Etymologically
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trovare

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Pronunciation

  • /troˈva.re/[1]

Forms

trovare (first-person singular present tròvo, first-person singular past historic trovài, past participle trovàto, auxiliary avére)[1] The old present is truovo.[2][3][4] An Old Italian form trobare is found in the Ritmo cassinese.[5]

Etymology

The origin of this Romance verb, which has no counterpart in Latin, where the idea was expressed by Latin reperiō and inveniō, has been much discussed.[6] In the most widely accepted view it is inherited from Vulgar Latin *tropāre, “to speak figuratively” or “to compose a melody”, hence “to invent” and “to find”, a verb formed from Latin tropus (“figure of speech; melody”), borrowed from Ancient Greek τρόπος (trópos, “turn, manner, mode”).[7][1][2][4] The ⟨-v-⟩ shows the northern voicing of ⟨-p-⟩.[7][8] The verb is indirectly attested in Late Latin contropāre (“to compare”), in Cassiodorus and the Visigothic laws, and its geographical centre is the land of the troubadours; the objection is that so common a verb would have come from the language of poets and composers.[7][6] Gaston Paris proposed the Latin noun in 1878, Baist reconstructed the Vulgar Latin verb in 1888, and Spitzer derived it from the compound in 1940–1941.[6]

The rival theory, put forward by Diez and defended by Schuchardt, derives it from Latin turbō (“to disturb”), from fishermen's practice of beating the water to drive out the fish;[6][9] Meyer-Lübke accepted it, and held that the Italian verb came from French.[6][9] Thomas objected that the sense “to beat” is never documented for the Latin verb and that the sound changes do not fit.[6][10] A Germanic origin has found little support.[6] GRADIT and Sabatini–Coletti call the etymology uncertain or disputed.[11][3]

The same verb is French trouver, Occitan trobar and Catalan trobar, from which Spanish trovar (“to versify”) was taken; in Romansh it came to mean “to pronounce judgement”.[7][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

GRADIT and Nocentini date the verb to 1294;[11][7] DELI's first record of the sense “to come upon the person or thing one was looking for” is in Dante, 1300–1313.[6] Among GDLI's early quotations is the Ritmo cassinese, with the form trobamo, “we find”.[5]

Semantic evolution

The 14th century added most of the senses the verb has today: “to receive” in Dante, “to have” in Domenico Cavalca, “to discover” in Arrigo Simintendi, and in Boccaccio “to devise, invent”, “to catch in the act” and “to judge, consider”.[6] Petrarch (1374) uses it for coming upon something unexpectedly.[6] The pronominal trovarsi “to be situated” is in Dante, and “to happen to be somewhere” in the Fioretti di San Francesco.[6]

Derivatives include trovatello “foundling”, whose Medieval Latin form is recorded at Modena in 1306, trovarobe “props manager” (1775), and trovata “clever idea”, which Fanfani and Arlìa called a barbarism in 1877.[12][6] Trovatore “troubadour”, already in Guittone d'Arezzo, comes from Occitan.[6][7]

Timeline

  • 1294 – First record of trovare.[11][7]
  • 1300–1313 – Dante uses it for finding what one looked for.[6]
  • 1306 – Medieval Latin trovadellus “foundling” is recorded at Modena.[12]
  • 1348–1353 – Boccaccio uses it for “to invent” and “to judge”.[6]
  • 1374 – Petrarch uses it for coming upon something by chance.[6]
  • 1775 – Trovarobbe is recorded.[6]
  • 1877 – Fanfani and Arlìa condemn trovata.[6]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To find something one is looking for, or that was lost: finalmente ho trovato gli occhiali.[11][2][3]
  2. To manage to get, obtain: trovare casa, trovare un posto a sedere.[11][2][13]
  3. To reach a desired state, to gain: in montagna ha trovato un po' di pace.[11][3]
  4. To come across, meet by chance: ho trovato una lettera nella cassetta.[3][6]
  5. To discover, work out; to think up: ha trovato il modo di convincerla.[3][4][14]
  6. To consider, judge (also with che): trovo che abbia ragione lei.[1][6]
  7. andare a trovare: to visit someone: domani vado a trovare i nonni.[13][1]
  8. (pronominal, trovarsi) To be situated; to find oneself, feel; to get on with someone: mi trovo bene qui.[6][2]

Word family

  • ritrovare
  • trovata
  • trovatello
  • trovarobe
  • trovabile
  • introvabile
  • trovatore
  • troviero
  • tropo
  • French trouver

Usage notes

The proverb chi cerca trova means “seek and you shall find”.[11][4] A second trovare, “to compose poetry”, now obsolete, is a borrowing of Old Occitan trobar, probably of the same origin;[11][1] it is common in the Sicilian poets, as in Giacomo da Lentini's “di quei che di trovar non ànno posa” (of those who never rest from making verse), and DELI finds it in the memorials of the Bolognese notaries.[5][6]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
  3. ^ a b c d e f Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  4. ^ a b c d Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
  5. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
  7. ^ a b c d e f g Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  8. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier, p. 455
  9. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  10. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
  11. ^ a b c d e f g h De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  12. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3918
  13. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  14. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli