annacquare

Forms

annacquare (first-person singular present annàcquo, first-person singular past historic annacquài, past participle annacquàto, auxiliary avére)^[1] Older and variant forms are inacquare and innacquare.^[2][3][1]

Etymology

DELI and Nocentini see an Italian formation: for them it is from Italian acqua (“water”) with a prefix.^[4][5] For DELI it is a parasynthetic compound with a strengthening a-, whose double ⟨n⟩ is due to Late Latin (i)naquāre; for Nocentini the ann- is a variant of the prefix in-, as in annaffiare, and the word has no continuity with Late Latin inaquāre, a medical term meaning “to turn into water”.^[4][5]

GRADIT and Devoto–Oli see a cross of Latin adaquō (“to water”) with the Late Latin verb, and Devoto a contamination of the two.^[6][7][8] Sabatini–Coletti, Zingarelli, Treccani, Gabrielli and Wiktionary derive it from inaquāre alone, Sabatini–Coletti with ⟨ann-⟩ by analogy with verbs beginning in ⟨adn-⟩.^{[9][2][10][3][1]} The Late Latin verb is continued in Catalan enaiguar and Spanish enaguar (“to become muddy”).^[11][1] Near Arezzo the verb is indacquare, recorded in Redi.^[12]

acqua is aqua, which goes back to Proto-Indo-European *h₂ékʷeh₂.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is Lorenzo de' Medici, between 1465 and 1477, in the sense “to dilute a liquid by adding water”.^[4][6] The GDLI cites Lorenzo for an older sense “to wet, to water”: his tears make new springs, annacquando spesso i verdi boschi (“often watering the green woods”).^[13]

Semantic evolution

The common use was for watering wine.^[14] G. M. Cecchi has a character say he will pass something off as wine, ché li soldati, sai tu, non l’annacquano (“for soldiers, you know, don't water it”), and Redi, in a letter, told his reader to water his wines generously.^[14][13] The figurative sense “to moderate, temper” is recorded from Magalotti, before 1712, and Salvini wrote of tempering an excessive happiness.^[4][14] Tommaseo also notes the sense of telling something by halves, to spare someone a heavy blow.^[14]

The noun annacquata is recorded in 1875 for an act of watering down and for a light rain.^[4] In modern economics a company's capital is said to be watered when it is revalued beyond the real worth of its assets.^[6][3][15]

Timeline

• 1465–1477 – Lorenzo de' Medici uses annacquare.^[4]
• 1477 – GRADIT's date for the verb.^[6]
• Before 1712 – Magalotti uses it in the sense “to moderate”.^[4]
• 1875 – Rigutini and Fanfani record annacquata.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To dilute a liquid, especially wine or milk, with water; to water down: L'oste annacquava la birra per guadagnare di più.^{[6][7][9][2][10]}
2. (transitive, figurative) To tone down, soften or weaken: Il ministro ha annacquato la riforma per non perdere voti.^{[6][7][9][2][10]}
3. (transitive, economics) To increase or revalue a company's capital beyond the real value of its assets.^{[6][7][2][10][3]}
4. (pronominal, annacquarsi) To lose vigour or sharpness.^[7]

Word family

• annacquata
• annacquamento
• annacquato
• annacquatura

Related words

• acqua
• adacquare
• annaffiare
• inacquare

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ a b c d Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
5. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d e f g De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ 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
8. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
9. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
10. ^ a b c d Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
11. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
12. ^ Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 1, 615
13. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 1, 489
14. ^ a b c d Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
15. ^ Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)