roncare

Inherited from Latin runcāre (“to weed, to weed out”), from Proto-Italic *runkō, from Proto-Indo-European *h₃runékti ~ *h₃runkénti, nasal infix present of the root *h₃rewk-.

• IPA^(key): /ronˈka.re/
• Rhymes: -are
• Hyphenation: ron‧cà‧re

roncàre (first-person singular present rónco, first-person singular past historic roncài, past participle roncàto, auxiliary avére)

1. (transitive) to cut, to prune (especially using a roncola (“billhook”))
   • 1321, Dante Alighieri, La divina commedia: Inferno [The Divine Comedy: Hell], 12th edition (paperback), Le Monnier, published 1994, Canto XX, page 300, lines 46–48:

     Aronta è quel ch'al ventre li s'atterga, ¶ che ne' monti di Luni, dove ronca ¶ lo Carrarese che di sotto alberga

     That Aruns is, who backs the other's belly, ¶ who in the hills of Luni, there where grubs ¶ the Carrarese who houses underneath

   • 1950, Cesare Pavese, “Chapter 1”, in La luna e i falò [The Moon and the Bonfires]‎, New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, published 1955, page 14:

     se di quella riva fossi stato padrone, l'avrei magari roncata e messa a grano

     Had I been the owner of that slope, I could have pruned it and planted wheat in it.

   • a. 1961, Luigi Einaudi, Scritti economici, storici e civili‎, published 2016:

     Lo immagino impegnato a roncare parte del bosco e farne campo o vigneto.

     I imagine him busy pruning part of the woods, making it into a field or a vineyard.

• ronca
• roncola

• cornare, cornerà, rancore

roncare

1. first/third-person singular future subjunctive of roncar