annullare

Forms

annullare (first-person singular present annùllo, first-person singular past historic annullài, past participle annullàto, auxiliary avére)^[1]

Etymology

It is learned: it is borrowed from Late Latin annullō (“to bring to nothing”), also spelled adnullō.^[2][3][4][1] The Late Latin verb is formed on Latin nūllus (“no, none”) with the prefix ad-.^[2][3][5] In turn nūllus is ūllus (“any”), a diminutive of ūnus (“one”), with the negative ne-.^[2][3]

The LEI traces three uses.^[6] Christian Latin had the passive “to be despised”, a calque of Ancient Greek ἐξουθενεῖσθαι (exoutheneîsthai).^[6] The Vulgate has “to reduce to nothing”, which spread through the Romance languages.^[6] The legal sense “to abolish, quash” goes back to Medieval Latin, where it is recorded before 877 in the capitularies of the Frankish kings.^[6] In this legal sense the word has counterparts in French annuler, Old Occitan annullar, Catalan anullar and Spanish anular.^[6][7]

Old Italian also had a form with a change of conjugation, Old Italian annullire, used by Boccaccio about 1342.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is a Florentine chronicle of the late 13th century.^[8] Old Italian used the verb for reducing something to nothing, for making a public act void, and for humbling someone or oneself.^[8] DELI's first legal record is the Florentine Ordinamenti di giustizia of about 1324.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Giovanni and Matteo Villani wrote of papal processes and trials that were quashed (cassi e annullati).^[9] Domenico Cavalca used the pronominal verb before 1342 for fading away, and also for humbling oneself.^[2][6] Boccaccio and other 14th-century writers used annullare for despising someone or holding something of no account, a sense now archaic.^[6][4]

The 20th century added the sense of dissolving one's own personality in something greater (annullarsi from Grazia Deledda, 1936), the cancelling of postage stamps and tickets, mathematics, billiards and computing.^[6][4][10] The noun annullo, the postmark that cancels a stamp, is recorded from 1950.^[2]

Timeline

• Late 13th century – A Florentine chronicle gives the first record.^[8]
• About 1324 – The Florentine Ordinamenti di giustizia use it in the legal sense.^[2]
• Before 1342 – Domenico Cavalca uses the pronominal verb.^[2]
• Before 1604 – Marcello Adriani uses annullamento.^[2]
• 1819 – Annullabile appears in the Code of the Two Sicilies.^[2]
• 1950 – Annullo is recorded for a stamp cancellation.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To annul: to make void or invalid, especially for a flaw of form, as a contract, a will or a goal in a match.^[4][10][5]
2. (transitive) To cancel an appointment, a booking or a trip.^[4][10][5]
3. (transitive) To stamp or mark a postage stamp, revenue stamp or ticket so that it cannot be used again.^[4][10][11]
4. (transitive) To make vain, nullify the effect of something.^[4][10][12]
5. (transitive) To annihilate, reduce to nothing.^[4][11][13]
6. (transitive, mathematics) To make equal to zero.^[4][11]
7. (transitive, computing) To abort a procedure of a program.^[10]
8. (transitive, sports) To neutralize an opponent.^[13][1]
9. (transitive, billiards) To remove a ball already played, or deny a player a ball not yet played.^[4]
10. (transitive, archaic) To hold of no account, despise.^[4][6]
11. (pronominal, as annullarsi) To fade away; to lose one's own individuality in something; of two things, to cancel each other out.^[5][10][11]

Word family

• annullabile
• annullamento
• annullo
• annullabilità
• annullativo
• annullatore

Related words

• nullo
• nulla
• French annuler

References

1. ^ a b c d 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. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
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. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 2, 1428
7. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975)
8. ^ a b c Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
9. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 1, 502
10. ^ a b c d e f g Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
11. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
12. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
13. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli