biasimare

Forms

biasimare (first-person singular present biàsimo, first-person singular past historic biasimài, past participle biasimàto, auxiliary avére)^[1] Old forms include Old Italian blasmare, Old Italian biasmare and the Venetian biasemar.^[2][3] Bembo thought blasmo a rough word, and it is found only in the oldest writers.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old French blasmer (modern French blâmer) or Occitan blasmar.^{[2][4][5][3][1]} Most dictionaries name the Old French verb.^[5][6][7][3] Nocentini, Devoto–Oli and Devoto name the Occitan one, and DELI gives both.^{[5][6][7][4][8][9][2]} The ⟨i⟩ between ⟨s⟩ and ⟨m⟩ was added in Italian to ease the pronunciation.^[10]

Both go back to Vulgar Latin *blastemāre (“to revile, blaspheme”), the source also of bestemmiare.^[2][4][11] The LEI reconstructs it from Late Latin blastema, a form of blasphema found in a Latin inscription from Gaul.^[11] The form with ⟨t⟩ is recorded in Greek too, so Meyer-Lübke saw a dissimilation already in Greek.^[11][12] Behind them is blasphēmō, from Ancient Greek βλασφημέω (blasphēméō).^[13][12] It continues as Romanian blestema, Friulian blestemâ, Catalan blastomar and Spanish lastimar (“to hurt”).^[11][12] Italian blasfemare is the learned doublet.^[1][10]

The noun biasimo may be Old French blasme (1080), but DELI thinks it more likely a simple deverbal noun from the verb.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is the Venetian Proverbia que dicuntur super natura feminarum, from the last quarter of the 12th century.^[3] The forms with bl- appear in Giacomo da Lentini in the first half of the 13th century, biasimare itself in King Enzo before 1272, and biasmare in Brunetto Latini before 1294.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian the verb covered moral condemnation, criticism of faults, reproof and scorn; also accusing, defaming, refusing and refuting, and even damaging goods.^[3] The pronominal biasimarsi meant “to complain”, as in Boccaccio's forse di te si biasimerà.^[3][6][7] Dante's Convivio judges that it is worse to blame than to praise.^[14]

The modern verb is a word of moral judgement: Zingarelli contrasts it with criticare, which need not judge morally, and condannare, which blames more strongly.^[6] A proverb says chi biasima vuol comprare, of the buyer who belittles what he wants.^[7]

Timeline

• 1175–1200 – The Venetian Proverbia que dicuntur has the first record.^[3]
• First half of the 13th century – Giacomo da Lentini uses the forms with bl-.^[2]
• 1247 – Blasmare is recorded at Parma.^[15]
• Before 1272 – King Enzo uses biasimare.^[2][14]
• Before 1292 – Bono Giamboni uses biasimevole.^[2]
• Before 1294 – Brunetto Latini uses biasmare.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To blame, criticize, disapprove of someone or something: tutti biasimarono il suo comportamento.^[5][8][10]
2. (reflexive) biasimarsi: to reproach oneself.^[8][10]
3. (reflexive, obsolete) To complain, lament.^[6][16]

Word family

• biasimevole
• biasimo
• biasimabile
• biasimamento
• biasimativo
• biasimatore

Related words

• bestemmiare
• blasfemare
• French blâmer

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ a b c d e f g Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
4. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b c d De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
6. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
7. ^ a b c d Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
8. ^ a b c Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
9. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
10. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
11. ^ a b c d Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it
12. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
13. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti
14. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
15. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 507
16. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli