cantare

Forms

cantare (first-person singular present cànto, first-person singular past historic cantài, past participle cantàto, auxiliary avére)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin cantō (“to sing”), the frequentative or intensive of canō (“to sing”).^[2][3][4][1] In Latin the derived verb took the place of the irregular older verb as early as the 3rd century BC, and the older verb has left no Romance descendants.^[5][6] Every Romance language has the verb: French chanter, Occitan cantar, Catalan cantar, Spanish cantar, Portuguese cantar, Sardinian cantare, Friulian cjantâ and Romanian cânta.^[3][7][5]

Nocentini compares the Latin verb with Old Irish canim (“I sing”), Ancient Greek καναχή (kanakhḗ, “din, clatter”) and Old High German hano (“rooster”), the ancestor of German Hahn.^[3] DEI explains the rooster as the bird that sings early in the morning,^[8] and Devoto notes that the root named ritual singing in Italic and Celtic but the cock's crow or a mere noise in Germanic and Greek.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the Ritmo di sant'Alessio, a poem from the Marche of the second half of the 12th century, in the sense “to sing”: “tutti gìanu cantando ad alta voce” (they all went singing aloud).^[2][10][11] In the first half of the 13th century the verb is in Odo delle Colonne, one of the Sicilian poets.^[5]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian already used the verb for singing the Mass, for birdsong, for playing an instrument and for an instrument's own sound, for telling a story in verse and celebrating someone in poetry, and for proclaiming something solemnly.^[10] The infinitive used as a noun, il cantare, meant singing or a song, and in the 14th and 15th centuries it became the name of a genre: the cantari were popular narrative poems on epic and chivalric subjects, usually in ottava rima, recited in the squares by storytellers.^[4][12][13]

Ariosto used the verb in 1528 for “to tell, to confess”, and in modern slang cantare is what an arrested criminal does when he gives away his accomplices.^[2][12][14] Engines, old shoes and creaking hinges can “sing” too.^[4][15] The proverb carta canta e villan dorme (paper sings and the peasant sleeps) recommends putting agreements in writing.^[16]

The family grew with cantante (before 1292), canticchiare (1531), cantata, first the musical composition (1612), cantastorie (1845) and cantautore, a singer of his own songs (1961).^[2]

Timeline

• Late 12th century – The Ritmo di sant'Alessio has the first record.^[2][10]
• First half of the 13th century – Odo delle Colonne uses cantare.^[5]
• Before 1249 – The infinitive is used as a noun, “song, singing”.^[4]
• Before 1292 – Bono Giamboni uses cantante.^[2]
• 1528 – Ariosto uses the verb for “to tell, to confess”.^[2]
• 1612 – Cantata is recorded as a musical composition.^[2]
• 1845 – Cantastorie appears in the Milanese press.^[2]
• 1961 – Cantautore is recorded.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To sing something, to perform it with the voice: Al matrimonio hanno cantato una vecchia canzone napoletana.^{[4][15][12][1]}
2. To sing, to make music with the voice: Mia nonna cantava sempre mentre cucinava.^[4][15][14]
3. To sing as a profession or an amateur: Da ragazzo cantava nel coro della scuola.^[4][15][16]
4. Of birds and some insects, to make their call: All'alba cantavano i merli nel giardino.^[4][15][16]
5. Of a musical instrument, to sound sweetly; of an engine, to run with a full, even roar: Sentivo cantare il violino dalla finestra aperta.^[4][15][12]
6. To creak or squeak.^[4][15]
7. To declaim in a singsong voice.^[4]
8. (literary) To tell in verse, to celebrate someone in poetry.^[4][12][16]
9. (slang) To confess, to inform on one's accomplices: Dopo due giorni d'interrogatorio il ladro ha cantato.^{[12][14][16][1]}

Noun

1. (singular) Singing, song: il cantare dei grilli.^[4]
2. (literature) A cantare, a popular narrative poem of the 14th and 15th centuries, usually in ottava rima, on epic or chivalric subjects; also each of its cantos.^[4][15][12]

Word family

• cantante
• cantata
• cantabile
• cantastorie
• cantautore
• canticchiare
• canterellare
• canterino
• cantafavola
• decantare
• ricantare

Related words

• canoro
• cantica
• cantico
• cantilena
• canto
• cantore
• canzone
• Latin canō
• French chanter

Usage notes

Canta che ti passa (sing and it will pass) is a joking way of telling someone not to worry too much.^[4][15][14] Old Italian also had a different cantare, a variant of cantaro, a measure of weight.^[8][10]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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 Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ a b c d Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 10, 1336
6. ^ Buchi, Éva; Schweickard, Wolfgang, eds. (2008–), Dictionnaire Étymologique Roman (DÉRom), Nancy: ATILF, http://www.atilf.fr/DERom
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 726
9. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
10. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
11. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
12. ^ a b c d e f g Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
13. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
14. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
15. ^ a b c d e f g h i Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
16. ^ a b c d e Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana