Etymologically
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dare

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Pronunciation

Forms

dare (first-person singular present (with syntactic gemination after the verb) dò, first-person singular past historic dièdi or diédi or détti or (traditional) dètti, past participle dàto, first-person singular future darò, first-person singular subjunctive dìa, first-person singular imperfect subjunctive déssi, second-person singular imperative dài or dà', auxiliary avére)[1] Old forms built on a longer infinitive daere include dae “gives” and daessi.[2][3] The poetic past historic is diè beside diede and dette.[4][5] Old Genoese and Venetian have dar, Old Sicilian dari.[6]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin dō (“to give”).[7][8][9][1] The past historic ⟨diedi⟩ continues the Latin reduplicated perfect dedī.[8]

The verb survives in nearly every Romance language: Occitan dar, Catalan dar, Spanish dar and Portuguese dar, Sardinian dare, Friulian da, Romanian da and Dalmatian duor.[8][10][6] French is the exception: donner took its place, from Latin dōnō (“to give as a present”), and Old French kept only a few forms of the old verb.[10][11][6] The LEI explains the replacement by the short, single-syllable stem ⟨dar-⟩, which gave way to verbs with a fuller stem.[6]

Latin ⟨dō⟩ goes back to Proto-Indo-European *deh₃- (“to give”), which formed a reduplicated present: Proto-Italic *didō is continued in Oscan and Umbrian, while Latin built a new present on the root aorist.[12][1] Cognates include Ancient Greek δίδωμι (dídōmi, “I give”), Sanskrit ददाति (dádāti, “gives”), Lithuanian dúoti and Old Church Slavonic дати (dati, “to give”).[8][12] dado, data and dazio also come from the Latin verb.[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is a Tuscan memorandum of a land exchange (Memoria del cambio di terra) from the abbey of Coltibuono, of the late 12th century, where the verb has its general sense of passing something from one person to another.[7][6][9] Old Genoese dar appears around 1180 in Raimbaut de Vaqueiras, and Florentine records follow from 1255.[6]

Semantic evolution

The LEI divides the verb's senses into “give”, “strike, hit”, “communicate”, “give” with a part of the body, professional activities and games.[6] The intransitive sense “hit, strike against” is in Dante, and the reflexive darsi “devote oneself, give oneself up to” in the 13th century.[7] In accounts, il dare “what one owes, debit” is set against l'avere “credit”, a pair found in the Datini archive in 1367 and in Luca Pacioli's treatise on double-entry bookkeeping.[13]

Many set phrases are built on the verb: dare alla luce “give birth”, dare retta “listen to”, dare del tu “address as tu”, and the old pair darne una calda e una fredda “bring one good and one bad piece of news”.[9][2][1] The imperative dalli gave Calabrian dállari “beat”, and in Sicilian it means “forward!”.[10][6]

Timeline

  • Late 12th century – Dare in a Tuscan memorandum of a land exchange.[7][9]
  • Around 1180 – Old Genoese dar in Raimbaut de Vaqueiras.[6]
  • 1255 – Florentine records use the verb.[6]
  • 13th century – The reflexive darsi “devote oneself”.[7]
  • Second half of the 13th century – Datore “giver”.[8]
  • Before 1321 – The intransitive sense “strike against” in Dante.[7]
  • 14th century – The noun il dare “debit”.[14][15]
  • 1367 – Dare and avere in the Datini archive accounts.[13]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To give, hand over, pass: Dammi il sale, per favore.[9][14][15]
  2. To give as a present, offer, donate: Ha dato i suoi libri alla biblioteca.[9][14]
  3. To pay: Quanto ti hanno dato per il lavoro?[9][3]
  4. To grant, allow: dare il permesso, dare la precedenza.[9][15]
  5. To administer, apply: dare una medicina, dare la cera al pavimento.[9][15]
  6. To deal a blow: dare un calcio, dare uno schiaffo.[9][15]
  7. To produce, yield: Quest'anno l'orto ha dato poco.[1][5]
  8. To show a film or play: Che cosa danno stasera al cinema?[9]
  9. (with su) To look out onto, face: La camera dà sul cortile.[9][5][4][3]
  10. (reflexive, darsi) To devote oneself to, (with a) to take up: Si è dato alla pittura.[7][15]

Noun

  1. (accounting) Debit, the side of an account opposite to avere; also, what one owes.[14][15][16]

Word family

  • dono
  • donare
  • dazio
  • dado
  • Latin dō

Usage notes

The third person singular dà always has an accent;[4] do, dai and danno need none, and the imperative is da’, dai or dà.[4] Dare del tu and dare del lei mean to address someone informally or formally.[9][1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
  3. ^ a b c Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
  4. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  5. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 19, 131
  7. ^ a b c d e f g Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
  8. ^ a b c d e f Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  10. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  11. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1212
  12. ^ 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
  13. ^ 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, 24
  14. ^ 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
  15. ^ a b c d e f g Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  16. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca