roncare

Forms

roncare (first-person singular present rónco, first-person singular past historic roncài, past participle roncàto, auxiliary avére)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin runcāre (“to weed, clear the ground of weeds”).^[2][3][4][1] REW lists the derivatives ronca, roncola and roncolo “billhook” and Romanian runc “clearing in a forest”; the stem forms many place names in the Alps, Dalmatia and Moldavia.^[5] Nocentini adds the noun ronco, a piece of woodland cleared for farming, common in the place names ⟨Ronco⟩ and ⟨Ronchi⟩.^[2] DEI cites a form from Padua dated 1125.^[6]

De Vaan derives Latin runcō from a noun or adjective ⟨*runk-o-⟩, based on the nasal present Proto-Indo-European *h₃runékti (“to dig out”), of the root Proto-Indo-European *h₃rewk-, and compares Ancient Greek ὀρύσσω (orússō, “to dig”).^[7][1][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Dante's Inferno, before 1313, where Aruns lives in the hills of Luni, dove ronca / lo Carrarese che di sotto alberga, where the people of Carrara below clear the ground.^[8][9][3] Buti's commentary glosses roncare as uprooting plants.^[9][10]

Semantic evolution

In the Italian Crescenzi and Palladio the verb means to weed and hoe the ground, and Prati also gives the sense of cutting brambles and bushes.^[11][10] Later records keep it for clearing woodland to make fields or vineyards, as in a Florentine edict that forbade felling oaks and roncare.^[9][12] Today it is rare and agricultural: to cut, prune or clear with a ronca.^[3][13][8]

Timeline

• 1125 – DEI's earliest record, from Padua.^[6]
• Before 1313 – Dante uses ronca in the Inferno.^[8][3]
• 14th century – Roncone, a large billhook, is recorded.^[2]
• 15th century – The noun ronca is first recorded.^[2]
• 16th century – Roncola and roncolo appear.^[2]
• 1854 – Roncatura “pruning” is recorded.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. (agriculture, transitive) To cut, prune or uproot with a ronca; to clear ground of brush for cultivation; also used without an object: Passarono l'inverno a roncare il bosco sopra il paese.^{[3][4][13][12]}

Word family

• ronca
• roncola
• roncolo
• roncone
• roncatura
• ronco
• arroncare

Related words

• ronciglio
• Latin runcō

Usage notes

An obsolete roncare “to snore” is a separate verb, from Latin rhonchō, borrowed from Greek; it later also meant “to grumble”.^[6][9][10]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
3. ^ a b c d e De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
4. ^ a b Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
6. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3280
7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
9. ^ a b c d Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
10. ^ a b c Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
11. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 851
12. ^ a b Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
13. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse