condannare

Forms

condannare (first-person singular present condànno, first-person singular past historic condannài, past participle condannàto, auxiliary avére)^[1]

Etymology

It is a semi-learned word: it is borrowed from Late Latin condamnāre, the later form of Latin condemnāre (“to condemn, sentence”).^[2][3][1] Classical Latin had /e/ in the stem, and the /a/ was restored after the simple verb damnāre (“to condemn”), which the Italian dannare continues.^[4][5][6] The LEI notes that the form with /a/ is already Latin, recorded in the glosses, and that Italian kept both: the old Old Italian condennare follows the classical vowel, while the modern word follows the late form.^[7][8] Devoto–Oli and Devoto reconstruct it as *condamnāre.^[8][9]

The Latin verb is formed con- and the simple verb, which is derived from damnum (“loss, damage; penalty”).^[5][1][10] De Vaan derives the noun from Proto-Italic *dapno-, from Proto-Indo-European *dh₂p-no- (“expense, investment”).^[10] The same verb gave French condamner (12th century), Old Occitan condampnar, Spanish condenar and Portuguese condemnar.^[5][11][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in Guido delle Colonne, a poet of the first half of the 13th century, in a Tuscan copy.^[12] Its first sense in the TLIO is religious, to destine a soul to damnation, beside the legal one, to declare someone guilty of a crime and impose a penalty.^[12] DELI dates the legal sense to Onesto da Bologna, before 1303.^[4][13]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian had set phrases for the kinds of sentence: condannare in avere or nei beni, to a fine, condannare nella persona, to bodily punishment or prison, and condannare nel capo, to death.^[12][8] From the start the verb also meant to oblige someone to something painful, and to blame or censure people, deeds and opinions;^[12][13] Church usage added the public rejection of a doctrine as heretical.^[12][13] Dante writes tal colpa a tal martirio lui condanna (“such a sin condemns him to such torment”).^[14] DELI dates the general sense “disapprove” to Della Casa, before 1556.^[4]

The old form condennare lasted into the 15th and 16th centuries, as in Alberti and Bernardo Tasso.^[7] The noun condanna, a back-formation, replaced the older condannagione and condannazione, which were in use from the 13th to the 17th century; it is recorded from 1673.^[4] On the model of French condamner the verb also came to mean to wall up a door or window for good, or to make a building unusable.^[15][3][13] DEI notes condannata, a three-handed card game of the 16th century.^[2]

Timeline

• First half of the 13th century – Guido delle Colonne uses the verb.^[12]
• Before 1303 – Onesto da Bologna uses it for “sentence a defendant”.^[4]
• Before 1321 – Dante uses the past participle condannato.^[4]
• 14th century – Condannabile and condannatore appear in Tuscan translations of religious works.^[4]
• 1433–1441 – Leon Battista Alberti uses the old form condennato.^[7]
• Before 1556 – Giovanni Della Casa uses the verb for “disapprove”.^[4]
• 1673 – The noun condanna is recorded in Giovanni Battista De Luca.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. (law, transitive) To declare someone guilty and impose a penalty, to sentence, convict: Il tribunale lo ha condannato a due anni per frode.^[13][8][6]
2. (transitive) To force someone into a hard condition, to doom: Quella caduta l'ha condannata a stare a letto per mesi.^[13][8][6]
3. (transitive) Of doctors, to declare someone incurable.^[13][8]
4. (transitive) To show someone to be guilty: Le impronte lo condannano.^[13][8]
5. (transitive) To condemn, censure, disapprove of strongly, and, of the Church, to declare a doctrine or writing false.^{[13][8][6][12]}
6. (transitive) To wall up a door or window for good, or to demolish or close down a building as unsafe.^[13][15]

Word family

• condanna
• condannabile
• condannato
• condannatore
• condannatorio
• condannazione
• ricondannare

Related words

• dannare
• danno
• Latin condemno
• French condamner

Usage notes

The old variant condennare is now archaic.^[8][6][15] The person and the penalty are joined with a (condannare a morte, all'ergastolo), the crime with per.^[8][6]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975)
3. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 3, 492
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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 e f Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
7. ^ a b c Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 16, 1130
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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 de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
12. ^ a b c d e f g Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
13. ^ 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
14. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
15. ^ a b c Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)