cagna

Forms

cagna f (plural cagne, masculine cane, diminutive cagnétta or cagnòla or cagnolìna)^[1] Old spellings include Old Italian cagnia, Old Italian cangna and Old Italian changnia.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *cania (“female dog”), a feminine formed to Latin canis (“dog”).^{[3][4][5][1][2]} Nocentini takes it as the feminine of an adjective *canius (“of a dog”), which also lies behind rincagnarsi.^[4] Battaglia and Wiktionary see a feminine made on the model of pairs such as cervus and cervia (“hind”).^[6][1] Classical Latin used the word for “dog” for the bitch as well.^[7]

The same form gave Occitan canha, from which Old French caigne and French cagne were borrowed.^[4][8][9] The French word is recorded from the middle of the 15th century for a mongrel, and figuratively as an insult for a woman.^[10] In the northern dialects the word named many small creatures: Meyer-Lübke lists the mole cricket in Trentino, the salamander in Polesine and caterpillars at Bergamo.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word is first recorded at the end of the 13th century, in the Florentine Libro della natura degli animali and the Florentine translation of the Tesoro, in the sense “female dog”.^[3][2][4] Early texts already used it as an insult for a brutish or wicked person, or for a demonic animal.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Dante has the hounds of the wood of the suicides as nere cagne, bramose e correnti (“black bitches, ravenous and running”, Inferno 13).^[7] As an insult it was aimed above all at women: Arrighetto's iniqua cagna (“wicked bitch”), and cagna paterina, “heretic bitch”, as a stronger jibe.^[7] The modern dictionaries give a loose woman and a spiteful, furious one as separate figurative senses.^[5][11]

In the 19th century cagna became a theatre word for a singer or actress without talent (1865, Tommaseo).^[3][12] Slang uses it for a promissory note, the north for a lie, and craftsmen for the lever that grips heated wheel rims; several sharks also bear the name.^[5][13]

Derivatives are old: cagnesco in Boccaccio's guatare in cagnesco (1353), today guardare in cagnesco “to scowl at”;^[3][4] cagnotto “hired thug” (15th century); and cagnara “uproar” (before 1835).^[3][4]

Timeline

• Late 13th century – Cagna appears in the Libro della natura degli animali and the Tesoro translation.^[3][2]
• Early 14th century – Dante uses the word in the Inferno.^[14][7]
• 1353 – Boccaccio has guatare in cagnesco.^[3]
• Mid-15th century – French cagne is recorded.^[10]
• 1865 – Tommaseo records cagna for a bad singer.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A female dog, a bitch: La nostra cagna ha partorito sei cuccioli.^{[5][11][15][1]}
2. (figurative, derogatory) A loose woman: figlio di una cagna, son of a bitch.^[5][11][16]
3. (figurative, derogatory) A vicious, spiteful woman.^[5][12][11]
4. (figurative, derogatory) A bad singer or actress.^{[5][11][12][15]}
5. (slang) A promissory note.^[5][11][17]
6. (regional, northern) A lie, a fib.^[5][13]
7. (crafts) A lever with a movable tooth for gripping heated rims and fitting them to cart wheels.^[5][11][17]
8. (zoology) A name of several sharks, such as the mako and the blue shark.^[5][13]

Word family

• cagnara
• cagnesco
• cagnotto
• cagnaccio
• cagnetta
• cagnolo
• cagnolino

Related words

• cagnola
• cane
• rincagnarsi
• Latin canis

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e 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 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 Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
6. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 2, 505
7. ^ a b c d Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
8. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
10. ^ a b Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
11. ^ a b c d e f g Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
12. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
13. ^ a b c Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
14. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 662
15. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
16. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
17. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli