assassino

Forms

assassino m (plural assassini, feminine assassina)^[1] Older spellings include Old Italian assessino, asessino and assessin, and the TLIO records northern forms such as asaxin.^[2][1]

Etymology

Its source is the plural borrowed from Arabic حَشَّاشِين (ḥaššāšīn, “hashish users”), the name the Crusaders gave to the members of the Nizari Ismaili sect led by the “Old Man of the Mountain”.^[3][4][5][1] Nocentini starts from the colloquial plural of حَشِيشِيّ (ḥašīšī), a derivative of حَشِيش (ḥašīš, “hashish”).^[6] Wiktionary also mentions أَسَاسِيُّون (ʔasāsiyyūn, “fundamentalists”) as a possible source.^[1]

According to Nocentini the word reached Europe through French, Old French hassissin, and probably through Occitan as well, which explains why the initial consonant was lost and why the Arabic /š/ became /s/.^[6] Meyer-Lübke also derives the Italian word from French assassin and has Spanish asesino taken from Italian;^[7] the other forms are Old Occitan asasí and Portuguese assassino.^[6][8]

The usual explanation of the name is that the sect's killers drugged themselves before their attacks, a story Marco Polo already told.^[3][9][10] Nocentini rejects it: hashish was a habit of the poor, so the Arabic word probably meant something like “rabble”.^[6] He also holds that the modern sense “murderer” arose in Italian and spread from there to the other Romance languages.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is the form assessino in Guido delle Colonne (before 1290), for a member of the Muslim sect that obeyed the Old Man of the Mountain blindly and became known in Syria, Palestine and Mesopotamia for its killings;^[3][2] assassino itself appears at the end of the 13th century in the Novellino.^[3][2] The 13th-century Mare amoroso has the lover swear “io v'amo e servo assai più lealmente / che l'asessino al Veglio de la Montagna” (I love and serve you far more loyally than the assassin serves the Old Man of the Mountain).^[11][12]

Semantic evolution

From the sect the word passed to anyone who killed for another's pay, and then to any murderer.^[2][3] Dante, before 1321, compares himself to a friar hearing the confession of “lo perfido assassin” (the treacherous assassin), and his commentator Francesco da Buti explains that an assassino is one who kills others for money.^[13][12] Giovanni Villani tells how Castruccio, lord of Lucca, sent his assassini to Pisa to kill a count.^[12] The verb assassinare is recorded from Dino Compagni (1310–1312), and Machiavelli uses it for “to ruin, damage badly”;^[3][6] assassinio follows by about 1600.^[3][6]

The adjective developed figurative senses: mano assassina, the hand that commits a murder, and, from 1865 eyes or glances that are assassini, irresistibly seductive.^[3][12] In 18th-century fashion a mosca assassina was an artificial beauty spot placed at the corner of the eye or mouth.^[14][15] Today the noun is also used, as an exaggeration, for someone who does great harm through incompetence.^[4][10]

French assassin is recorded from 1195 for the sect, from 1560 for a hired killer and, from 1606 for a murderer;^[16] English had Ascisinus “murderer” in 1531, from French or Italian.^[16]

Timeline

• 1195 – French assassin is recorded for a member of the sect.^[16]
• Before 1290 – Guido delle Colonne uses assessino.^[3][4]
• Late 13th century – Assassino appears in the Novellino.^[3]
• 1310–1312 – Dino Compagni uses assassinare.^[3]
• Before 1321 – Dante uses the word for a murderer.^[3]
• 1513–1521 – Machiavelli uses assassinare for “to ruin”.^[3]
• 1531 – English Ascisinus “murderer” is recorded.^[16]
• 1865 – Tommaseo–Bellini records the adjective “seductive”.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A murderer, someone who has committed a homicide: La polizia cerca ancora l'assassino della commessa.^{[4][5][10][14]}
2. (history) A member of the Assassins, the Muslim sect of the 12th and 13th centuries whose followers were used as killers.^[4][14][17]
3. (dated) A hired killer, a hitman.^[4][10][14]
4. (figurative) Someone who does serious harm through cruelty or incompetence: Quel meccanico è un assassino, mi ha rovinato il motore.^[4][5][10]

Adjective

1. Murderous, used for or serving to kill: mano assassina, un'arma assassina.^[5][10][15]
2. (figurative) seductive, irresistible: uno sguardo assassino.^[4][5][14]
3. (figurative) Exhausting or harmful: una salita assassina, un mestiere assassino, hard work that pays little.^[4][10][15]

Word family

• assassinare
• assassinio
• assassina

Related words

• hashish
• French assassin

Usage notes

The feminine is assassina.^[1][14] The saying l'assassino torna sempre sul luogo del delitto (the murderer always returns to the scene of the crime) is a common set phrase.^[10][14]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f 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 l m n Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
4. ^ 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
5. ^ 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
6. ^ a b c d e f g Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
9. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 328
10. ^ a b c d e f g h Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
11. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 78
12. ^ a b c d Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
13. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 1, 750
14. ^ a b c d e f g Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
15. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
16. ^ a b c d Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
17. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli