Etymologically
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dannato

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Pronunciation

  • /danˈna.to/[1]

Forms

dannato (feminine dannata, masculine plural dannati, feminine plural dannate, superlative dannatissimo)[1] Old Italian spellings include the Latinizing dampnato and dapnato, and the Venetian danado.[2]

Etymology

It is the past participle of dannare, used as an adjective and a noun.[3][4][5][6] The verb continues Latin damnō (“to condemn; to fine”), a derivative of damnum (“loss, harm; fine”), with the popular change of /mn/ to /nn/; learned forms that kept /mn/ spread in several Romance languages with the Christian sense “to damn”.[7] The LEI explains the senses from the Latin: “to harm” is the expected first meaning, “to fine, to sentence” comes from the noun in its technical sense of a fine, and Christian Latin narrowed the verb to “condemn to the pains of hell”, the usual sense of the Romance forms.[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is the Venetian translation of the Pamphilus, about 1250.[2] DELI dates dannato “condemned” to the Fatti di Cesare at the end of the 13th century, and “condemned to hell” to Malispini in the same century.[3]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian the word meant condemned by a church or civil court as well as damned, and in the north also physically harmed or wounded: Old Lombard dannato, Old Venetian danado.[2][7] Boccaccio's micidiali dannati are murderers sentenced to death, and Ariosto's giovine dannato ad esser morto a youth condemned to die.[8] Tommaseo noted in 1861 that the general sense “condemned” was out of use and the word referred above all to the other world.[9]

From the damned soul came figurative uses: a wicked person (Manzoni's Renzo shouts Ah birbone! ah dannato!), hyperbolic phrases such as lavorare come un dannato, and the curse word of everyday speech, quel dannato telefono, and un caldo dannato, unbearable heat.[8][10][5] In dialects the word has other uses: Milanese slang danà for the victim of a theft, and Genoese erba dannà for the Italian arum.[7]

Timeline

  • c. 1250 – The Venetian Pamphilus has the first record.[2]
  • 13th century – Malispini uses dannato for a soul condemned to hell.[3]
  • Late 13th century – The Fatti di Cesare uses it for “condemned”.[3]
  • 1861 – Tommaseo notes that the general sense “condemned” is out of use.[9]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. damned, condemned to the pains of hell: un'anima dannata.[10][5][6]
  2. (figurative) Forced to endure hardship or pain: dannato a una vita di stenti.[10]
  3. (colloquial) As a curse, cursed, blasted: Dove ho messo quel dannato ombrello?[10][5][6]
  4. Terrible, unbearable: un mal di denti dannato, nella dannata ipotesi, in the worst case.[10][5][11]

Noun

  1. A damned soul: i dannati di Dante.[10][5] Come un dannato: furiously, without rest: lavorare come un dannato.[10][5][11]
  2. (by extension) A wicked person.[10][12]

Word family

  • dannatamente

Usage notes

Anima dannata is also a wicked person, and essere l'anima dannata di qualcuno is to be the one who prompts or carries out their misdeeds.[11][12][13]

References

  1. ^ a b 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 Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
  4. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  5. ^ a b c d e f g Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
  6. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  7. ^ a b c d Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 19, 40
  8. ^ 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, 16
  9. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
  10. ^ a b c d e f g h De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  11. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  12. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
  13. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli