adorare

Forms

adorare (first-person singular present adóro, first-person singular past historic adorài, past participle adoràto, auxiliary avére)^[1]

Etymology

It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin adōrō (“to address, plead with, pray to; to worship”), formed from ōrō (“to plead, pray”) with ad-.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} In Church Latin the verb rendered Ancient Greek προσκυνέω (proskunéō, “to prostrate oneself, worship”).^[7][8] The LEI explains that the Latin verb survived as a popular word in Old French aorer, Old Occitan azorar, Old Spanish aorar and Old Catalan, and in northern Italy, while the Tuscan and Italian forms that keep the /d/ are learned, like French adorer (11th century) and Spanish adorar (1140).^[9][10] Old Italian also had a form Old Italian aorare.^[7][11][1]

De Vaan argues that the simple verb first meant “to plead, speak openly”, and that it may be a verb formed from ōs (“mouth”), although Walde–Hofmann and Ernout–Meillet thought this unlikely.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the Ritmo di Sant'Alessio, a poem from the Marche of the late 12th century, which has the form adhoraola (adore her), in the sense “to worship, honour a god”.^[2][12][9] The secular sense, “to revere a person, love passionately”, appears early in the 13th century in Rinaldo d'Aquino and Giacomo da Lentini.^[2][9]

Semantic evolution

The intransitive use, “to pray”, is recorded before 1292 in Bono Giamboni, and Dante has “adora per color che sono in terra” (pray for those who are on earth).^[2][13] The courtly love lyric made the lady an object of worship, and the TLIO records adorare for paying homage to a woman.^[12]

The hyperbolic use, “to be very fond of” a food or a pastime, struck Alfredo Panzini in 1905 as an affected habit of young women who said io adoro le fragole instead of simply liking strawberries.^[2] Derivatives came in through Latin as well: adoratore (before 1347), adorazione (before 1484, Feo Belcari) and adorabile (1666), which soon meant “delightful” as well as “worthy of worship”.^[2][3]

Timeline

• Late 12th century – The Ritmo di Sant'Alessio has adhoraola.^[2][12]
• Early 13th century – Rinaldo d'Aquino uses the verb for loving a person passionately.^[2]
• Before 1292 – Bono Giamboni uses it intransitively, “to pray”.^[2]
• Before 1347 – Adoratore is recorded.^[2]
• Before 1484 – Adorazione is recorded in Feo Belcari.^[2]
• 1666 – Adorabile appears in Carlo de' Dottori.^[2]
• 1905 – Panzini criticizes adorare for “to like”.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To worship a god; to honour with acts of devotion: adorare Dio.^[4][5][14]
2. To love deeply, adore: Adora i suoi nipoti.^[4][5][13]
3. To admire greatly, be passionate about: Adoro il jazz.^[5][14][15]
4. (hyperbolic) To like very much, especially a food: Adoro le castagne.^[4][13][16]
5. (archaic, intransitive) To pray.^[5][14][13]

Word family

• adorazione
• adoratore
• adorabile
• adorante
• adorato

Related words

• orare
• orazione
• Latin adōrō
• French adorer

Usage notes

The biblical phrase adorare il vitello d'oro, to worship the golden calf, is used of anyone who puts money above all else.^[4][16] The opposite of the hyperbolic sense is detestare.^[13]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ 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
6. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
7. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975)
8. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 1, 168
9. ^ a b c Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 1, 791
10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
11. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti
12. ^ a b c Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
13. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
14. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
15. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
16. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana