cognato

Forms

cognato m (plural cognati)^[1] Old Italian forms include cugnato, cognado, congnato, caynato and cugnà.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin cognātus (“related by blood; kinsman”).^{[4][5][6][1][3]} In classical Latin the word meant a relative in general; the sense “brother-in-law” is recorded in Late Latin from the 4th century.^[3] GDLI calls the Italian word learned and quotes Isidore of Seville.^[7]

The same word means “brother-in-law” in every Romance language that has kept it: Romanian cumnat, Dalmatian komnút, Sardinian connadu, Romansh quinà, Occitan cunhat, Catalan cunyat, Spanish cuñado and Portuguese cunhado, each with a feminine in ⟨a⟩.^[8][5][3] French alone lost it, replacing it with French beau-frère.^[3][9]

Latin cognātus is formed from co- “together” and gnātus “born”, the older form of the participle of nāscor (“to be born”), so that it first meant “born together, of the same family”.^{[4][1][10][11]}

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is a Sienese document of 1231–1232, with the sense of a spouse's brother or a sister's husband.^[2] DELI dates it to 1233–1243, in Matasalà: uno convito che feci a cognatoma (“a dinner I gave for my brother-in-law”).^[4][7]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian kept the broad Latin sense too: a relative of any kind, as a noun and as an adjective.^[2][3] Dante speaks of due cognati in the Inferno.^[7][12]

The literary adjective, “of the same stock, kindred”, follows the Latin, as in Leopardi's cognati petti (“kindred breasts”), and extends to things alike in origin, as in Alberti's arti cognate.^[13][14][10] In the slang of Bologna the word has been used for a policeman.^[3]

Timeline

• 1231–1232 – A Sienese document uses cognato.^[2]
• 1233–1243 – Matasalà records a dinner for his cognato.^[4]
• c. 1313 – Dante uses the word in the Commedia.^[3]
• Early 14th century – Cognazione “kinship” is borrowed from Latin.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. brother-in-law: the brother of one's wife or husband, or the husband of one's sister; by extension, the husband of one's spouse's sister.^[6][13][10]
2. (literary) A blood relative, a kinsman.^[14][15][16]

Adjective

1. (literary) Of the same stock, kindred: cognati petti (Leopardi).^[6][13][14]
2. (literary, figurative) Akin, alike in origin or nature.^[6][13][10]

Word family

• cognatino
• cognatizio

Related words

• cognazione
• nato
• Latin cognātus
• Spanish cuñado

Usage notes

The feminine cognata means sister-in-law.^[14][17] The diminutive cognatino is used only as a noun.^[10]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d 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 Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 15, 493
4. ^ a b c d Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
5. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 3, 265
8. ^ 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 c d e Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
11. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
13. ^ 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
14. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
15. ^ Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
16. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
17. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli