bagnare

Forms

bagnare (first-person singular present bàgno, first-person singular past historic bagnài, past participle bagnàto, auxiliary avére)^[1] Old forms include Old Italian bangiar in the north, Old Italian bangniare at Florence (1310) and Old Italian vagnare at Rome;^[2] Old Sicilian has bagnari.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *baneāre (“to bathe”), a simplified form of Late Latin balneāre, a late verb formed from Latin balneum (“bath”).^{[3][4][2][5][1]}

Through this form it reached every Romance language except Romanian: Old French baignier (about 1155, modern French baigner), Old Occitan banhar, Catalan banyar, Spanish bañar and Portuguese banhar.^[2][6] The LEI keeps apart a Piedmontese and Sicilian verb meaning “to corrupt”, and the learned balneabile and balneazione, which are modern.^[2]

Latin balneum, also balineum, is Ancient Greek βαλανεῖον (balaneîon, “bath”), borrowed early enough for the second vowel to be weakened and then lost.^[7][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is the Venetian Proverbia que dicuntur, of the last quarter of the 12th century.^[5] DELI first finds the verb in Giacomo da Lentini, before 1250, in the sense “to sprinkle a liquid on something or someone”.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

Dante uses the verb both for seas and rivers that wash a land and, as bagnarsi, for bathing.^[3] Bagnarsi la bocca “to have a drink” is in Cecco Angiolieri, before 1313, and Boccaccio has bagnarsi “to get soaked”.^[3] Old Italian also used it for ritual washing, and figuratively for “to fill, pervade”.^[5]

The sense “to celebrate with a drink” comes, according to DELI, from the custom of wetting new cloth before making it up: bagnare i galloni is recorded in 1905, bagnare le spalline in 1916, and the general sense in Vincenzo Cardarelli (1939).^[3] DEI places its origin in Rome, spreading through students' and soldiers' slang.^[8] Bagnasciuga, made of the two imperatives bagna and asciuga, named the waterline zone of a ship from 1797 and the strip of beach where the waves break from 1943.^[3]

Timeline

• 1175–1200 – The Venetian Proverbia que dicuntur have the verb.^[5]
• Before 1250 – Giacomo da Lentini uses bagnare.^[3][2]
• 1300–1313 – Dante uses it of seas and rivers, and bagnarsi for bathing.^[3]
• 1348–1353 – Boccaccio uses bagnante.^[3]
• 1797 – Bagnasciuga is recorded as a ship's term.^[3]
• 1905 – Bagnare i galloni “to celebrate a promotion with drinks” is recorded.^[3]
• 1939 – Cardarelli uses bagnare for “to celebrate with a drink”.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To wet, sprinkle or soak with water or another liquid: La pioggia ha bagnato i panni stesi.^[4][9][10]
2. (transitive) To water plants.^[4]
3. (transitive) To dip, soak in a liquid: Bagna il pane nel sugo.^[4][10]
4. (transitive) Of a sea or river, to wash, flow past: Il Tevere bagna Roma.^[4][9][10]
5. (transitive, literary) Of light, to flood, bathe.^[4]
6. (transitive, figurative) To celebrate with a drink: Stasera bagniamo la promozione di Marco.^[4][9][10]
7. (reflexive, bagnarsi) To bathe, go into the water; to get wet.^[9][10]

Word family

• bagnante
• bagnarola
• bagnasciuga
• bagnata
• bagnato
• bagnatura
• bagnamento
• bagnatore
• ribagnare
• bagnabile

Related words

• bagno
• balneare
• balneazione
• Latin balneum

Usage notes

Bagnarsi la bocca, la gola, or jokingly il becco, is to have a drink.^[9][11] DEI lists the sense “to celebrate with a drink” as a separate verb, but DELI treats it as the same word.^[8][3]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 4, 914
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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 De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ 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. 406
9. ^ 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
10. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
11. ^ Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)