arridere

Forms

arridere (first-person singular present arrìdo, first-person singular past historic arrìsi, past participle arrìso, auxiliary avére)^[1] Old Italian forms include aridher, and Pulci wrote Old Italian aridere with a single ⟨r⟩.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin arrīdeō (“to smile at; to please”), formed from Latin ad- + rīdeō (“to laugh”).^[4][5][6][7] The Latin verb belonged to the second conjugation; the Italian verb follows ridere, and the same change of conjugation is already found in Latin.^[8][6][9][3]

Battisti and Alessio take the Italian verb for a literary loan from Latin, even though Old French arire existed and the word exists in Engadine as arrire.^[8] The LEI also lists the Italian forms among the learned ones and records the inherited verb only in Old French, where the verb meant “to smile at someone” from about 1170.^[3] Devoto glossed it as Vulgar Latin *arrīdere beside the classical verb.^[10]

De Vaan finds no good Indo-European etymology for rīdeō: the old comparison with Sanskrit व्रीडते (vrīḍate, “is shy”) does not fit the meaning.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The verb first appears in Dante's Commedia (before 1321).^[4][2] In Paradiso 33 the eternal light “loves and smiles on” itself (ami e arridi), and in Paradiso 15 a soul “smiled me a sign” (arrisemi un cenno), a nod of assent given with a smile.^[12][13] The TLIO puts first the sense “to look on with favour, to approve with a smile”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Already in Latin the verb meant to smile at someone, to be pleasing, and, of things, to smile on someone, as fortune or a season does.^[7] In Italian the sense “to be propitious, to favour” is recorded from Petrarch, who writes of a Metellus on whom fortune smiled so much (al quale arrise / Tanto fortuna).^[3][13] Ariosto and later writers kept fortune as the usual subject.^[13]

From the 16th century the verb also meant “to smile at, look on with affection”.^[3] The sense “to please, be welcome to” follows in the 19th century, as in Leopardi's lines on a soft spectacle that does not please despairing hearts.^[3][6] Carducci used it transitively, “to make cheerful” and “to favour”, and the past participle arriso as an adjective, “gladdened”.^[3] Today the verb is a common word mostly in the figurative sense, with luck, success or victory as subject; the other senses are literary.^[6][14][15]

Timeline

• Before 1321 – Dante uses arridere in the Commedia.^[4][2]
• 1374 – Petrarch uses it for fortune favouring someone.^[3]
• 1519 – The sense “to smile at, look on with affection” is recorded in Benivieni.^[3]
• 1822 – Leopardi uses it for a thing that pleases.^[3]
• 1857 – Carducci uses it transitively, “to favour”.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive, figurative) To be favourable or propitious to someone, with a: Alle elezioni la sorte arrise al candidato più giovane.^[6][16][14]
2. (intransitive, uncommon) To smile on someone with goodwill.^[6][16][9]
3. (intransitive, literary) To please, to be welcome to someone.^[6][16][9]
4. (transitive, literary) To grant or bestow, as when a soul in Dante smiles him a sign of assent.^[6][16][15]
5. (transitive, literary) To make cheerful or smiling.^[6][14][15]

Related words

• ridere
• sorridere
• deridere
• irridere
• Latin arrideo

Usage notes

It is conjugated like ridere and takes avere: past historic arrisi, past participle arriso.^[16][1]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d 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 h i j k Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 3, 1385
4. ^ a b c Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
5. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 302
9. ^ a b c Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
10. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier, p. 42
11. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
12. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 1, 689
13. ^ a b c Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
14. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
15. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
16. ^ 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