sottrarre

Forms

sottrarre (first-person singular present sottràggo, first-person singular past historic sottràssi, past participle sottràtto, first-person singular imperfect sottraévo, auxiliary avére)^[1] Old forms include sottraggere, Old Italian soctrare, Old Italian sottràere and Old Italian suttrarre.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin subtrahere (“to draw from below; to take away”), formed sub (“under”) and trahō (“to pull, drag”).^{[5][6][7][8][1]} The Italian verb follows trarre in its form and conjugation.^[9][7][10] Wiktionary gives the older form sottraggere as the earlier stage.^[1] Meyer-Lübke lists it with Old French soztraire, Old Occitan sostraire, Catalan sostraure and Old Spanish sostraer.^[11] The simple Latin verb goes back to Proto-Italic *traχe/o-.^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

Zingarelli dates the first record before 1249.^[3] DELI's first record is in Dante, who died in 1321, with the sense “to steal, to carry off”, and GRADIT dates the verb before 1313.^[5][7]

Semantic evolution

Boccaccio, before 1375, used it for taking away, freeing and saving, and told how a friend secretly took the first seven cantos of Dante's poem from the place where they lay.^[5][2] The noun sottrazione is recorded about 1300 in a translation of Albertano.^[5]

The arithmetical sense appears before 1492 in Piero della Francesca, as soctrare, and in the form sottrarre in Ariosto's Orlando furioso in 1516.^[5] Galileo used sottrazione for the operation opposite to addition in 1630–31, and sottraendo, the number taken away, appears in 1849.^[5] The reflexive sottrarsi, to escape or avoid, is recorded in the first Crusca dictionary of 1612.^[5] An old sense, to seduce or lure, survives only in the dictionaries.^[3][4]

Timeline

• Before 1249 – Zingarelli's date for the first record.^[3]
• About 1300 – Sottrazione appears in a translation of Albertano.^[5]
• Before 1321 – Dante uses the verb for stealing.^[5]
• Before 1375 – Boccaccio uses it for taking away and saving.^[5]
• Before 1492 – Piero della Francesca uses soctrare in arithmetic.^[5]
• 1516 – Ariosto uses sottrarre in the arithmetical sense.^[5]
• 1612 – The first Crusca dictionary records sottrarsi.^[5]
• 1849 – Sottraendo is recorded.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To take away by stealth or deceit; to steal: Gli hanno sottratto le chiavi dalla giacca.^{[7][8][10][1]}
2. To deprive someone of something due to them, or of an affection or help.^[7][8]
3. To remove from sight, to hide: sottrarre qualcuno agli sguardi dei curiosi.^[7][8][3]
4. To save or free from a danger or harm: sottrarre un ferito alle fiamme.^[7][8][3]
5. To take time away from other activities.^[7][8]
6. (mathematics) To subtract: sottrarre sette da venti.^[7][8][4][1]
7. (archaic) To seduce, to lure.^[7][3][4]

Word family

• sottrazione
• sottraendo
• sottrattivo
• sottrarsi

Related words

• trarre
• detrarre
• Latin subtrahō

Usage notes

The verb is conjugated like trarre: sottraggo, sottrassi, sottratto.^[8][1] The reflexive sottrarsi means to escape or to shirk, as in sottrarsi alle proprie promesse.^[3][13][14]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 19, 617
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
4. ^ a b c d Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
6. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
8. ^ a b c d e f g h Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
9. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
10. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
11. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
12. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
13. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
14. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana