “to take refuge” appears in the Fioretti di San Francesco.^[3]
• Before 1388 – Antonio Pucci uses the verb for “to give shelter”.^[3]
• 1598 – Florio records the sense “to offer asylum”.^[3]
• 1841 – Ricoverato “inmate, patient” is recorded in the Milanese press.^[3]
• 1891 – Petrocchi records the sense “to confine in an institution”.^[3]
• 1942 – Ricovero is used for an air-raid shelter.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To hospitalize; to admit to a hospital, clinic or care home: L'hanno ricoverata d'urgenza dopo l'incidente.^[5][14][6]
2. (transitive) To shelter; to give refuge or asylum.^[5][14][15]
3. (transitive) To put something under cover: Abbiamo ricoverato le barche nel capannone.^[6][12]
4. (transitive, dated) To commit to an institution such as a mental hospital.^[12][16]
5. (transitive, obsolete) To recover, regain.^[5][12][16]
6. (pronominal, also literary intransitive) To take shelter; to go into hospital.^[5][14][15]

Word family

• ricoverato
• ricovero
• ricoveratore

Related words

• recuperare
• ricuperare
• Latin recuperō
• French recouvrer

Usage notes

The first person singular present is ricòvero, or traditionally ricóvero.^[1] Ricovrare is archaic or poetic.^[15][14]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 16, 157
3. ^ 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
4. ^ a b c d e Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b c d e f g h De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
6. ^ a b c d e Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
7. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier, p. 370
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Wikizionario (Italian Wiktionary), it.wiktionary.org
10. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
11. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 838
12. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
13. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
14. ^ 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
15. ^ a b c Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
16. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli