Etymologically
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riempire

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Pronunciation

  • /ri.emˈpi.re/[1]

Forms

riempire (first-person singular present riémpio, first-person singular past historic riempìi or (less common) riempiéi, past participle riempìto or (less common) riempiùto, auxiliary avére)[1] The older and literary infinitive is riempiere, the only form in Giamboni;[2][3] riempire was recorded in 1804 as “a word of use”, and in 1831 Lissoni still objected to it.[2][3] Old forms include rempire, riémpere, rìmpiere and rimpire.[4]

Etymology

It is from Italian ri- + empire (“to fill”).[2][5][6][1] DELI sees in the prefix both the repetitive and the intensive ri-, and the GDLI traces it to the intensive Latin re-.[2][4] The base verb continues Latin impleō (“to fill”).[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Bono Giamboni's Libro de' Vizi e delle Virtudi, before 1292, has riempiere in the sense of making something completely full, and also the reflexive use for eating too much.[2] The intransitive riempiersi, to become full, follows about 1340 in the Italian translation of Palladius.[2]

Semantic evolution

The old translations of Livy and Josephus use the verb for filling ditches and valleys, and Boccaccio for a storm that filled the sky with clouds; the figurative senses, filling someone with joy or the heart with grief, were there from early on.[4][7] Tommaseo still defined it first as filling again, and Gabrielli keeps that sense as rare.[7][8]

A new sense came with bureaucracy: filling in forms and records, recorded in 1891 by Petrocchi.[2][9] Phrases include riempire la testa, to stuff someone's head with talk or false ideas, and riempirsi la bocca, to speak with self-satisfied grandiloquence.[6][3][9]

Timeline

  • Before 1292 – Bono Giamboni uses riempiere.[2][6]
  • c. 1340 – The intransitive riempiersi appears in the translation of Palladius.[2]
  • c. 1350 – The noun riempimento is recorded.[2]
  • 1804 – D'Alberti records riempire as a word of current use.[2]
  • 1891 – Petrocchi records the sense “to fill in a form”.[2]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To make full, fill up: Ho riempito la caraffa d'acqua.[6][3][10]
  2. To stuff food with a filling: Riempi i peperoni di riso.[6][3][9]
  3. Of a crowd, to fill a space completely: I tifosi riempivano lo stadio.[6][3][10]
  4. Of a smell or smoke, to spread through a room.[6]
  5. Used without an object, to be filling, to satisfy hunger: Il pane riempie.[6][10][11]
  6. To fill in a form or document: Devi riempire questa scheda.[6][10][9]
  7. (figurative) To fill someone with gifts, or with blows and insults: Lo hanno riempito di botte.[6][10]
  8. (figurative) To fill with a strong feeling: La notizia ci ha riempito di speranza.[6][8][9]
  9. To occupy time with satisfying activity.[6][8]
  10. (reflexive, informal) To eat too much, stuff oneself.[10][9][8]

Word family

  • riempimento
  • riempitivo
  • riempitore
  • riempitura
  • riempibile
  • riempitrice

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
  3. ^ 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
  4. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
  5. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  7. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
  8. ^ a b c d Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
  9. ^ a b c d e f Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  10. ^ a b c d e f Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  11. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana