coronare

Forms

coronare (first-person singular present coróno, first-person singular past historic coronài, past participle coronàto, auxiliary avére)^[1]

Etymology

It is learned: it is borrowed from Latin corōnō (“to crown, wreathe”), which DELI counts among the derivatives of corōna that reached Italian by a learned route.^[2][3] Nocentini, GRADIT, Devoto–Oli and Sabatini–Coletti give the Latin verb as the source, formed from the noun for “garland, crown”.^[4][5][6][7] DEI and the GDLI call it Late Latin, and DEI, the REW and Körting treat the verb as pan-Romance: Romanian cununa (“to marry”), French couronner, Occitan coronar, Catalan coronar, Spanish coronar and Portuguese coroar.^{[8][9][10][11]}

Latin corōna was taken from Ancient Greek κορώνη (korṓnē, “curved object; crown”).^[2][4] Nocentini notes that the proper sense of the Greek word was “crow”, and that “curved object” is a metaphorical extension.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Ritmo di Sant'Alessio, from the Marche in the second half of the 12th century, where priests are coronati, crowned with garlands.^[12][9] DELI dates this text to the early 13th century.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian the verb meant to put a crown or a garland on someone's head, as an ornament or as a mark of power or honour: poets and victors were crowned with laurel, myrtle or oak, and kings and emperors were crowned to hand them sovereign power.^[12] Christ was coronato di spine, and Iacopone has the crowd cry “let him be crowned with thorns, since he called himself king” (de spine se coruni, ché rege s'ha chiamato).^[12][9] Guittone d'Arezzo, before 1294, uses it for giving a reward or recognition, and Dante, before 1321, for encircling something.^[2] Dante's line per ch'io te sovra te corono e mitrio makes it “to invest with authority”.^[5][13]

Pallavicino, before 1667, uses the verb for bringing something to completion; the Latin saying finis coronat opus became il fine corona l'opera.^[2][13] Literary Italian also has it for filling a cup to the brim, as in Pindemonte and Foscolo.^[13][7] For crowning a king, incoronare is now the usual verb.^[13]

Timeline

• Second half of the 12th century – The Ritmo di Sant'Alessio has the first record.^[12][5]
• Before 1294 – Guittone d'Arezzo uses it for rewarding someone.^[2]
• Before 1321 – Dante uses it for encircling.^[2]
• Before 1667 – Pallavicino uses it for completing a work.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To crown or wreathe: to put a crown or garland on someone's head: Gli amici lo coronarono di edera.^[5][6][3]
2. To encircle, surround: Una fila di cipressi corona la collina.^[5][3][6]
3. (figurative) To bring to a worthy and happy conclusion: La vittoria in finale ha coronato una stagione perfetta.^[5][6][3]
4. (figurative) To reward fittingly: Anni di studio furono coronati da una cattedra.^[5][3][13]
5. (literary) To invest with authority or power.^[5][6]
6. (literary) To fill a cup to the brim.^[5][3][13]
7. (reflexive, coronarsi) To crown oneself;^[3][14] (literary, figurative) to adorn oneself with glory or honour.^[3][14]

Word family

• coronato
• coronatore
• coronazione
• ricoronare

Related words

• corona
• incoronare
• Latin corōna
• French couronner

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
4. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
6. ^ a b c d e Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
8. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1118
9. ^ 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, 800
10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
11. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
12. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
13. ^ a b c d e f Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
14. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli