benedire

Forms

benedire (first-person singular present benedìco, first-person singular past historic benedìssi or (popular) benedìi, past participle benedétto, first-person singular imperfect benedicévo or (popular) benedìvo, auxiliary avére)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin benedīcō (“to speak well of; to bless”), a compound of bene (“well”) and dīcō (“to say”).^[2][3][4][5] In classical Latin the verb took the dative and meant “to speak well of someone”;^[6][7] Christian Latin made it transitive, “to praise God”, and then “to call down God's help; to consecrate”, as the rendering of Ancient Greek εὐλογέω (eulogéō).^[6][7] The Greek verb meant “to praise”, but had also taken on the sense of a Hebrew verb for “to bless”.^[7]

DELI treats the Italian verb as a learned word.^[7] The LEI files it with the inherited words: the Italian verb and its Gallo-Romance counterparts are a popular or half-learned formation rebuilt on the imperative dīc, while the forms in Old Italian benedicere are learned.^[6] Devoto saw a crossing of the Latin verb with Italian dire.^[8]

The same word is French bénir, Occitan bendir, Catalan beneir, Spanish bendecir and Portuguese bendizer.^[2][6] The verb for “to say” goes back to Proto-Indo-European *deiḱ- (“to show”).^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

A late 12th-century Tuscan jongleur's poem, the Ritmo laurenziano, has bendicer, “to speak well of, to praise”: Di cui bendicer non finisco (“whom I never cease to praise”).^[7][10] The form benedicere occurs after 1114 in the Carta di Arborea.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The religious senses came first: the Novellino, at the end of the 13th century, uses the verb for consecrating with a blessing, and Dante for calling down God's protection on someone;^[7][11] Iacopone, before 1306, uses it for “to praise, extol”.^[7][11] Old Italian also blessed a departure (benedire scarsella, of a pilgrim's purse) and used the verb in formulas of greeting.^[10] God's granting of favour and protection is dated by DELI to Daniello Bartoli in 1661.^[7]

Several popular senses come from the blessing of food: a number of dishes were called benedizione.^[7] The participle benedetto was used by antiphrasis for a childhood illness and for a thunderbolt, and as a euphemism for the testicles.^[7] The colloquial mandare qualcuno a farsi benedire is to send someone packing, and andare a farsi benedire to go to ruin.^[3][12][13] German benedeien goes back through Middle High German to Medieval Latin.^[11]

Timeline

• Late 12th century – The Ritmo laurenziano has bendicer “to praise”.^[7][10]
• 1233 – Benedictu “blessed” appears in Giovanni da Vicenza.^[7]
• Late 13th century – The Novellino uses benedire for consecrating with a blessing.^[7][14]
• Before 1306 – Iacopone uses it for “to praise”.^[7]
• Before 1321 – Dante uses it for calling down God's protection.^[7]
• 1661 – Daniello Bartoli uses it of God granting favour.^[7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To bless: to ask God's good and protection for someone or something.^[3][15][5]
2. To consecrate or bless with a religious rite, as a priest does with the sign of the cross or holy water: benedire gli ulivi.^[3][15][4]
3. To praise with gratitude, glorify: benedire il nome di Dio.^[3][15][4]
4. To be thankful for something as good and lucky: benedico il giorno in cui partimmo.^[3][4]
5. Of God, to protect and grant favour: Dio ti benedica.^[3][4][16]

Word family

• benedetto
• benedizione
• benedicente
• ribenedire

Related words

• maledire
• dire
• bene
• Latin benedīcō

Usage notes

The verb is conjugated like dire except in the imperative benedici; popular use also has the imperfect benedivo and the past historic benedii.^[15][12][1]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
3. ^ a b c d e f g De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
4. ^ a b c d e Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
5. ^ a b Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
6. ^ a b c d Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 5, 1109
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
8. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ a b c Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
11. ^ a b c Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
12. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
13. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 132
14. ^ Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it
15. ^ a b c d Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
16. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli