dannare

Forms

dannare (first-person singular present dànno, first-person singular past historic dannài, past participle dannàto, auxiliary avére)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin damnāre (“to damage; to condemn”), a verb formed from damnum (“loss; fine”).^{[2][3][4][5][6]} The LEI separates the popular outcome with /nn/ for Latin ⟨mn⟩ from learned forms that keep ⟨mn⟩; the Christian sense “condemn to the pains of hell” is the one most Romance forms carry.^[7] DEI and the GDLI call the Italian word learned, at least in that church sense, in which the Latin verb rendered Greek “anathematize”.^[8][9]

Being a verb from the noun, the Latin word should first have meant “to cause loss”, but its usual classical sense was “to fine, sentence”, from the noun in its sense “a fine”.^[7] The same verb gave Catalan danyar, Spanish dañar and Portuguese danar “to harm”, while French damner and Old Occitan damnar are learned.^[10][8] The Latin noun goes back to Proto-Italic *dapno- and Proto-Indo-European *dh₂p-no- (“expense, investment”).^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is the Venetian Proverbia que dicuntur of the last quarter of the 12th century.^[12] DELI dates the sense “condemn” to the early 13th century, in the Sicilian poet Mazzeo di Ricco: Eo non son colpato / e son dannato, come avesse colpa (“I am not guilty and I am condemned, as if I were at fault”).^[2][9]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian used the verb across a wide range: condemning a soul to hell and, in the reflexive, bringing damnation on oneself; condemning a heresy or a rebellion; sentencing an offender; disapproving or cursing; and causing material or moral harm, ruin and torment.^[12] The sense “to harm” was common in the old northern and Tuscan texts, as in Venetian danar around 1250 and Paduan danare before 1389, and the participle meant “wounded” or “rotten” (of a tooth) in some dialects.^[7] A third Old Italian sense, “to cancel (an account or debt)”, goes back to the Latin sense “to put out of use” and is known only in Italo-Romance.^[7][13] Boccaccio has it in dannerai la mia ragione “you will cancel my account”.^[14]

Tommaseo already noted that in his day the verb kept only the religious sense; the sense “condemn” in general had become literary.^[15] From the damnation of the soul came the figurative uses of modern Italian: dannarsi and dannarsi l'anima “to torment oneself; to toil to the utmost”, and far dannare “to drive someone to despair”.^[5][14][16]

Timeline

• 1175–1200 – The Venetian Proverbia que dicuntur is the first record.^[12]
• Early 13th century – Mazzeo di Ricco uses it for “condemn”.^[2]
• c. 1250 – Venetian danar “to harm” in the Panfilo.^[7]
• 1266 – The date Zingarelli gives for dannare.^[16]
• Before 1313 – Zucchero Bencivenni uses the reflexive for losing one's soul.^[2]
• 1516–1532 – Ariosto uses dannare for “to wound”.^[7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To damn, condemn to the pains of hell, especially in the passive.^[4][5][17]
2. (literary) To condemn, sentence.^[4][5][16]
3. (uncommon) To disapprove of strongly, censure.^[4][17][18]
4. (archaic) To cancel, annul, especially a debt or an entry in an account.^[4][5][19]
5. (reflexive, dannarsi) To lose one's soul, go to hell.^[5][16][18]
6. (reflexive, figurative) To torment oneself, fret; to work without rest for something, also as dannarsi l'anima: Si è dannato per mesi su quel progetto.^[5][17][19]
7. far dannare (l'anima a) qualcuno: to drive someone to despair.^[4][5][19]

Word family

• dannabile
• dannato
• dannazione
• dannatore
• dannatura
• dannevole

Related words

• danno
• condannare
• Latin damnum
• French damner

Usage notes

In everyday language the verb refers only to the pains of hell, and is used mostly in the passive (essere dannati) or the reflexive.^[14][5] The participle dannato is also an adjective and a noun, “one of the damned”.^[19]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ 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
6. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c d e f Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 19, 39
8. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1209
9. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 4, 8
10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
11. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
12. ^ a b c Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
13. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1210
14. ^ a b c Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
15. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
16. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
17. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
18. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
19. ^ a b c d Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana