scorgere

Forms

scorgere or scórgere (first-person singular present scòrgo or scórgo, first-person singular past historic scòrsi or scórsi, past participle scòrto or scórto, auxiliary avére)^[1] Older forms are Old Italian iscorgere and the Sienese scorgiare.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *excorrigō (“to guide; to follow with the eye”), formed from ex- and Latin corrigō (“to straighten, set right”).^[3][4][5][1] GRADIT takes the prefix as intensive.^[5] The sense “to see, make out” grew from “to guide, accompany” through “to accompany with the eye”.^[6][7] That Latin verb is made of con- and regō (“to direct”).^[1]

The reconstructed verb is generally accepted.^[2] Meyer-Lübke found it also in Old Spanish escurrir (“to accompany”), recorded about 1140 in the Cantar de mio Cid, and in Portuguese escorreito (“sound, flawless”) of the 13th century.^[2][8][1] Italian lent its derivatives to other languages: scorta gave French escorte and Spanish escolta, scortare gave French escorter and Spanish escoltar, and scorto gave Romansh scort (“shrewd”).^[2][8] The Italian forms lost the initial ⟨e-⟩.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The LEI dates the verb from Dante's Vita Nuova (1292–1293), with the sense “to manage to see, make out”.^[2] DELI's first record of that sense is in Giordano da Pisa, before 1311, and of “to guide, show the way” in Dante, before 1321.^[3] In Inferno 6 Dante writes: Quando ci scorse Cerbero, il gran vermo, / le bocche aperse e mostrocci le sanne (“when Cerberus, the great worm, caught sight of us, he opened his mouths and showed us his fangs”).^[7][9]

Semantic evolution

Dante says of Beatrice that she leads him di bene in meglio (“from good to better”) with the verb scorgere,^[5] and Petrarch has Quella che già co' begli occhi mi scorse (“she who once guided me with her lovely eyes”).^[6] Boccaccio and Pulci also used it for perceiving with the ear,^[6][10] and F. Sacchetti for training colts.^[11] The sense “to guide” is now only literary.^[11][12]

From the participle came scorto “shrewd, prudent” and scorta, an escort for guidance or protection and also a stock of provisions, both in the 14th century, and then the verb scortare in the 17th.^[4] The phrase farsi scorgere means to draw attention to oneself, and in older use to make a poor show of oneself, as in Goldoni.^[11][13]

Timeline

• About 1140 – Old Spanish escurrir “to accompany” appears in the Cantar de mio Cid.^[2]
• 1292–1293 – Dante uses scorgere “to make out” in the Vita Nuova.^[2]
• Before 1311 – Giordano da Pisa uses it for “to see, discern”.^[3]
• Before 1321 – Dante uses it for “to guide, show the way”.^[3]
• 14th century – Scorto and scorta are recorded.^[4]
• Before 1520 – French escorte is borrowed from scorta.^[2]
• 1530 – French escorter and Spanish escolta are recorded.^[2]
• 17th century – Scortare is recorded.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. To make out, manage to see, often with some difficulty or at a distance: scorgemmo una vela all’orizzonte.^{[5][10][12][1]}
2. farsi scorgere: to attract attention to oneself;^[5][11][13] (literary) to make a poor show of oneself.^[5][11][13]
3. (figurative) To perceive or discern with the mind: nel suo sguardo scorsi un’ombra di dubbio.^[5][10][11]
4. (archaic) To perceive by hearing.^[10][5][1]
5. (literary, archaic) To guide, accompany or escort.^{[11][12][14][1]}
6. (obsolete) To tame or train a horse.^[11][5][13]

Word family

• scorta
• scorto
• scortare
• scorgimento
• scorgibile

Related words

• correggere
• Latin corrigō

Usage notes

The stressed vowel is pronounced either open or closed: scòrgo or scórgo.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 21, 1479
3. ^ a b c d 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 i De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
6. ^ a b c Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
7. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
8. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
10. ^ 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
11. ^ a b c d e f g h Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
12. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
13. ^ a b c d Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
14. ^ Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse