Etymologically
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arrabbiato

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Pronunciation

  • /ar.rabˈbja.to/[1]

Forms

arrabbiato (feminine arrabbiata, masculine plural arrabbiati, feminine plural arrabbiate, superlative arrabbiatissimo)[1] Old forms include Old Italian arabbiato, Old Italian arrabiato and southern Old Italian arrabiatu, with forms without /b/ such as Old Italian arraiatu.[2]

Etymology

It is the past participle of arrabbiare (“to catch rabies; to get angry”), used as an adjective.[3][4][5][1] The verb is formed from Italian a- + rabbia (“rabies; rage”), with the prefix ⟨a-⟩ that turns a noun into a verb, a parasynthetic formation in DELI's terms.[6][3]

The noun is inherited from Late Latin rabia, the Late Latin form of classical rabiēs (“rabies; frenzy”), from the verb rabiō (“to rave”).[3] Nocentini compares Sanskrit रभस् (rábhas, “violence, impetuosity”).[3] The same Latin noun gave French rage, Occitan rabia, Spanish rabia and Portuguese raiva.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest record is in the lauds of Jacopone da Todi, who died in 1306, where anger is said to drive a man mad “like a rabid dog”.[6][2][7] The first sense was that of an animal, above all a dog, sick with rabies.[6][2]

Semantic evolution

The sense “furious, enraged” of people is found in Dante, before 1321, in the arrabbiate ombre of the falsifiers in Inferno 30, who run about biting one another.[6][8] Old Italian also used the word for someone out of his mind or writhing in torment, and for a vice or a hardship pushed to the extreme.[2] The sense “stubborn, dogged” dates from the end of the 14th century.[6]

In modern Italian the adjective also describes a fanatical supporter or habitual doer of something, as in fumatore arrabbiato “chain smoker”, and placed after another adjective it intensifies it (salato arrabbiato “far too salty”).[9][5][10] In cooking, all'arrabbiata is food in a very hot, spicy sauce, best known in penne all'arrabbiata.[11][1] Giovani arrabbiati translates the English angry young men, the British writers of the 1950s.[4][11] In 15th-century Florence the Arrabbiati were the faction opposed to the Medici and to Savonarola.[5]

Timeline

  • Late 13th century – Jacopone da Todi uses arrabbiato of a rabid dog.[6][3][2]
  • Before 1313 – Cecco Angiolieri has the verb arrabbiare “to get angry”.[6]
  • Before 1321 – Dante uses it for “enraged”.[6]
  • Late 14th century – The sense “dogged, persistent” appears in a translation of Augustine.[6]
  • 1865 – Arrabbiatura “fit of anger” is recorded.[6][3]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. angry, furious: Era così arrabbiato che non mi ha neanche salutato.[9][4][12]
  2. rabid: of an animal, sick with rabies: una volpe arrabbiata.[9][4][12]
  3. (figurative) Dogged, fanatical, inveterate: un interista arrabbiato.[9][4][5]
  4. (colloquial) After another adjective, intensifying it: “terribly”: un albergo caro arrabbiato.[9][4][5]
  5. (agriculture) Of soil, made barren by bad tilling or bad weather, so that the wheat grows poorly.[9][12][5]
  6. (cooking) Cooked over a fierce heat or with hot spices, especially in all'arrabbiata.[11][10]

Word family

  • arrabbiata
  • arrabbiatamente
  • arrabbiare
  • rabbia
  • rabbioso

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  4. ^ a b c d e f Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
  5. ^ a b c d e f Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
  7. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
  8. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
  9. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  10. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
  11. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  12. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse