trasferire

Forms

trasferire (first-person singular present trasferìsco, first-person singular past historic trasferìi, past participle trasferìto, auxiliary avére)^[1] The older form is Old Italian transferire, and Dante has the Latin form transferre.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin trānsferō (“to carry across, transfer”), a learned borrowing moved into the verbs in “-ire”.^[5][2][6][4] The Latin verb is a compound of trāns- (“across, beyond”) and ferō (“to carry”).^[7][1] Devoto thinks the shape was influenced by conferire and deferire.^[8] The same Latin verb gave French transférer (14th century) and Spanish transferir.^[6][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Boccaccio, 1341–1342, with the sense “to make someone or something change place, seat or home”.^[7][5]

Semantic evolution

The reflexive trasferirsi, to move house or change one's seat, appears in Guicciardini before 1540.^[7] Tommaseo distinguished the verb from trasportare: goods and furniture are carried (trasportati), but a court, a market or a residence is trasferito.^[9] Zingarelli records an obsolete sense “to translate into another language”.^[3]

Today the verb is used above all for posting an employee to another office, moving an institution, and in law for passing a right or a property to someone else; figuratively one transfers feelings or anxieties onto another person.^[5][10][2] The derivative trasferta, an official journey away from one's seat, was condemned by Rigutini in 1886 as bureaucratic jargon, but survived and came to mean an away game in football (1955).^[7]

Timeline

• Before 1321 – Dante uses the Latin form transferre.^[4]
• 1341–1342 – Boccaccio uses trasferire.^[7][5]
• Before 1540 – Guicciardini uses trasferirsi “to move”.^[7]
• Before 1557 – Claudio Tolomei has trasferimento.^[7]
• 1812 – Trasferta “official journey” is recorded.^[7]
• 1955 – Trasferta is used for a football team's away game.^[7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To transfer an employee to another place of work: L’hanno trasferita nella filiale di Bari.^{[5][10][2][1]}
2. To move a home, an office or an institution to another place: La biblioteca sarà trasferita in centro.^[5][10][11]
3. (figurative) To pass something from one field or authority to another.^[5][10][3]
4. (law) To convey a right, a duty or a property to another holder.^{[5][10][11][1]}
5. (figurative) To shift feelings, blame or ambitions onto someone or something.^[5][10][2]
6. (reflexive) Trasferirsi: to move, to change one's home or seat: Si sono trasferiti in Svizzera.^[10][3][11]

Word family

• trasferimento
• trasferibile
• trasferta

Related words

• conferire
• transfert
• Latin trānsferō

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
3. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
4. ^ a b c d Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3868
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 Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
8. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier, p. 450
9. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
10. ^ 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
11. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana