brillare

Forms

brillare (first-person singular present brìllo, first-person singular past historic brillài, past participle brillàto, auxiliary avére)^[1]

Etymology

Its origin is disputed.^[2][3] DELI calls it basically imitative, like its variant prillare “to spin”.^[2] The LEI and Nocentini set it under an imitative root of the shape ⟨birl⟩, ⟨bril⟩, ⟨pirl⟩, ⟨pril⟩ whose first sense was “to turn, move about”, and which also gave the senses “to shine”, “to husk rice” and “to explode”: rapid flickering movement, like a wing or a ray of light.^[4][5][6]

Nigra (1898) proposed instead a derivation from Latin bēryllus (“beryl”), “to shine like a beryl”, which Wartburg and DEI accepted and which DELI says most scholars follow, with some expressive influence.^[2][4][7] Devoto–Oli and Devoto start from an older brillo “cut crystal”, and the LEI records that word for the stone from 1643 to 1825.^[8][9][10] The Latin word is from Ancient Greek βήρυλλος (bḗrullos).^[1][11] Against this view stand Ascoli's objections (1878) and the forms with /p/ such as the variant in ⟨pr-⟩ and pirlo, which the LEI finds decisive.^[4][2] Nocentini adds that a gem's name cannot explain the range of meanings.^[5]

French briller (1559), Spanish brillar (1617) and Portuguese brilhar come from Italian.^[5][4] The sense “to stand out” is a calque of the French verb, and the Italian phrase for being conspicuous by one's absence renders briller par son absence, made popular by Marie-Joseph Chénier's tragedy Tibère (published 1819) as a paraphrase of Tacitus.^[5][8][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The LEI's oldest examples have the sense “to be stirred, to leap with joy”: a Jacopone da Todi line of 1306, which DELI says cannot be found in the concordances of the Laude, and Lorenzo de' Medici's brillare il cuore (before 1484).^[4][2] The sense “to shine with a lively, trembling light” is recorded about 1498.^[12]

Semantic evolution

Pietro Aretino (before 1556) writes of a carbuncle that brilla di sorte, che abbaglia la vista, “sparkles so that it dazzles the sight”, and Cellini describes a diamond that shone like a star.^[2][13] Raimondo Montecuccoli (before 1680) used it for a mine that catches fire and explodes; the transitive “to set off a mine” returned to use with the two world wars.^[2] Goldoni (1757) has the figurative sense “to stand out for wit or liveliness”.^[2]

Other uses were the fizzing of a good wine, as in Redi's Salta, spumeggia e brilla, the hovering of a bird beating its wings, and being slightly drunk.^[14][15][7] The adjective brillante “brilliant, successful” spread in the 19th century and through the war bulletins of 1915, modelled on French.^[2]

Timeline

• 1306 – A line of Jacopone da Todi is cited for “to leap with joy”, though DELI doubts it.^[4][2]
• Before 1484 – Lorenzo de' Medici writes brillare il cuore.^[4]
• About 1498 – Brillare “to shine” is recorded.^[12]
• Before 1556 – Pietro Aretino uses it of a gem.^[2]
• 1559 – French briller is recorded, borrowed from Italian.^[4]
• 1617 – Spanish brillar is recorded.^[4]
• Before 1680 – Raimondo Montecuccoli uses it of mines.^[2]
• 1757 – Goldoni uses it for “to stand out”.^[2]
• 1819 – Chénier's Tibère coins briller par son absence.^[2]
• 1918 – The transitive “to set off a mine” is in Panzini's dictionary.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To shine, sparkle, twinkle with a bright, trembling light: Le luci del porto brillavano nella nebbia.^[16][8][3]
2. Of the eyes or of feelings: to light up, to show in one's face: Le brillava la gioia negli occhi.^[16][8][17]
3. (figurative) To stand out, excel (with per); (jocular) brillare per la propria assenza: to be conspicuous by one's absence.^[16][8][17]
4. Of a mine or charge: to explode, go off.^[16][8][3]
5. (transitive) To set off a mine or explosive charge.^[16][3][1]
6. (uncommon) Of wine: to fizz, sparkle.^[16][8][18]
7. Of birds: to hover beating the wings rapidly.^[16][8]
8. (archaic) To be tipsy, brillo.^[16][15][18]

Word family

• brillamento
• brillante
• brillantare
• brillantina
• brillantino
• brillanza
• brillio
• brillo

Related words

• prillare
• berillo
• French briller

Usage notes

Brillare “to husk and polish rice or other grain” is treated by DELI and GRADIT as a separate verb: DELI first records it before 1597 in Soderini and derives it from brillare “to shine” in the sense “to make shiny”, or from brilla, a rice mill; the TLIO already has it in a 14th-century Florentine cookery book.^[2][16][19] GRADIT lists a third, obsolete brillare as a variant of prillare “to spin”.^[16][20]

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 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
3. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 5, 1686
5. ^ a b c d Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 601
8. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. ^ Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 5, 1271
11. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
13. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
14. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
15. ^ a b Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
16. ^ a b c d e f g h i j De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
17. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
18. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
19. ^ Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
20. ^ Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli