Etymologically
Log in

trascinare

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 22 October 2026 at 20:41. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • /traʃ.ʃiˈna.re/[1]

Forms

trascinare (first-person singular present trascìno, first-person singular past historic trascinài, past participle trascinàto, auxiliary avére)[1] Older forms include Old Italian trasscinare and the old and regional trassinare.[2] In Sicily Sicilian traxinari is recorded in 1348.[3]

Etymology

It continues inherited from Vulgar Latin *traxīnāre, formed from trāxī, the perfect of Latin trahō (“to pull, drag”).[4][5][6][7][1] Others start from a Vulgar Latin *tragīnāre, from a form *tragere parallel to the classical verb;[2][3][8][9] this is the base Meyer-Lübke gives for the whole Romance family.[10] Nocentini sees an Italian formation from a past participle *trasso, made after the past tense trassi in place of tratto, as Old Italian visso replaced vissuto.[11] Devoto thinks the prefix tras- was mixed in, giving a strongly durative sense.[12]

Romance relatives include Romanian trăgăna (“to drag out”), French traîner and Old Occitan traginar.[10][1] Spanish trajinar and Friulian strasinâ are borrowed from Italian.[10][3] trainare, from French, is a doublet.[10][1]

The origin of the Latin verb is uncertain: de Vaan finds the closest cognates in Celtic, such as Old Irish tethraig (“ran away, receded”), and suggests that the root, with its unusual structure, may be a loanword shared by Italic and Celtic.[13]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is the Tuscan Esopo volgarizzato, about 1325, in the sense “to pull along the ground”;[4][5] a viper drags a file around the house.[14] A rare reading trascineremo in Dante's Inferno is rejected by editors for the variant strascineremo.[4] The form with s-, strascinare, is older, from the middle of the 13th century.[11]

Semantic evolution

In the 14th century the Anonimo romano describes a crowd dragging a man along the ground by a rope.[2] The figurative trascinare la vita, “to drag out one's life”, is in Paolo Segneri in the 17th century.[3][14]

The sense “to lead by force or persistence” is dated 1879 by DELI, from Tommaseo's dictionary, where dragging someone to court or to death is said to express arrogance and injustice.[4][14] The reflexive “to crawl” is recorded in 1891 and the intransitive trascinarsi, “to drag on”, in 1961.[4] Trascinatore, a person who stirs up enthusiasm, appears in the 1950s,[4][11] and computing added the sense “to drag” an item on the screen with the mouse.[5][15]

Timeline

  • Mid-13th century – Strascinare is recorded.[11]
  • c. 1325 – The Esopo volgarizzato uses trascinare.[4]
  • 1348 – Old Sicilian traxinari is recorded.[3]
  • 17th century – Paolo Segneri uses trascinare la vita.[3]
  • 1879 – The sense “to lead by force” is recorded.[4]
  • 1891 – The reflexive “to crawl” is recorded.[4]
  • 1955 – Trascinatore is recorded.[4]
  • 1961 – Trascinarsi “to drag on” is recorded.[4]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To drag something along the ground: Trascinava il carrello lungo il corridoio.[5][6][7]
  2. To carry along, sweep away, especially in a fall: La frana ha trascinato a valle alcuni alberi.[5][6][15]
  3. To take someone by force: Il ladro fu trascinato fuori dal negozio.[5][6][7]
  4. (figurative) To force someone to go somewhere or do something: Mi ha trascinato a una festa noiosa.[5][6]
  5. (figurative) Of a feeling, to overcome: Si è lasciato trascinare dalla gelosia.[5][6]
  6. To lead into a bad situation: Ha trascinato l'azienda alla rovina.[5][7]
  7. To captivate, carry an audience along: un cantante che trascina il pubblico.[5][7][15]
  8. (computing) To drag an item on the screen with the mouse.[5][15]
  9. (trascinarsi) To crawl, move with difficulty, (figurative) to drag on: La trattativa si trascina da mesi.[15][8][7]

Word family

  • strascinare
  • trascinamento
  • trascinatore
  • strascicare
  • strascicato
  • strascico
  • trascinante
  • ritrascinare
  • trascinabile

Usage notes

Fixed phrases include trascinare i piedi, to shuffle without lifting one's feet, and trascinare la vita, to live in hardship.[5][6][15]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e 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. 21, 205
  3. ^ a b c d e f Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3867
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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 Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
  7. ^ a b c d e f Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  8. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
  9. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
  10. ^ a b c d Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  11. ^ a b c d Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  12. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
  13. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  14. ^ a b c Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
  15. ^ a b c d e f Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli