Etymologically
Log in

andare

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 21 October 2026 at 18:25. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

Forms

andare (first-person singular present vàdo, first-person singular past historic andài, past participle andàto, first-person singular future andrò, first-person singular subjunctive vàda, second-person singular imperative vài or và', auxiliary èssere)[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Medieval Latin andāre, recorded in Latin documents of Tuscany in 801 and of southern Italy in 820,[2][1] and its origin is much disputed.[3][2][4] Prati dates the southern record, in the Codex Cavensis, to 870 rather than 820.[5]

DELI, following Giuliano Bonfante and the long article of the LEI, derives the verb from Latin ambulō (“to walk”).[3][6][7][8] Many other scholars have preferred a Vulgar Latin *ambitō (“to go around”), a frequentative of ambiō (“to go round”),[3][2][9][10] and the TLIO finds this base convincing, since a Byzantine Greek verb of the 6th century seems to reflect it.[11] DEI objects that “*ambitare” explains only the northern forms of western Romance, not the central and southern Italian ones, which are recorded earlier; it derives central and southern annare, and Occitan anar and Catalan anar, from Latin adnō (“to swim towards; to come by ship”), and takes the forms with ⟨-nd-⟩ for an old remaking.[2] Other proposals, such as a Latin adeō (“to go to”), have been made and rejected.[12][13]

Nocentini sees four outcomes of “ambulare” in rings around an Italian centre: Romanian umbla (“to walk”) keeps the consonants; French aller and Friulian lâ come from a form with the pretonic syllable lost and the consonants assimilated;[7] Catalan, Occitan and Venetian anar go back to a form ⟨amnare⟩, found in a Late Latin inscription of the 6th century;[7] Italian “andare” and Spanish andar and Portuguese andar replaced ⟨-l-⟩ with ⟨-d-⟩ to match the forms taken from vādō (“to go”).[7] The Sardinian form is andare.[7]

The paradigm has been mixed since Latin: the stressed forms of the present indicative, subjunctive and imperative (⟨vado⟩, ⟨vai⟩, ⟨va⟩, ⟨vanno⟩, ⟨vada⟩) come from “vadere”, the others from “andare”.[7][6][14] In Italian and French the verb took over the general sense of Latin eō (“to go”), while the sense “to walk” survives in Romanian and partly in Sardinian and Ibero-Romance.[7] Walde divided “ambulare” into the prefix amb- (“around”) and a stem he compared with Ancient Greek ἀλάομαι (aláomai, “to wander”).[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first Italian record is a Pisan inscription of 1174–1180.[11] DELI's first date is the Breve di Montieri of 1219, where the verb means to move from place to place, on foot or by other means.[3] The noun, “the going”, is first found in the Parlamenti of Guido Faba, a Bolognese text of about 1243.[11]

Semantic evolution

The Old Italian verb already had most of its modern range: to set out and go along a way, to go with someone, to go about in a certain state, and to go towards a destination.[11] Dante's Virgil tells Minos not to hinder the poet's “fated going” (Non impedir lo suo fatale andare, Inferno 5.22).[15] The sense “to belong in a place, to be meant to go somewhere” appears in Vasari, before 1574.[3] In the noun, Old Italian l'andare dell'uomo was human life itself, and andare was also a path.[11]

Modern uses extend the verb to machines that run, goods that sell, fashions that catch on, coins that are legal tender and situations that turn out well or badly.[16][4] With a past participle it forms a passive of obligation (va fatto, “it must be done”).[1] The construction andare a + infinitive in the sense “to be about to” was modelled on French aller.[2]

The derivatives are old: andata “going”, already in the Medieval Latin of Parma in 1266, andatura “gait” from the end of the 13th century, andamento “course” before 1313, and andazzo, a bad custom, before 1400.[3] The participle andante “going” (1336, Boccaccio) became the name of a musical movement less slow than the adagio by 1758, and, in Giusti, an adjective for something ordinary or shoddy.[3] Sardinian borrowed the verb as andare and andai.[1]

Timeline

  • 801 – Latin andare is recorded in a Tuscan document.[2]
  • 1174–1180 – A Pisan inscription has the first Italian record.[11]
  • 1219 – The Breve di Montieri uses the verb for moving from place to place.[3]
  • c. 1243 – Guido Faba uses the noun andare.[11]
  • 1266 – Andata is recorded in the Medieval Latin of Parma.[3]
  • Before 1294 – Brunetto Latini uses andata.[3]
  • 1336 – Boccaccio uses the participle andante.[3]
  • Before 1574 – Vasari uses andare for where a thing belongs.[3]
  • 1758 – Andante is recorded as a musical term.[3]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To go, to move from one place to another, on foot or by some means of transport: Andiamo a scuola in bicicletta.[4][8]
  2. To go to a place or to someone; of a train, to be bound for; of a road, to lead; of a river, to flow.[4][8]
  3. To go somewhere for a purpose, often with a and an infinitive: andare a dormire.[4]
  4. To go away, to leave: Si è fatto tardi, devo andare.[4]
  5. Of a machine or device, to work, to run: La radio non va più.[16][4]
  6. Of goods, to sell well; of a style, to be in fashion.[16]
  7. (figurative) Of a situation or activity, to proceed, to turn out; to be right or acceptable: Così non va.[16][14]
  8. (impersonal) To be to someone's liking, to feel like: Ti va un gelato?[1]
  9. With a past participle, to form a passive expressing obligation: Il modulo va firmato.[1]
  10. Of money, to be legal tender.[16]

Noun

  1. The act of going, movement: un andare e venire di gente.[4][16]
  2. Way of walking, gait.[4][16]
  3. Way of behaving, conduct.[4]

Word family

  • andazzo
  • riandare
  • andamento
  • andante
  • andata
  • andatura
  • andito
  • andirivieni
  • trasandare
  • trasandato
  • trasandatezza
  • andarsene

Usage notes

The imperative is va, va’ or vai;[17][14] va takes no written accent.[17][14] Set phrases with the noun include a lungo andare and con l'andare del tempo, “in the long run, as time goes by”.[4]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 191
  3. ^ 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
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  5. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 53
  6. ^ a b Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 2, 596
  7. ^ a b c d e f g Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  8. ^ a b c Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
  9. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
  10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  11. ^ a b c d e f g Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
  12. ^ a b Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
  13. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti
  14. ^ a b c d Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
  15. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 1, 457
  16. ^ a b c d e f g Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  17. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli