strigare

Forms

strigare (first-person singular present strìgo, first-person singular past historic strigài, past participle strigàto, auxiliary avére)^[1] Older forms are istrigare, stricare and estricare.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin extrīcāre (“to set free, disentangle”), through the older form Old Italian stricare.^[5][6][2][1] The Latin verb is formed from ex- and trīcae (“complications, tricks”).^[7][6][8] Devoto held that the word was kept in Italian through a northern tradition, with ⟨-c-⟩ voiced to ⟨-g-⟩.^[9] DEI compares Spanish estregar (“to rub”).^[5]

The origin of the Latin noun is uncertain.^[10] De Vaan considers comparing a Tocharian verb meaning “to miss”, or, if “trifles” was the first sense, a word for “crumbs” related to terō (“to rub”).^[10] Devoto thought it might come from the Greek word for “hairs”.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is Bono Giamboni's Florentine translation of Orosius, before 1292.^[2][3] The first sense was to disentangle something knotted, such as hair.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian the verb was used of hair, of sin undone, of a tangled matter explained point by point, and of a conflict settled.^[2] The Fatti di Cesare describe Erichtho combing her hair (strigarsi li capelli) with a serpent's head.^[4] Matteo Villani and Giordano da Pisa used it for sorting out a muddled affair.^[11] Today it is uncommon or literary, beside districare and sbrogliare.^[6][3][8]

Timeline

• Before 1292 – Bono Giamboni uses the verb in his translation of Orosius.^[2]
• Before 1311 – GRADIT's first date for the verb.^[6]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive, uncommon) To disentangle or unravel something knotted, such as hair or a skein: strigare un gomitolo di spago.^{[6][12][13][1]}
2. (transitive, figurative) To sort out a complicated matter.^[6][8][13]
3. (reflexive) strigarsi: to extricate oneself from a nuisance or a difficult situation, with da or di: strigarsela is: to manage, to get out of it.^[12][8][13]

Word family

• strigarsi

Related words

• districare
• distrigare
• intrigare
• Latin extrīcō

Usage notes

GDLI also lists strigare as a variant of stregare “to bewitch”.^[4][14]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
4. ^ 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. 20, 359
5. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3655
6. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
9. ^ a b Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
10. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
12. ^ 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
13. ^ a b c Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
14. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter