asino

Forms

asino m (plural asini, feminine asina)^[1] Old forms include Old Italian ascino (Tuscany, 1300), Old Italian aseno (Venice and Padua), Old Italian axeno (Vicenza, 1519) and Old Italian asinu (Sicily).^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin asinus (“ass, donkey”).^[5][6][7][1] The Latin word lives on in the Romance languages: French âne, Occitan ase, Catalan ase, Spanish asno, Portuguese asno, Sardinian àinu, Friulian asin and Romanian asin.^[6][2][8] In Italy the competition of Latin sagmarius (“pack animal”) and other words narrowed its range, especially in the south.^[2] It also passed into Germanic, as in German Esel.^[9]

Latin asinus is not an Indo-European word: the donkey is an animal of Anatolia and the Mediterranean, and the Latin word, like Ancient Greek ὄνος (ónos), is thought to have come from Asia Minor and ultimately to be related to Sumerian anšu.^[6][9][10] De Vaan also compares Hieroglyphic Luwian tarkasna- (“ass”).^[10][1] The /s/ between vowels, which in an old Latin word would have become /r/, marks a recent loan;^[6][10][1] Rix explains it as borrowed from Oscan after the 4th century BC, when this change no longer applied.^[6][10][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is a Tuscan text of Andrea da Grosseto of 1268, for the animal commonly used to carry loads.^[3][6] DELI's first dates are a Florentine text of 1282 for the animal and Dante (1304–1308) for an ignorant boor.^[5]

Semantic evolution

Already in Latin, from Plautus on, the animal's proverbial patience and stubbornness, and the contrast with the noble horse, had made it a name for a coarse, ignorant person.^[5][2] Italian has used it as an insult since the 13th century.^[9] The derivative asinaio “donkey driver” is even older than asino in the records, in a Sienese document of 1231–1232.^[5]

The TLIO records Old Italian phrases such as veder volare un asino for something impossible and andare con gli asini alla giostra “to deal with worthless people”, and senses such as the body as opposed to the soul, the wild ass or onager, and a war machine like a catapult.^[3] The war machine was also called asinella.^[11] The schoolmen's pons asini and the paradox of Buridan's ass, unable to choose between two equal heaps of hay, gave the phrases ponte dell'asino and asino di Buridano.^[9][12]

In many dialects derivatives name other animals with a remote likeness: asinello is the edible snail in southern Italy, and asinino or asinotto the woodlouse in parts of the north.^[9]

Timeline

• 1268 – Andrea da Grosseto uses asino for the pack animal.^[3][6]
• 1282 – The word appears in a Florentine text and as aseno at Arezzo.^[5][2]
• 1304–1308 – Dante uses asino for an ignorant person, and the adjective asinino.^[5]
• 1424 – Venetian aseno is recorded.^[2]
• Before 1478 – Asinesco appears in Rossello d'Arezzo.^[5]
• 1518–1525 – Firenzuola uses asinità.^[5]
• Before 1642 – Asineria appears in F. Rinuccini.^[5]
• 1865 – Asinata is recorded by Tommaseo and Bellini.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. The donkey or ass (Equus asinus), a pack animal like a small horse, with long ears and a grey coat: Il nonno portava la legna a valle con l'asino.^[7][13][14]
2. (figurative) An ignorant, stupid or boorish person, a dunce; also as an insult: Sei proprio un asino, hai sbagliato di nuovo il conto!^[7][14][1]

Adjective

1. (rare) Ignorant, coarse.^[12][7]

Word family

• asinello
• asinaio
• asinata
• asineria
• asinesco
• asinino
• asinità
• inasinire

Related words

• somaro
• ciuco
• Latin asinus

Usage notes

Qui casca l'asino means “that is where the difficulty lies”, lavare la testa all'asino is to waste one's effort, and legare l'asino dove vuole il padrone is to obey without question.^[12][7][15] Synonyms are ciuco and somaro; the feminine is asina.^[14][12][1] Wiktionary gives both /ˈa.zi.no/ and /ˈa.si.no/.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 3, 1620
3. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
4. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
5. ^ 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
6. ^ a b c d e f g Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c d e De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ a b c d e Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 322
10. ^ a b c d de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 77
12. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
13. ^ Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
14. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
15. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli