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riposare

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Italian has two verbs spelled riposare: one means “to put down again” and is formed from posare, the other means “to rest” and comes from Late Latin.[1][2]

riposare1 put down again

Pronunciation

  • /ri.poˈza.re/, /ri.poˈsa.re/[3]

Forms

riposare (first-person singular present ripòso, first-person singular past historic riposài, past participle riposàto, auxiliary avére)[3]

Etymology

The verb meaning “to put down again” is from Italian ri- + posare, with the prefix of repetition.[1][2][3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is a 14th-century Vita di San Giovanni Battista, in the sense “to put down again, or more firmly”.[1] GRADIT dates it to before 1342.[2]

Semantic evolution

The reflexive riposarsi “to settle again” (of a bird on a branch) is recorded in 1970.[1] In literary use it can simply mean “to alight, to settle”, as of the light in Manzoni's line “e i color vari suscita / dovunque si riposa”.[5][6]

Timeline

  • 14th century – First recorded in a Vita di San Giovanni Battista.[1]
  • Before 1342 – GRADIT's date for the first record.[2]
  • 1970 – The reflexive “to settle again” is in the Zingarelli dictionary.[1]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To put something down again, or back where it was: Ha riposato il libro sullo scaffale.[2][6][4]
  2. (reflexive riposarsi) To settle again, of a bird or an insect.[6][4][7]

riposare2 rest

Pronunciation

  • /ri.poˈza.re/, /ri.poˈsa.re/[3]

Forms

riposare (first-person singular present ripòso, first-person singular past historic riposài, past participle riposàto, auxiliary (transitive or intransitive) avére or (archaic when intransitive) èssere)[3]

Etymology

The verb meaning “to rest” is inherited from Late Latin repausāre, recorded from the 5th century (Salonius), from pausō (“to cease, to stop”) with the intensive prefix re-.[1][8][2][3] It ran beside, and replaced, classical Latin requiēscō (“to rest”).[1] The Latin verb comes from pausa (“pause”).[4] Nocentini classes it as a Latin word of Greek origin and compares the prefix with that of Ancient Greek ἀναπαύω (anapaúō, “to refresh, (middle) to rest”) in the New Testament.[8]

The word is pan-Romance: French reposer, Occitan repausar, Catalan reposar, Spanish reposar, Portuguese repousar, and Romanian răposa, which means “to die”.[8][9][10] In Venetia, Lombardy and the Ladin area the simple verb posare is used instead.[1][11] By surface analysis it is that verb with the prefix ri-.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is from an anonymous 13th-century poet, in the sense “to refresh oneself by stopping work or effort”; the line “e ripozai a l'umbra lungamente” (“and I rested in the shade a long while”) is quoted in the GDLI.[1][5] GRADIT dates the verb to before 1249, in the old sense “to calm down, to resign oneself”.[2]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian quickly added “to sleep” (Bono Giamboni, before 1292), “to stop doing something” (Boccaccio, 1348–53) and, of land, “to lie fallow” (Crescenzi's translation, about 1350).[1] The transitive “to give rest” is in Giovanni Villani, and “to rest on, to be placed on” in Luigi Alamanni, who died in 1556.[1]

The phrases riposare in pace “rest in peace” and l'eterno riposo are translations of the Latin prayers for the dead, and on tombstones qui riposa means “here lies”.[1][2] Later figurative uses are “to be based on” (a theory resting on an argument) and, of wine or dough, to be left to settle.[2][12] The derived noun riposo spread widely in its own senses, from “sleep” to military “at ease” (1898) and retirement from service.[1]

Timeline

  • Before 1249 – GRADIT's date, in the sense “to calm down”.[2]
  • 13th century – “To rest from toil” in an anonymous poet.[1]
  • Before 1292 – Bono Giamboni uses it for “to sleep” and the pronominal riposarsi.[1]
  • Late 13th century – The noun riposo appears in the Novellino.[1]
  • Before 1348 – Giovanni Villani has the transitive “to give rest”.[1]
  • 1348–1353 – Boccaccio uses it for “to stop, to cease”.[1]
  • About 1350 – Crescenzi's translation uses it of land lying fallow.[1]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To rest: to stop an activity to recover one's strength: Dopo la gita ci siamo fermati a riposare.[2][6][4]
  2. To have a short sleep; to sleep: Stanotte non ho riposato bene.[2][6][4]
  3. (euphemistic) To be dead or buried: riposare in pace, qui riposa on gravestones.[2][6][4]
  4. To rest or be set on something, (figurative) to be based on: un'ipotesi che riposa su dati certi.[2][12][13]
  5. Of a liquid, to settle; of dough, to be left to rest: lasciar riposare l'impasto.[2][4][7]
  6. (agriculture) Of land, to lie fallow.[2][4][12]
  7. (transitive) To rest a part of the body or the mind, to give it rest: riposare la schiena.[4][12]
  8. (pronominal riposarsi) To take a rest.[12][1]

Word family

  • riposo
  • riposante
  • riposato
  • riposino
  • riposanza
  • riposata

Usage notes

Riposare sugli allori “to rest on one's laurels” means to be content with what one has achieved.[2][12][7] In the sense “to rest” the auxiliary is avere;[3][12] essere is archaic.[3][12]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  5. ^ 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, 690
  6. ^ 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
  7. ^ a b c Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
  8. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  10. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
  11. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3260
  12. ^ a b c d e f g h Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  13. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana