traversare

Forms

traversare (first-person singular present travèrso, first-person singular past historic traversài, past participle traversàto, auxiliary avére)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin trānsversāre, recorded at the end of the 4th century in the pilgrimage account known as Peregrinatio Aetheriae.^[2][1][3] DELI analyses it as “to turn across”, formed on trānsversus (“transverse, crosswise”), the past participle of classical trānsvertō.^[2] Nocentini derives it from the neuter used as an adverb, “diagonally”, so that the verb meant “to pass along the diagonal”.^[4] GRADIT, Sabatini–Coletti and Zingarelli instead treat it as a compound of trāns- (“beyond”) and versō (“to turn”), the intensive of vertō (“to turn”), and Zingarelli calls it a learned word.^[5][6][7]

According to DEI the Late Latin verb belongs to Italy, the Logudorese verb traessare and western Romance.^[3] The same verb is French traverser, Catalan travessar, Spanish atravesar and Portuguese atravessar.^[4][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Dante, between 1313 and 1319, is the first to use it, for a river that crosses a place: a piè del Casentino / traversa un'acqua c'ha nome l'Archiano “at the foot of the Casentino a stream crosses that is called the Archiano” (Purgatorio V).^[2][5][7]

Semantic evolution

Before 1400 Franco Sacchetti used the verb for laying something crosswise.^[2][9] Boccaccio has traversò l'isola “he crossed the island” and la via traversata for a road lengthened by side streets, and Ariosto traversò un bosco “he crossed a wood”.^[10][11]

Later senses come from navigation, mountaineering and football: turning a ship across the wind, stowing an anchor, moving sideways across a rock face, and crossing the ball.^[5][7] The noun traversata “crossing, voyage” (1813) probably depends on French traversée (1678).^[2][12] Attraversare, formed with the prefix a-, is older than traversare (second half of the 13th century) and is now the usual verb for crossing.^[4][9]

Timeline

• Second half of the 13th century – Attraversare is recorded.^[4]
• 1313–1319 – Dante uses traversare in the Purgatorio.^[2][5]
• Before 1400 – Franco Sacchetti uses it for laying something crosswise.^[2]
• 1813 – Traversata is recorded in Stratico's nautical dictionary.^[2]
• 1955 – Traversata is recorded for a swimming or running race.^[2]
• 1965 – Traversata is recorded for a sideways climb across a rock face.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To cross, to go from one side to the other of something: traversare una piazza; to go through it from end to end.^[5][13]
2. To pierce or go right through.^[5][13]
3. (figurative, uncommon) To go through a period of time.^[5][13]
4. (figurative) Of a thought, to pass suddenly through the mind.^[5][13]
5. To lay or place crosswise;^[5][13] (figurative) to block or hinder, as in traversare la strada a qualcuno.^[5][13]
6. (nautical) To set a ship perpendicular to the wind and parallel to the waves;^[5][7] traversare l'ancora, to bring the anchor horizontal to stow it.^[5][7]
7. (football) To cross the ball.^[5][13] It is also said absolutely, of crossing into the centre.^[5][13]
8. (mountaineering) To traverse, to move horizontally or diagonally across a rock face.^[5][1]
9. (intransitive) To cross the road;^[7][14] (poetic, obsolete) of a river, to flow across a place.^[7][14]

Word family

• traversata
• traversamento
• attraversare
• attraversamento
• ritraversare
• traversabile

Related words

• traversa
• traversina
• traverso
• traversone
• trasversale
• Latin trānsversus
• French traverser

Usage notes

In the sense of crossing, traversare is generally a synonym of attraversare;^[9][10] Tommaseo noted that traversare was the usual verb for crossing a space, attraversare for placing or standing across.^[9][10] The reflexive traversarsi is said of a boat that comes to lie across the wind or waves.^[7][9]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3876
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 j k l m n o De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
6. ^ Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
7. ^ a b c d e f g h Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ a b c d e Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
10. ^ a b c Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
11. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 21
12. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 1013
13. ^ 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
14. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli