affondare

Forms

affondare (first-person singular present affóndo, first-person singular past historic affondài, past participle affondàto, auxiliary (transitive) avére or (intransitive) èssere)^[1]

Etymology

DELI and Nocentini treat it as a parasynthetic verb of Italian: from Italian a- + fondo, “to bring to the bottom”.^[2][3][4][5] Other dictionaries take it from Latin: Wiktionary, Zingarelli and Prati from a Vulgar Latin *affundāre, and DEI, GRADIT and Treccani from Medieval Latin affundare, recorded in 1244, which replaced the older affundere.^{[1][6][7][8][9][10]} Either way it is built on Latin ad (“to”) and fundus (“bottom”).^[1][10]

The verb is panromance: Old French afonder, Spanish afondar, Portuguese afundar and Romanian afunda, with an irregular conjugation in Old Occitan afondre.^[11][8] Meyer-Lübke thought the Romanian, and perhaps the others, could be fresh formations of each language.^[11] Latin fundus continues Proto-Italic *fundo-, from Proto-Indo-European *bhudh-n-ó- (“bottom”).^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Storie de Troia e de Roma, a Roman text of 1252–1258, in the transitive sense “to send to the bottom, to sink”.^[2][5] The intransitive and reflexive use, “to go to the bottom, to sink in”, follows before 1294 in Guittone d'Arezzo.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian already used the verb for sinking into things other than water, for flooding land and, figuratively, for ruining a person or a life.^[5] Dante writes of “the weight that sinks me” (lo peso che m'affonda), and Petrarch of the lodestone that pulls the iron from ships so that they founder.^[13]

The noun affondamento meant a hollow or excavation in 1550 and the sinking of ships before 1600;^[2] affondata, a long steep dive of an aircraft, was a term of aviation in 1936.^[2] Modern Italian uses the verb for plunging the teeth or the hands into something, for pressing the accelerator to the floor and, figuratively, for a project or a firm that fails.^[9][14]

Timeline

• 1244 – Medieval Latin affundare is recorded.^[8]
• 1252–1258 – The Storie de Troia e de Roma use affondare “to sink”.^[2][5]
• Before 1294 – Guittone d'Arezzo uses the verb intransitively.^[2]
• 1550 – Affondamento “hollow” appears in C. Bartoli.^[2]
• Before 1600 – B. Davanzati uses affondamento for sinking.^[2]
• 1875 – Affondatore is recorded by Rigutini and Fanfani.^[2]
• 1936 – Affondata is recorded as a term of aviation.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To sink a ship or send something to the bottom: Il sommergibile affondò due navi da carico.^[9][15][10]
2. (transitive) To drop the anchor: affondare l'ancora.^[9][4]
3. (transitive, figurative) To ruin or wreck a plan or undertaking.^[9][15]
4. (transitive) To plunge or push something deep into something else: Affondò le mani nella farina.^[9][4][10]
5. (transitive, uncommon) To deepen a hole or furrow by digging.^[9][4][10]
6. (intransitive) To go to the bottom, to founder: Il traghetto affondò vicino al porto.^[9][15][4]
7. (intransitive) To sink into something soft: Gli stivali affondavano nel fango.^[4][10][14]
8. (intransitive, figurative) To fail, or to sink into vice or torpor.^[9][15][10]

Word family

• affondamento
• affondata
• affondatore
• affondo
• affondatura
• affondabile
• affondatoio
• riaffondare

Related words

• fondo
• sprofondare
• Latin fundus

Usage notes

The verb takes avere when transitive and essere when intransitive; the reflexive affondarsi is used in the same intransitive senses.^[1][6] Fixed expressions include affondare il coltello nella piaga “to twist the knife in the wound”, affondare le radici “to have deep roots” and affondare i colpi “to press home one's blows”.^[9][15]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e f Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
5. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
6. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
7. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 26
8. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 77
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
10. ^ a b c d e f g Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
11. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
12. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
13. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
14. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
15. ^ 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