riprendere

Forms

riprendere (first-person singular present riprèndo, first-person singular past historic riprési, past participle ripréso, auxiliary avére or (in the intransitive meaning "to revive") èssere)^[1] Old forms include repreèndere, reprehèndere, reprèndere and reprènnere.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin reprehendō (“to hold back; to blame”), in its shortened form reprendō, from prehendō (“to seize”) with the prefix re- (“again, back”).^[3][4][5][6] DELI and the GDLI call it a learned word, while Nocentini and DEI treat it as inherited and Devoto–Oli starts from a Vulgar Latin *reprendere.^{[3][2][4][7][8]} The Latin verb meant “to take again”, and through “to hold back by seizing” also “to blame”.^[3][6]

DEI calls it a word of western Romance: French reprendre, Occitan reprendre and Spanish reprender.^[7][4][9] According to Eugenio Coseriu, quoted by DELI, the Italian and French reflexive sense “to recover one's strength” is a calque of Latin “se recipere” (Varro, Cicero), which itself copied Ancient Greek ἀναλαμβάνω (analambánō, “to take up again”) with the reflexive pronoun.^[3][2] Meyer-Lübke derived rappresaglia from the same verb.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record, before 1250, is in Giacomo da Lentini, with the sense “to blame, admonish”.^[3][5] The sense “to take again” is first found in Dante's Commedia (1300–1313).^[3]

Semantic evolution

Guittone d'Arezzo, before 1294, uses the verb for an illness or a vice that strikes again, and Dante both for taking something again and for resuming after a pause.^[3] Giovanni Villani, before 1348, has it for retaking a place, and Fazio degli Uberti, before 1367, uses the reflexive for correcting oneself.^[3] Torquato Tasso uses it absolutely in 1581 for going on speaking.^[3] The noun ripresa, the substantivized past participle, appears in Villani, and a più riprese “several times” is common from the 19th century.^[3][4]

The 20th century added film and photography: the verb for shooting a scene is recorded in 1931, and ripresa for a shot soon after.^[3] Tailors use it for taking in a seam.^[3][1] The reflexive riprendersi, “to recover”, is recorded in Lorenzo Viani before 1936.^[3]

Timeline

• Before 1250 – Giacomo da Lentini uses riprendere “to blame”.^[3]
• Before 1294 – Guittone d'Arezzo uses it of an illness that returns.^[3]
• 1300–1313 – Dante uses it for “to take again” and “to resume”.^[3]
• Before 1348 – Giovanni Villani uses it for retaking a place, and the noun ripresa.^[3]
• Before 1367 – Fazio degli Uberti uses riprendersi “to mend one's ways”.^[3]
• 1581 – Torquato Tasso uses it for “to continue speaking”.^[3]
• 1931 – The sense “to film” is recorded.^[3]
• Before 1936 – Lorenzo Viani uses riprendersi “to recover”.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To take again, take hold of again: Riprese la borsa e uscì.^[5][8][6]
2. (transitive) To recapture; to catch up with: Il gruppo ha ripreso i due fuggitivi in salita.^[5][8]
3. (transitive) To take back something given or lent; to pick up someone from a place: Passo a riprenderti alle otto.^[5][6]
4. (transitive) To recapture, retake a position or a town.^[5][6][3]
5. (transitive) To recover a strength or a state: riprendere fiato, riprendere coraggio, riprendere conoscenza.^[5][6]
6. (transitive) Of a feeling or an illness, to seize someone again: Nel pomeriggio lo riprese la febbre.^[6][3][1]
7. (transitive and intransitive) To resume, start again after a pause: Dopo la pausa riprese a scrivere.^[5][6][1]
8. (transitive) To reprimand, scold: La maestra lo riprese per il ritardo.^[6][8][1]
9. (transitive) To film or photograph: La scena è stata ripresa dall'alto.^[3][1]
10. (transitive, tailoring) To take in a seam or a garment.^[3][1]
11. (intransitive, auxiliary essere) Of a plant, to revive.^[1]
12. (riprendersi) To recover one's strength or composure; to correct oneself.^[3][1]

Word family

• ripresa
• riprensione
• riprensibile
• irreprensibile
• riprendersi

Related words

• prendere
• rappresaglia
• Latin reprehendō
• French reprendre

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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, 707
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 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 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 f g h i Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
7. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3261
8. ^ 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
9. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter