It. attaccare, fr. attacher: reevaluare etimologică
It. attaccare, Fr. attacher: Etymological Reassessment

Summary/Abstract: By reconsidering the etymology of It. attaccare, Fr. attacher, the study aims to show that these verbs, along with their cognates, are based on a root whose original meaning was related to the concept of ‘closeness’, ‘contact’, as well as ‘putting together’. The onomatopoeic origin of the root *tak- explains all its different semantic evolutions: on the one hand, it could create verbs with the meaning ‘to make a sound’, ‘to hit’ or ‘to collide’; on the other hand, it could generate the concept of ‘effect’ of such a collision or blow, namely ‘piece’ or ‘incision’ (cf. It. tacca), as well as ‘stain’ (cf. Fr. tache). The concept of ‘piece’ could restrain its meaning to ‘piece of wood’, and, by further specialisation, ‘piece of wood used to assemble objects’ (for instance, Sp. taco), hence ‘nail’ (Fr. tache). The majority of the cognate verbs of It. attaccare are derived from a noun designating a ‘piece of wood used to assemble objects’, but we can also assume that certain verbs in this family rely on a direct evolution from the more abstract idea of ‘getting close’, thus ‘putting together’. By using the method known as comparative grammar–reconstruction, we propose a Proto-Romance form */tak’k-a-re/ ~ */at-tak’k-a-re/ ‘to approach’, ‘to press’, ‘to put together’.

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